# Rsync to backup NTFS partition to NTFS drive

## talikarng

Hi all,

I have a NTFS partition which I am trying to backup to an external NTFS drive using rsync.

Each time I run rsync with the --dry-run option it shows files which already exist on the backup drive but have not been changed on the source. 

I have tried to play with the user and group options (made them the same between the two drives) with no luck.

Does anyone have any insights which may help?

Thanks in advance.

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## richard.scott

rsync can be picky about the command options and especially where you place trailing slashes etc.

What is the rsync command your using?

Rich

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## lxg

NTFS doesn't handle file permissions and ownership like Unix/Linux filesystems. This may be the reason why rsync gets confused. However, rsync being written by the same guys who maintain Samba, there should be a way to get NTFS and rsync to cooperate.  :Wink: 

Googling for rsync and NTFS, I fould a couple Howtos, which also point out some common pitfalls. For example this one http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820425 has some interesting facts (cf. the --modify-window=1 option), although I don't know if they apply to you.

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## talikarng

I made sure that the permissions of the two partitions were the same but this had no effect.

Removing the trailing slash on the source option fixed the problem.

Thankyou lxg and richard.scott

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