1st. question

As dice says: don't use the block devices as fs_spec identifiers in /etc/fstab, they can change from one boot to the next. You could also use a partition LABEL as an alternative to the UUID, or the PARTUUID or PARTLABEL (for GUID partition tables only).

I use a simple (Korn Shell) script to backup my Debian system to the spare drive in my laptop: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Head … 2dd/backup

That script hardcodes /dev/sda1 as the backup drive because it's the only SATA device and so never changes, you should probably use the /dev/disk/by-uuid/ identifiers instead.

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rs … tem_backup

In my case the script is called by a systemd .service (hence all of the print statements, which are recorded in the journal), run once a week by a systemd .timer; for Devuan you could use a(n) (ana)cron job instead.

2nd question, answer would maybe be to use those two extra drives for backups using clonezilla.

https://clonezilla.org/

I've been writing/re-writing a few *.iso files to SD Cards for working on my Beowulf+1000HE test installation and using my main box to do so.

My /etc/fstab was supposed to have all drives with their corresponding file system+UUID pairing.

But it turns out that I had forgotten to do add a UUID to a SAS HDD that I later stated using to keep stuff in.
And (as was bound to happen) screwed it up.

Fortunately testdisk and gparted did their job and after a couple of hours things were back to normal.  8^7

1st. question:
If every drive is assigned a file system ie: /dev/sdX and linked to a UUID, am I safe from this happening again?
ie: will file system labels remain unmovable and anything plugged in will use other ie: unused file system labels?

2nd. question:
I have a couple of 500Gb 2.5" SATA drives that get very little or no use these days.
I could mount them inside my box and use them to back up the contents of the different drives I keep stuff in just to be safe, not for fast access.

What method would you suggest to get that done?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

A.