External backup disk drive has two different UUID -- timeshift can't find snapahots

English Install/Boot/Login
1

This morning I found that “timeshft” gui and cli could not find the backup directory on external drive as it had for couple of years. The external drive is mounted and file manager shows all the backup files are there.

I found that blkid and fdisk show different UUID for the same device. Have no idea what happened. /dev/sdb6 is where the timeshift directory is.

Help needed. Perhaps change /etc/fstab???

(base) tom@mydesktop: /run/media/tom/WD_book_linux/timeshift/snapshots-daily $ sudo blkid 
/dev/sdb4: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="a2dd91d0-3226-47d4-8ccc-bd75c4c7fde5"
/dev/sdb2: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="75641740-cd71-44ec-8111-1830b030a1ea"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="WD_book_windows" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="394DB398420355FF" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="WD_book_windows" PARTUUID="061d6392-39ab-477f-88a5-c523e8821de1"
/dev/sdb3: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="fc498acf-eae6-4dd2-ad58-7ee6f3fe4762"
/dev/sdb1: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="b762325c-1adc-0068-95e2-55de7f3c19f0"
**/dev/sdb6: LABEL="WD_book_linux" UUID="3fe3c45f-e738-43a3-9642-bffa759074f4" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="WD_book_linux"** PARTUUID="ed4cba99-d0b7-4320-91dc-5acffc51a178"
/dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="0749e399-d356-491f-94b5-85d02ecf8477"
/dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="c7bb88d3-9b14-46c2-a8af-da1a224480df"
/dev/sda12: LABEL="Windows 10" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="6ABE22FBBE22BF85" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="d32c7d2d-0674-43a5-98b9-2b4327787708"
/dev/sda9: LABEL="Recovery" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="8C9C1F589C1F3BE0" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="3868f79f-be91-4232-afda-cf3036549c08"
/dev/sda10: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="C93A-C87E" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="62a93150-d01f-4f32-b4fd-c24a31f3e258"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="Linux - Root" UUID="be8570c4-cde5-4c16-afb7-4c71118bbed9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PTTYPE="dos" PARTLABEL="root" PARTUUID="e052dc80-65b7-11f0-a00f-80a58916e18e"
/dev/sda5: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="7C80FB8780FB45E4" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="e052dc7e-65b7-11f0-a00f-80a58916e18e"
/dev/sda3: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="bf625028-7a64-4e89-992e-b7eab2990238"
/dev/sda1: PARTLABEL="EasyRE volume attributes protection" PARTUUID="0ea6d7d6-5c61-00b2-95d2-5fc4e9758443"
/dev/sda11: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="1734fefa-4e75-482b-b151-3f56d9560a27"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="Linux - Home" UUID="e748b401-3a8f-4152-a9ea-ef540efb0230" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="home" PARTUUID="e052dc81-65b7-11f0-a00f-80a58916e18e"
/dev/sda6: UUID="732223f6-b4fa-4fa0-9d5a-78ced9984c72" TYPE="swap" PARTLABEL="swap" PARTUUID="e052dc7f-65b7-11f0-a00f-80a58916e18e"


(base) tom@mydesktop: /run/media/tom/WD_book_linux/timeshift/snapshots-daily $ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 3.64 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA HDWE140 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 04F040ED-92C0-4D0B-B201-2192DE39FD0C

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1          34         34          1   512B unknown
/dev/sda2          35         35          1   512B unknown
/dev/sda3          36         36          1   512B unknown
/dev/sda4          37         37          1   512B unknown
/dev/sda5   946567168  948310015    1742848   851M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6   948310016  952530943    4220928     2G Linux swap
/dev/sda7   952530944 1259751423  307220480 146.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda8  1259751424 7814035455 6554284032   3.1T Linux filesystem
/dev/sda9        2048     923647     921600   450M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda10     923648    1128447     204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda11    1128448    1161215      32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda12    1161216  946565864  945404649 450.8G Microsoft basic data

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdb: 3.64 TiB, 4000786153472 bytes, 7814035456 sectors
Disk model: My Book 25ED    
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
**Disk identifier: 4610E1A9-71AF-4B43-884D-9720E5D0E70F**

Device          Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1          34         34          1  512B unknown
/dev/sdb2          35         35          1  512B unknown
/dev/sdb3          36         36          1  512B unknown
/dev/sdb4          37         37          1  512B unknown
/dev/sdb5        2048 1453412351 1453410304  693G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb6  1453412352 7814033407 6360621056    3T Linux filesystem
2

As fdisk does not provide any UUIDs at all, I do not understand you.

3

and lsblk -f gives a better view of the UUIDs.

4

From fdisk I interpreted “Disk identifier: 04F040ED-92C0-4D0B-B201-2192DE39FD0C” to mean UUID. Was that an error?

If so my question becomes why does timeshift say can’t find snapshots after long time no problem? Location tab in timeshift gui does show current backup directory.

Perhaps do total reset of timeshift?

thanks, tom ksovic

5

Yes.

That is identifying the disk (/dev/sdb).

And you are looking to an UUID that is identifying the file system. And the file system is on the partition /dev/sdb6.

Please try to understand the differences between “disk” (or "mass-storage device), “partition” and “file system”. They are not the same and should not being used as interchangeable (and certainly not under the sloppy Miscrosoft Windows term of “hard drive”).