Easy backup of files and programs

[bin]

Based on the excellent advice here I have stopped using TS and am now using BackInTime

[katman]

Think I will try back in time for Linux and get rid of dual boot. Thanks for all replies

[katman]

Hello Again,
I have put Linux Miint on a different hard drive from windows, ( no longer dual boot)
Now when using Time shift for backing up the system do you suggest putting it in on an external USB formatted to ext 4? When using back in time to back up personal data do you use an external USB drive also formatted for ext 4? After setting this up want to try it personally to see if it works.
Anyone have suggestions to do this. I have never gotten a backup to work and want to be sure before I have to try it for real again.
Help and suggestions to help with this project is appreciated.
Will deal with windows 10 backup later.

[AndyMH]

Yes, external usb drive with an ext4 partition on it. When you create the partition, add a label, e.g. mybackup. You can do this with both disks or gparted. When you plug the drive in, mint will automount it at /media/you/mybackup, if you don't have a label it will use the UUID, e.g. /media/you/05ac957-7487-41bb-a314-8ae1a43ef797, not user friendly.

If you use gparted to create an ext4 partition it is owned by root, read-only to you. To fix this, in a terminal (with the partition mounted):

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sudo chown $USER:$USER /media/you/mybackup

changes ownership to you.

Timeshift setup, settings > location. Just click on partition you want as the destination:

When timeshift runs it will mount the partition at /run/timeshift/backup (you can have the same partition mounted multiple times at different places in the filesystem at the same time).

Backintime setup, settings > general

You can click on the icon to the right and navigate to the folder you want as the destination, e.g /media/you/mybackup.

Will deal with windows 10 backup later.

I cheat, I mount my win C: partition via fstab at /home/andy/winC. Because it is in home, backintime takes snapshots of it for me. But get the basics working first

[katman]

Time to bring this up now....I am not to familiar with partition of hard drives but I want to learn. Does anyone on the forum know where I can find some good reading on how to do this beginning with the basics. I never had a chance in school......let me rephrase this, computers did not exist until way after I graduated from High School and Jr. College. I took math and electronics working until old enough for retirement. I have searched for some information but, what I have found is way over my head.

[deepakdeshp]

. I have searched for some information but, what I have found is way over my head.

Please see https://www.binarytides.com/linux-comma ... artitions/

[AndyMH]

Time to bring this up now....I am not to familiar with partition of hard drives but I want to learn. Does anyone on the forum know where I can find some good reading on how to do this beginning with the basics.

Download the user guide for foxclone, I wrote a couple of sections on partition tables and the use of gparted and disks.

[katman]

Used Timeshift on Linux mint and after several tries got it to work.....On to windows 10.
Thanks to all who contributed to my dilemma and helped me.

[pbear]

Glancing at my prior post on Win10 backup, I notice one issue I forgot to mention. The Windows backup tool does not use compression, but it only copies space in use. So your backup target only has to be as large as the used space on the system (plus at least a 20% cushion, no file system should be filled to the brim). Each backup goes in a separate folder, so you can have multiple backups on the same drive. Once up against the 20% cushion, manually delete the oldest one before making a new one. I do this because Windows will use the cushion before deleting the oldest backup.

I do a full system backup of Windows about twice a year (occasionally I run an extra). In the event of a restore, the system will automatically catch up any updates since the last backup. Then I update data files from their backup, which is maintained separately (and run often).

[AndyMH]

Assume this is the old win7 backup tool still in win10. For comparison, foxclone & rescuezila both use compression (pigz with compression=1). A foxclone backup of my system drive:

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took foxclone backup
root 21.59gib = 23.2gb img 8.2gb = 35% of original
home 163.05gib = 175.1gb img 112.6gb = 64% of original
total backup 184.64GB
restore time was 33:11
think the backup was 1hr17mins

Sizes for root and home are for used space (they only backup used blocks). Compression on home will depend on what you have in there.

[pbear]

Assume this is the old win7 backup tool still in win10.

Correct. In fact, it's called "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" on Control Panel.

[Petermint]

Compression sounds nice. In my case, the big space users are images and they are bigger after compression because their internal format is already compressed. The biggest space saver, for me, is the rsync Ext4 trick of storing the same file only once. There are backup programs for Windows that can do something like that although nowhere near as fast as rsync. For that reason, I used to backup large NTFS user data partitions in Linux.

[AndyMH]

I used to backup large NTFS user data partitions in Linux.

I do the same on my dual boot desktop, have win C: mounted at /home/andy/winC then backintime takes care of it.