Timeshift Question

[cottfcfan]

I have just ran Timeshift & saved to an external drive. All went well. I excluded a partition which I call /storage which is mounted at boot, & basically contains all my Data, Music, Docs, Downloads etc..., about 120 Gigs worth (which I Backup separately). My concern is this. If ever need to use Timeshift to restore my system, will it delete my /storage partition, as it's not included in the backup, or will it leave it as it is?

[Cosmo.]

Don't worry, your data is safe (in this regard). TS saves and restores the system itself, no user data (at least with default settings). So even the user data in your home (possibly on the same partition as the system) wil not get reverted.

Besides that - and independently from your question regarding TS: Backup all your user data. Not backed up data are declared by the user as superfluous data. I recommend Back in Time for this purpose, which can do the backup automatically.

[tovian]

You might be able to answer your own question...

I don't think it's a good idea to depend on any program to restore something important UNTIL AND UNLESS you have tested that functionality at least once to make sure you know how to do it. Therefore, with ALL your systems/partitions backed up imaged with "Timeshift" (and independently of "Timeshift" in case things do not go well), you can do as many "restore" tests as you want - at least until you know how to do it if there's ever an emergency.

If you have the resources I would even suggest that you clone your good drive and do your testing on the "spare".

[Cosmo.]

with ALL your partitions backed up with "Timeshift"

A classical misunderstanding: TimeShift does not backup any partition, it takes snapshots of the system.

[cottfcfan]

Thanks for all your replies.
In this case then I might backup my sda2 partition, which Mint is on, with fsarchiver, which I'm familiar with & know works, then restore Mint with Timeshift, to see how it goes, knowing I can restore with fsarchiver if things screw up. Not sure when I'll get round to doing that but will post back with results.

[tovian]

A classical misunderstanding: TimeShift does not backup... it takes snapshots...

Fortunately, the OP understood that the point was about testing the "restore" function.

However, to avoid any confusion over "backup vs snapshot" a correction has been made to the post (above). If there are additional "classical misunderstanding(s)" I do hope you will point them out quickly - so everyone may benefit. Thank you, Cosmo!

[Cosmo.]

Even with the changed wording it does not match, with what TS does. TS does not create a snapshot of a partition, which can contain more than the system. HOME can be stored on the same partition (and with the default installation method it is always there); an partition image would contain it, but in the TS snapshot it is (with defaults used) not included. Also the default storage place for the TS snapshots is on the system partition and also this is excluded; actually it would be a disaster, if TS would revert its own snapshots, you would perhaps be able to revert to an older snapshot, but never to revert to a newer snapshot, what you actually can do with TS. So in connection with TS you should not speak about partitions, but only about the system, otherwise confusion and misunderstanding can likely happen.

[tovian]

Even with the changed wording it does not match, with what TS does.

I believe you have missed the point - TWICE. The OP seems to have picked up on it from the get-go.
If your precision nit-picking is an attempt to flame me or publicly embarrass me it won't work.