How to backup an external drive?

Is it possible for me to back up without going through the Terminal? Not a big fan of the terminal commands. Thanks.

You can use grsync as a GUI for rsync. If you use terminal you can make a bash script which you can call from the ALT + F2 dialogue when you want to run a backup. With this in mind, using the terminal is advantageous. Once you get the command right, you can run it using the script. You can even make scripts that run commands, then your own script. And so forth.

You could even make a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications and you can run your script from Dash...... Think about it.

Thanks guys. Using terminal has its own advantages. I understand that. But how can I figure out what's wrong with this particular command? Why is it that my command does not go through?

Here's the result I get from running a few relevant commands:

rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$ mount
/dev/sda2 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)
none on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=rk)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/rk/Backup type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sdd1 on /media/rk/Extension type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks2)
rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$

--------

rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for rk:
/dev/sda1: UUID="4D17-243F" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: UUID="5c7cddd9-af38-4e5f-a091-32cd4c7d03f3" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda3: UUID="d538ddf0-9e35-45ed-8434-a81e33396039" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Backup" UUID="045ddf09-bf7e-440a-a505-79b48786ba11" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="Extension" UUID="59480fbc-7044-441c-8d77-b41387b976fd" TYPE="ext4"
rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$ ^C
rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$

------------

rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABF0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 538MB 537MB fat32 boot
2 538MB 496GB 496GB ext4
3 496GB 500GB 3705MB linux-swap(v1)

Model: WD My Book 1230 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 3001GB 3001GB primary

Model: Toshiba External USB HDD (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 17.4kB 1000GB 1000GB ext4 msftdata

rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$

http://www.jveweb.net/en/archives/2010/11/synchronizing-folders-with-rsync.html

Seems that the command option is:

rtv

According to the output of the mount command your external disks are named /media/rk/diskname, and not /media/diskname as tried in your rsync command.

rk@rk-Satellite-C55D-A:~$ mount
...
 /dev/sdc1 on /media/rk/Backup ...
 /dev/sdd1 on /media/rk/Extension ...
...

versus

rsync -ruv --delete /media/Extension /media/Backup

I assume that changing the command into
rsync (options) /media/rk/Extension /media/rk/Backup
might work.