Trouble Backing-up to USB Drive

[RobotsEatDoughnuts]

I am trying to backup my Vortex drive for the first time. The process is not working. Looks like it wants me to "Mount" the USB drive but I don't know that that means and the related posts seem unrelated to this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The images below show the Backup Log and the System Info.

[jimmi]

Please describe what you have. Do you have an external drive plugged into the VB? Those pic's don't work BTW

[RobotsEatDoughnuts]

That is too bad about the pictures, they work on my end. They are thumbnails and if you select them they open an http://pic
I have a vortexbox with SW version: 2.2, Linux OS Version: Fedora release 16 (Verne)
I am trying to back up to a 4TB external USB hard drive. I have attempted the back up from a couple, but not all, of the USB slots. Could one of them be specific for a backup?
I connect the USB and select the Backup icon.
The log file says:
Backup/storage to USB drive...
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
Mount of USB drive/dev/sdb1 failed; cannot do Backup.

[jimmi]

Have you formatted the drive? I believe it should present a format option for new drives. There is a format icon on the BU page also.

[Doris1997]

Second the format suggestion, I had a similar problem that worked once I selected the format option!

[RobotsEatDoughnuts]

This drive is already formated and has other data on it. Is that a problem? I could buy a separate drive to back up this if that is necessary.

[Doris1997]

Just do the format under Vortexbox again

[jimmi]

This drive is already formated and has other data on it. Is that a problem? I could buy a separate drive to back up this if that is necessary.

Depends on which format was used. Is it NTSF?

[tusken]

my advice is to have a separate drive just to backup the VB, format it using the GUI and away you go. if you format the drive you already have, then obviously you will lose all the data on it

[bart]

This drive is already formated and has other data on it. Is that a problem? I could buy a separate drive to back up this if that is necessary.

As far as I understand,/remember:
When an USB drive is formated by Vortexbox as a back-up drive, it is wiped clean!

On the formatted drive you'll find a "storage" folder/directory and a textfile "VortexBox.txt", this file contains one line, like "This is a VortexBox backup drive created on Sat Oct 22 16:10:16 CEST 2016"
After a back-up you will also find a ".lastbackup" file (and maybe a ".lastrestore" file).

It is possible to place other data on your Vortexbox USB back-up drive, as long as you keep the structure (top-level: Vortexbox.txt + storage).
Do not put your data in "storage" otherwise it will be deleted everytime you perform a back-up (or copied to your Vortexbox when you restore)!
Instead create new folder(s) alongside "storage", this will survive a Vortexbox back-up!

Technically it should be possilble to prepare an already in use USB drive without formatting by creating a "storage" folder and the text file (if you have a small spare USB thumbdrive, format this one instead in your Vortexbox and copy the files to your intended backup drive).

BTW keep your back-ups tidy, clear, and up-to-date.
In the past I used a USB as back-up with more room than my Vortexbox, so had other things backed-up on this drive aswell, rather clumsy when you are in need of something from the past, now I use the Vortexbox as a full household NAS and have several copies as back-up.

cheers
/bart

[RobotsEatDoughnuts]

Thanks for the help everyone. I ended up getting a new backup drive for the Vortexbox. I let it format the drive and it did the back up over night. Yeah!