Timeshift on usb flash drive Vix Image

[03ahmads]

I have just bought a 16gb usb flash drive to use timeshift on the vix image as I didn't want the hardrive to be constantly running. I can remember trying timeshift on to a usb drive in the past and it worked however after successfully mounting the drive I can't change the timeshift location to usb it stays on hdd. I have tried formatting to both ntfs and fat32 and tried in both usb slots. Any advise is appreciated.

[dell_xps]

What happens when you intialise it in the vix menu m8 ?

[03ahmads]

It initializes fine mate, just can't use it for timeshifting, it's not a problem with the latest image is it?

[dell_xps]

Go into settings m8, in location it has HDD, cant you not change that to your usb stick ?

[03ahmads]

Yeah I can but then it takes over from my actual hardrive, I still want my recordings to record onto the actual hardrive. It's strange because I am sure when I tried this a few months ago I just pressed the right arrow button in the timeshift settings and it changed to usb, now nothing happens.

[dell_xps]

I leave timeshift on with hdd, dont have any probs m8 on my duo & ultimo :-)

[03ahmads]

I've managed to figure it out, in the timeshift menu you have to press the menu button on remote and choose the file list option then press ok on the media/hdd option and change location from there =)

[03ahmads]

Ok well I managed to change the location to usb but it still doesn't work :-( As soon as I change it to hdd it works so looks like it's reluctantly going to have to stay that way lol I bought a usb drive especially for this purpose!

[dell_xps]

Did you restart it after changing settings ?

[03ahmads]

Yes restarted after changes, no luck :giveup:

[03ahmads]

Finally managed to get it up and running. To be able to successfully use a usb drive for timeshift it must be formatted to either 'ext2' or 'ext3'. These are linux formats. The vu duo told me this afer I restarted it. It can't be done through windows, a boot disc must be created from a program called gparted live. The process does not take long but means that the hardrive isn't constantly running which was putting me off from enabling timeshift. It can rest now as the usb drive has taken over!:proud:

[dell_xps]

'ext2' or 'ext3' is what the Vu formats your stick/hard drive to m8, ie when you intialize it, strange how it did not work first time ?

[03ahmads]

Wasn't aware of that mate, I did initialise it a few times but it still wouldn't work for timeshift. Strange stuff lol

[davidom2513]

Cheers for the info, very helpful. Just to let people know, you dont need to use a boot disc, if you download a free program called easus partition manager, it can format to ext2 or ext3

[RuberDuck]

Cheers for the info, very helpful. Just to let people know, you dont need to use a boot disc, if you download a free program called easus partition manager, it can format to ext2 or ext3

you should not need any third party software as the receiver it self has the ability to initialize the disk from the image thus creating the required format.

[septicsmurf]

I had the same trouble when my hdd went bang. It wouldn't let me change the path from hdd to my 16gb flash drive. I stuck my 8 gb flash drive in there and that wouldn't work either.
So I did a clean flash from scratch and the 8 gb one now works fine, but 16 gb one won't initialise, keep throwing up a timeout error.
When i try mount it it'll mount, restart , and then it unmounts itself again.
Guess I'lll try the above mentioned program to format to ext 3.