partitioning

i have a 20gig internal secondary hard disk im going to use for automated backups.

i have three questions
1 )what application should i use to partition the drive
2 )what filesystem should i use
3 )what applicaation should i use for the auto backup.

i have keep installed. im thinking of configuring and using that. all i need the app to do is take my documents from the home folder, compress them, put them to the secondary drive, update changed files, add new files to folders, and be relatively easy to restore. it doesnt have to be windows compatible for windows is the antichrist of the digital world and will have no part in my daily life. at least if i can help it

This page should answer everything.

http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

Filesystem: I would use ext2/3, but whatever suits. The obvious choice is the same as the source.

Partitioning: cfdisk or gparted http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

/me goes off to play with backing up my webserver

gpartd isnt working half as well as i expected. maby my install hit a glitch but it wont wright any partitions. i can resize and rename but it seems to only want to make extensions. ill get cfdisk and try that

ok so i downloaded cfdisk and partitioned it but how do i go about allowing anyone to wright to it? i dont have the permisions to do anything but view the drive because i dont own it and am not root.

Usually I mount external drives in a sub directory under /home. I have a few spare mount points in etc/fstab for the purpose. I keep var on an external drive for convenience and easy clearout.

It depends how you have formatted it, but it's usual to mount usb devices (how I do it anyway) as "mount -t <filesystem> /dev/sda1/2/3/4 /media/whatever_is_convenient" If you want to do it manually., or using hotplug (a mystery to me.. it just works) just like a pendrive.

If you want it to mount on boot add it to /etc/fstab

You can chown the partitions any way you want.

once again its an internal drive