Foxclone - linux image backup, restore & clone

[Lady Fitzgerald]

or the life of me, I still can't understand why people are cloning to backup their systems and data.

Mainly, I suspect, so they have a complete OS and data system to build a drive for a new system,or to replace a broken drive on the existing one.
From there it is relatively easy to overwrite the newly installed 'cloned drive' by restoring with the last current backup of the data, using DejaDup or whatever your favourite backup/restore program is. Or your snapshot if that was saved to an external disk.

If you set up your computer correctly (i.e segregate system files from data files), you don't need to clone anything. Imaging the system allows easily rebuilding the system and repopulating the data is also a simple operation. Restoring a simple system image is fast, tying up the computer only a short time, not hours and hours. Then restoring the data will not tie up the computer while repopulating the data, allowing you to use the computer during the process.

[rossdv8]

One thing that 45 years of backing up computer systems for people has taught me - is that 'simple' and 'certain' have no certainty in computing

[blueicetwice]

or the life of me, I still can't understand why people are cloning to backup their systems and data.

Mainly, I suspect, so they have a complete OS and data system to build a drive for a new system,or to replace a broken drive on the existing one.
From there it is relatively easy to overwrite the newly installed 'cloned drive' by restoring with the last current backup of the data, using DejaDup or whatever your favourite backup/restore program is. Or your snapshot if that was saved to an external disk.

Yaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh! That is the principal reason why I have been cloning. In-addition, there are a lot of complains about Timeshift functionality. I have read a number of articles regarding the use of Timeshift and others with most if not all do not give instruction on its use for recovery.

[blueicetwice]

For the life of me, I still can't understand why people are cloning to backup their systems and data. Cloning simply takes too long and eats up too much disk space, especially if the system and data are being cloned.

My Lady, this is very true for a "super" user but less so for the average computer operator. Data is "cheap". My 2T USB HDD cost only $63.oo bucks. In my case, the cloning process takes less than 45 minutes and I do not have to worry about other backup software working properly or what is saved.

What is imaging In Foxclone, I assume it is the "backup" option.

For data which I consider material [docs & pixs], they are transferred to three thumb drives, as I do not trust software to operate correctly. I have read too many times of Windows users applying "restore" only to have that function fail; not to mention software conflicts .

[AndyMH]

What is imaging In Foxclone, I assume it is the "backup" option.

Yes

[blueicetwice]

I am removing "Back-in-Time" as it is not functioning and the
icons are barely transparent in the bottom task bar. Thirteen pages of instruction!!

https://backintime.readthedocs.io/en/la ... tings.html

Moreover, this is now a Github or a Gatesinfiltrationware.

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

[blueicetwice]

For those whom wish to rid themselves of "back-in-time", please
execute the following command.

Code: Select all

 sudo apt-get remove backintime-common 

To insure that there are no lingering vectors, execute the following:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get autoremove

[AZgl1800]

I am removing "Back-in-Time" as it is not functioning and the
icons are barely transparent in the bottom task bar. Thirteen pages of instruction!!

https://backintime.readthedocs.io/en/la ... tings.html

Moreover, this is now a Github or a Gatesinfiltrationware.

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

Install LuckyBackup from Software Manager.
it stores the backup files in precisely the same format as the folders in /home

this allows you to look inside the backup, and retrieve a single file, which I do quite often, especially after have done a new install..... which as it happens, is what I did just 15 minutes ago, on this laptop, it is now on a brand new fresh install with /LM23.0 OS and /home on separate partitions.

I use a special Home page for Firefox, and I have a file stored in /backup that keeps that info permanently.
I just now setup Firefox to load that page to create my new "home page" so that I can then create a New Tabs page which is my Home Page.

this gives me 4 rows of 8 icons for websites that I use everyday, multiple times a day.
So much simpler than trying to use bookmarks.

[AndyMH]

I am removing "Back-in-Time" as it is not functioning and the
icons are barely transparent in the bottom task bar. Thirteen pages of instruction!!

Moreover, this is now a Github or a Gatesinfiltrationware.

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

If you don't like backintime because you can find in on github, suggest you stop using mint as a lot of the sources for mint packages are there as well.

