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Drives and drive setup

The Drives page lists your backup drives and the drives plugged into your computer, and lets you prepare a new backup drive.

The Drives page: under "Backup drives", Alex Backup (default, starred), connected, encrypted with VeraCrypt, with Lock and Forget buttons; under "Connected drives", USB Drive with its two parts and Spare Drive, each with a Set Up… button.

Backup drives

Every drive registered for backups, with:

  • its name, and a ★ for the default drive (the one Deucalion backs up to);
  • Connected or Not connected, the encryption (VeraCrypt or LUKS) and the free space;
  • where it is mounted.

Buttons on each row:

Button What it does
Lock (encrypted drives) / Unmount (others) Closes the drive so you can unplug it safely.
Unlock Shown when the default drive is plugged in but locked. Asks for its password.
★ (star button, Use this drive for backups) Makes it the default drive. Shown on drives that aren't the default.
🗑 Forget this drive Deucalion stops using the drive. The backup on it is not deleted; you can add it again later. Asks first.

With two backup drives, the default one has a ★ after its name, and the other one a star button:

The Drives page with two backup drives: Alex Backup (★, connected, with Lock) and Small (not connected, with the star button and the bin button).

When the default drive is plugged in but locked, its row has Unlock:

The Drives page: Alex Backup, encrypted (VeraCrypt), with an Unlock button.

The dialog "Forget “Small”? Deucalion stops using this drive. The backup on it is not deleted; you can add it again later." with Cancel and Forget buttons.

Connected drives

Every drive plugged in, except the disk your system runs from, which is never shown. Click a drive's row to see its parts (partitions): name, format, size and where it is mounted, and tags such as encrypted or Deucalion backup. Set Up… starts the setup wizard for that drive.

The Drives page before any drive is set up: "No backup drive yet", and two connected drives, one opened to show "Empty, No filesystem".

The refresh button (⟳) looks for drives again. The page also updates by itself when you plug a drive in or out.

The setup wizard

Set Up a Drive… (top right), or Set Up… next to a drive, opens the wizard. It takes you through these pages. Nothing on the drive changes until the last page. You can go back with the arrow at the top left, or close the wizard with ✕.

1. Choose a drive

Shown when you start from Set Up a Drive…. Lists the external drives; your system disk is never listed. Pick one and click Next.

The page "Which drive?" listing USB Drive (/dev/sda) and Spare Drive (/dev/sdb), with their sizes.

2. Storage

Shows what is on the drive now, then How should the backup be stored? The five layouts are explained in a line each. Those that erase the drive say ⚠ Erases the drive. The two that keep the drive's files (Encrypted folder on this drive and No encryption, keep the drive as it is) need a drive that already has a filesystem with files; on an empty drive they are greyed out.

The Storage page for an empty drive, with "Encrypted part + normal part" chosen.

3. Encryption

Only for the three encrypted layouts. Choose VeraCrypt (open the backup on Linux, macOS and Windows) or LUKS (Linux only).

The Encryption page with VeraCrypt chosen.

If VeraCrypt isn't installed, the page says so, and LUKS is chosen. Install downloads VeraCrypt, checks its signature and installs it (Ubuntu asks for your administrator password).

The Encryption page when VeraCrypt is not installed: "VeraCrypt is not installed yet" with an Install button, and LUKS chosen.

4. Details

  • Name of the backup drive: the name Deucalion and Ubuntu show (default: Deucalion). On the drive itself, the name is limited to 11 letters, digits, spaces, ., _ and -.
  • Size of the encrypted part (GB) (encrypted part + normal part) or Size of the encrypted folder (GB) (encrypted folder). An encrypted folder can't grow later, so leave room.
  • Password and Type it again (encrypted layouts). The hint below tells you when the password is long enough (at least 8 characters) and when the two match; Next stays greyed out until then. 12 characters or more is recommended.

The Details page: name, size of the encrypted part, password and repeat (as dots), "Strong password."

5. Confirm

A summary of your choices. For layouts that erase the drive, the page says Everything on this drive will be erased, and you must type the drive's device name (shown there, for example sda) before the red Erase and Set Up button works. For the other layouts the button is Set Up.

If something is missing (for example the exfatprogs package needed to create exFAT), the page says One more thing is needed, with an Install button; other problems (for example "This drive is FAT32, which cannot hold files of 4 GB or more.") are shown with Can't continue.

The Confirm page with the drive name "sda" typed and the button Erase and Set Up.

6. Setting up

A log shows each step. For VeraCrypt, Ubuntu asks for your administrator password. The window can't be closed until it finishes.

Setting up: "Setting up the drive…" with a log.

When it is ready, click Done. The new drive becomes your default backup drive.

If something goes wrong, the page says Setup failed, with the reason at the end of the log; click Close. A drive that was being erased may be left half-prepared: fix the cause and run the setup again. Don't close the app while a drive is being set up: that stops the setup half way.

Done: "Alex Backup" is ready.