Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230
However, when some days back I used it after moving to the recently released Debian 10.1, it ended with a "no space left" message. Investigation showed that, beside the existing "albert" tree, an "albert1" tree had been created -- apparently with the same structure and content. Also, the external USB hard drive was no longer recognised by the system.
The rogue directory, albert1, may be unrelated to the "no space" error. Most likely, the main problem is the "the external USB hard drive was no longer recognised by the system".
When the external hard drive isn't mounted to "/media/albert/Expansion Drive", the rsync command will write to some other hard drive - probably to your root drive, although that depends on how your system is set up.
Do you know how the external hard drive was getting mounted before the upgrade to Debian 10? (It might also be interesting and/or helpful to know how you upgraded to Debian 10.)
The rsync command was issued at the command line after the external drive had become visible in Thunar. It became unrecognisable after it had stopped with an error message. Debian 10.1 was installed from a DVD.
I always do a "dry run" before backing up with grsync. More than once, I had plugged in the drive but forgotten to mount it so in the dry run, new folders were created to receive the data. After mounting the drive, everything worked normally.
Thank you, Wizard. It may be best to take this precaution. At this time the small drive is with the young chap who handles hardware matters for me. He said he knows someone who may be able to get into the casing and get the thing going again.