All the backup tool does is store the contents of home in a .tar.gz (compressed archive). There are much better alternatives like luckybackup as suggested by azgl1500/1800 or backintime which has given me no problems. Be grateful for 13 pages of instruction, the Achilles heel of most linux software is documentation, or the lack of it.

[blueicetwice]

I am removing "Back-in-Time" as it is not functioning and the
icons are barely transparent in the bottom task bar. Thirteen pages of instruction!!

https://backintime.readthedocs.io/en/la ... tings.html

Moreover, this is now a Github or a Gatesinfiltrationware.

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

Install LuckyBackup from Software Manager.
it stores the backup files in precisely the same format as the folders in /home

this allows you to look inside the backup, and retrieve a single file, which I do quite often, especially after have done a new install..... which as it happens, is what I did just 15 minutes ago, on this laptop, it is now on a brand new fresh install with /LM23.0 OS and /home on separate partitions.

I use a special Home page for Firefox, and I have a file stored in /backup that keeps that info permanently.
I just now setup Firefox to load that page to create my new "home page" so that I can then create a New Tabs page which is my Home Page.

this gives me 4 rows of 8 icons for websites that I use everyday, multiple times a day.
So much simpler than trying to use bookmarks.

AZgl, I love your avatar

I noticed today, that I have a Lucky file in the home director. I d/l the GUI and like what I see.
I will try to implement some or all of your suggestions. It even comes with a user manual THANK YOU.

I have 31 frequently used bookmarks of which ten are pinned to the top task bar.

[rossdv8]

Doesn't Foxclone let you look inside the archive and recover individual folders and files to their last saved from location and state also? Perhaps I'm not reading stuff correctly . .

[blueicetwice]

If you don't like backintime because you can find in on github, suggest you stop using mint as a lot of the sources for mint packages are there as well.

All the backup tool does is store the contents of home in a .tar.gz (compressed archive). There are much better alternatives like luckybackup as suggested by azgl1500/1800 or backintime which has given me no problems. Be grateful for 13 pages of instruction, the Achilles heel of most linux software is documentation, or the lack of it.
[/quote]

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Andy, I could not find any backup files in Home directory for the "backup tool." I will delete it. I will fiddle with Lucky and hope to get it working. Thanks for the advice.

Is there no escaping the clutches of Gates

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I am removing "Back-in-Time" as it is not functioning and the
icons are barely transparent in the bottom task bar. Thirteen pages of instruction!!

Moreover, this is now a Github or a Gatesinfiltrationware.

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

If you don't like backintime because you can find in on github, suggest you stop using mint as a lot of the sources for mint packages are there as well...

I'm shocked you, someone who is normally so helpful, would stoop to saying some thing so absurd and mean spirited. Most people can use Mint just fine without having to ever go to Github (I feel it's well named and I avoid it like Covid).

[AZgl1800]

I find 'GitHub' to be extremely difficult to understand, or to download anything from there and use it.....

I too, think it as another form of a virus

[rossdv8]

I am using the "backup tool" although there is no information on the WWW.

There probably should be more about How To Use mintbackup, but these links might help a little. It probably pays to remember tha mintbackup (as far as I am aware) is just a script (Python ??) that Clem set up to make backing up your home folder before you do an upgrade - and restoring it afterwards, as simple as practicable.

Not only that, but you can save your selection of installed software.

That's useful for dills like me who install a New version of Mint into their /root, and then have to manually install every single piece of software that is non-standard.

Mintbackup had a few glitches over the years, but I think they have been addressed by Clem. It saves that laborious folder by folder copy I do whenever I forget it is sitting in the App eanu, 'JustinCase' - before I do an upgrade.

Some of these links are a bit old, but the Backup Tool (mintbackup) has not changed much.

A 4 page guide:
http://linuxidentity.com/us/down/articl ... EN_www.pdf

For those who prefer to live by Monkey See - Monkey Do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Mv8zpKT7s

From the horse's mouth (sort of):
https://community.linuxmint.com/softwar ... mintbackup

Some general info and some questions answered on the Forum:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=350823&p=2031171&h ... p#p2031171

I reckon between a Clone using Foxclone, and a /home backup and a Selected Software backup using the Mint Backup Tool - we're probably pretty well covered.

