Updates are important according the needs of the user and the system.
Linux Mint compare with all the other Linux Distros has the most flexible and Democratic Update Tool, where the user can choose what to update, upgrade or not.
But to update, upgrade the system has always risks, thus always backup it is the most secure way to protect the system.
TimeShift and all rsync based tools they have limitations.
The most secure and reliable way of backup is Clone Backup, which copy all the sectors of the partition or hard drive, which means if the source is defective the backup will be also.
To have a reliable Clone Backup you must be disconnected from the Internet and avoid any use of the system.
The most simple and reliable way, it is the use of the native tools of the system dd and gzip.
The Clone Backup with dd and gzip has three great advantageous together.
1. It copies exactly all the partition something rsync can not.
2. It does the job from a running system not a live medium, the user don’t need to leave the running system.
3. It stores the partition in a .gz file, in a place whatever the user choose, other partition, hard drive, usb.
dd is powerful command and if you do a mistake by choosing wrong partition or drive it will delete all the destination’s data.
From running system the below command does the job, as root:
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sudo su
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dd if=/dev/sdxx bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror | gzip > /media/location_of_storefile.gz
To restore your system follow the above suggestions and from live USB or another Linux OS, as root:
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sudo su
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gzip -dc /media/location_of_storefile.gz | dd of=/dev/sdxx
After this run.
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fsck -y /dev/sdxx
By doing backup regularly your system will be above all, secure!
Clone Backup and TimeShift
Since TimeShift is the default rsync Backup method on Mint 18.3, it can work fine with the restored clone image of the backup. How it can work.
It is suggested after you installed your OS to make one image file .gz with Clone Backup and to check if the image is correct and the restore OK. This is very important.
Soon or later you will experience that the restore with the TimeShift will not solve the problem you have.
Instead to reinstall your OS, first you restore the backup Clone image file .gz then the TimeShift and your problem will be gone.
The magic world of Linux makes miracles.