bootable ext. USB SSD for backup

[RW]

On Thu, 16 Mar 2017 20:46:12 +0100
Matthias Apitz wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have acquired a small and flat USB 3.0 external disk (must be SSD
> for the size of the case):
> 

da0: 40.000MB/s transfers

That looks like you're USB 2.0. If it really is an SSD it should be able
to read at about 10 times that. 


> Ofc it has not the promised 1 TB volume, just only 953869 MB, i.e.
> only 1 Marketing-TB;

It's more of an engineering thing. The misuse of SI multipliers is an
abomination that's usually been avoided, except where it's very
convenient, and that's mainly for RAM.  


> I'm thinking in re-partitioning the disk (which is actual only one big
> NTFS slice) with gpart(8), install even a kernel into a small FS at
> the beginning and keep the rest as a big UFS for backups. Having it
> bootable with a system could be handy if one has to rescue a system
> and restore the last dunp.

I wouldn't, you can run into annoying problems with the BIOS booting
the wrong drive. You can make a bootable thumbdrive or live CD/DVD for
emergencies.