And for ordinary day to day system stuff-ups due to operator error - Snapshots can be really, really handy.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

For the life of me, I still can't understand why people are cloning to backup their systems and data. Cloning simply takes too long and eats up too much disk space, especially if the system and data are being cloned.

My Lady, this is very true for a "super" user but less so for the average computer operator. Data is "cheap". My 2T USB HDD cost only $63.oo bucks. In my case, the cloning process takes less than 45 minutes and I do not have to worry about other backup software working properly or what is saved.

What is imaging In Foxclone, I assume it is the "backup" option.

For data which I consider material [docs & pixs], they are transferred to three thumb drives, as I do not trust software to operate correctly. I have read too many times of Windows users applying "restore" only to have that function fail; not to mention software conflicts .

So you would prefer to take up to 45 minutes to back up, say, 2 GB of new or changed data, tying up your computer the whole time, instead of doing it in less than five minutes and still be able to use your computer while doing so? The same for restoring data? I still don't understand why anyone would want to do that. It doesn't matter how much data one has, be it 2MB or 2TB or even 20TB, it just doesn't sense to rewrite all your data just to back up a small amount of new or changed data.

As far as software reliability goes, use the correct software and reliability will not be a problem. I've used FreeFilesync for years to backup my data, first for several years on Win 7 and now for almost two years on Mint and it has been completely reliable for me. It knows, without fail, what needs saving and what doesn't. To oversimplify it, it copies data to the backup location as needed and deletes data on the backup location that is no longer on the original location. It can be set to verify that each copy occurred accurately. It even can be set to send any deleted data to a user designated location so you can verify that the data was actually supposed to be deleted (this protects you from losing data due to bit rot or accidentally deleted files).

There is a bit of a learning curve but, once over that hump, it will save you huge amounts of time (enough to allow me to update my data daily, sometimes more than once a day, without spending more than a few minutes of time) and dramatically reduce wear and tear on your storage media. Keep in mind that data that isn't backed up usually cannot be recovered.

[SimonPeter]

I find 'GitHub' to be extremely difficult to understand, or to download anything from there and use it.....

I too, think it as another form of a virus

GitHub is a platform for hosting source code of various projects.
Almost anyone can create an account there and host their projects.
(somewhat similar to Google Drive / Dropbox, the only difference being that Google Drive / Dropbox is optimized for files in general, and GitHub is commonly used for development-related files used by developers / programmers).
GitHub is NOT any form of a computer virus.

Even Linux Mint is using GitHub for development of things like Cinnamon, Driver Manager, mintinstall (Software Manager), Update Manager, Software Sources, System Reports, Welcome Screen, mintstick (USB drive writer / formatter) ........ almost everything developed by Linux Mint is at https://github.com/linuxmint .

[AZgl1800]

As far as software reliability goes, use the correct software and reliability will not be a problem. I've used FreeFilesync for years to backup my data, first for several years on Win 7 and now for almost two years on Mint and it has been completely reliable for me. It knows, without fail, what needs saving and what doesn't. To oversimplify it, it copies data to the backup location as needed and deletes data on the backup location that is no longer on the original location. It can be set to verify that each copy occurred accurately. It even can be set to send any deleted data to a user designated location so you can verify that the data was actually supposed to be deleted (this protects you from losing data due to bit rot or accidentally deleted files).

I just looked up FreeFileSync and it performs precisely like AlwaySync which I used on Windows for at least 15, maybe 20 years.

and, both compare almost exactly like LuckyBackup does.
I have LB set to Synchronize both the source and backup folders, so it does the same job.

AlwaySync is "online" all the time.
I have LB set for manual and my Calendar notifies me weekly to do a backup because I am using an extUSB drive for it.

[AndyMH]

I have LB set for manual and my Calendar notifies me weekly to do a backup because I am using an extUSB drive for it.

My backups are automatic, but for manual backup that is a GOOD idea - setting a reminder in your calendar.

[AZgl1800]

I have LB set for manual and my Calendar notifies me weekly to do a backup because I am using an extUSB drive for it.

My backups are automatic, but for manual backup that is a GOOD idea - setting a reminder in your calendar.

yup, works well.

it takes longer for the extUSB driver to lock into Linux, than it does for LB for sync the few files that are needed.