How to automatically back up multiple drives

[old__timer]

I have a system with 3 HD’s. I want to set it up with one HD as the boot drive.

That boot drive will have access to the Internet and my Linux applications such as my antivirus programs, office and graphics applications.

I want my second HD to be my primary hard drive where I will save all of my files.

My 3rd HD will be used as storage of backups from my 2nd HD

Here is my problem. I can save all my files from my boot drive to my second HD with no problems, using Deja-dup, however I can not find a program that will allow me to create an automatic daily backup of my second HD, unless I boot to my second drive and the bios on this new motherboard will not allow me to boot to my second drive (because it is a sata drive and so is my 3rd hard drive) without me physically pulling the drive and physically switching the cables.

So, is there a GUI backup program that will allow me to backup my 2nd hd on a daily basis, without compressing it, so that I can pull individual files, if needed?

All three of my drives are 2 TB each.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

FreeFileSync can do what you want. However, I do not recommend automatic backups nor, and especially, using an internal drive to put your backups on.

Automatic backups require a continuous connection between the drive(s) being backed up and the drive(s) where the backups will reside. This exposes the backup drive(s) to many of the same dangers that the drive(s) being backed up is subject to, such as malware (with Linux, usually ransomware), power surges that blow through any surge protection you may have, human error (such as accidental deletions or formatting), etc. Also, if your machine gets stolen, your backup will go with it.

It is much safer to keep your backups on an external drive(s) and store that drive(s) disconnected from out of sight of the computer and kept powered down except while updating the backup. If your computer is set up properly (and, with the exception of having an internal backup drive, what you propose to do is spot on), then backing up your data drive(s) will pretty easy. Even better is to have both an onsite external backup drive(s) and an offsite external backup drive(s). The offsite backup drive(s) will protect most of your data should the unthinkable happen, such as your computer and onsite backup drive(s) get stolen or your home, and everything in it, are destroyed by a disaster, such as fire or flood.

I recommend FreeFileSync (FFS) for backing up your data drive(s) to an external backup drive(s). When set to Mirror mode (not the same as RAID1), FFS will compare the source drive (the drive being backed up) with the destination drive (the bacup drive). It will than copy data on the source but not on the destination to the destination. Any data on the destination that isn't on the source will be deleted from the destination. The result is the destination will essentially be a clone of the source. Since only new, changed and deleted files are involved when updating a backup, most backup updates will take less than a handful of minutes from start to complete.

An additional feature of FFS is called Versioning. It will take files deleted from a destination and send them to a user designated Version folder. This way, you can catch any files that you have may have accidentally deleted or were deleted from the destination because the one on the source had become corrupted.

I now use Rescuezilla to image my boot drive and FFS to backup the four data drives/partitions in my laptop. I store the Rescuezilla images in a folder on one of my laptops internal drives for convenience but those images get backed up to an external drive when I back up that data drive.

When backing up my data drives/partitions, it takes less than a minute for me to dig out a backup drive and connect it to the computer via USB 3.0. Running FFS rarely takes more than a few minutes, often only a minute, since I update the backup for my main data drive daily. Again, it takes less than minute to shut down, disconnect, and put away the backup drive when the update is done.

[mikeflan]

So, is there a GUI backup program that will allow me to backup my 2nd hd on a daily basis

I agree with Jeannie. Use freefilesync batch job creation to backup daily. You can start the job every day manually, or set it up in a cron job.

This is not recommended, but if you want immediate, real time syncing, there is RealTimeSync
https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=realtimesync

[AndyMH]

Here is my problem. I can save all my files from my boot drive to my second HD with no problems, using Deja-dup, however I can not find a program that will allow me to create an automatic daily backup of my second HD

Mount the partition(s) on your second drive somewhere like /home/you/data (by editing fstab) and then programs like backintime (and probably deja-dup) will automatically include it in the backup set. Or, explicitly add the mount point, which would typically be /media/you/something, to the include list in backintime.

The setup on my desktop is vaguely similar to what you want to do. I had mint on one SSD and win on another. I wanted linux to take care of backing up win so I mounted the win C: partition in mint as /home/andy/winC. I run timeshift (for the system) and backintime (looking after home) daily, automatically, to an internal removable 2TB HDD.

[Petermint]

If all the disk partitions are Ext4, you can use Backintime. Backintime lets you create multiple profiles. Use the default profile to backup disk 2 to disk 3. Create a second profile to backup to your external backup disks when an external backup is plugged in.

I have that setup on my desktop. One disk for the 56,954,809,069,851,398,485 files in Pictures. That backs up to a bigger disk with manual snapshots after every major addition.

I do not use the scheduled options because the machine is on different times each day and only on some days.

The first snapshot is a complete copy. The next snapshots take space for only the new/changed files. Thanks to the magic of Ext4, unchanged files already on the backup are represented by links, not space using files. When you look at a snapshot, you see every file.

My 1 TB Pictures directory backs up to a 4 TB disk with space for about 50 or more snapshots.

I use several external 4 TB disks in rotation and run the external backups direct from the main disk. Again one slow complete copy then only quick snapshots.

Some of the external disks can be stored off site in bank vaults or a shoe box in the garage.

[AndyMH]

Backintime lets you create multiple profiles.

Good point! I should have mentioned it. I have the default profile taking snapshots of home daily. I have a second profile that only backs up my virtualbox VMs, this runs once a month - large files that rarely change. The VMs are excluded in my main profile. You can change what gets backed up, how often and also set a different destination.

[old__timer]

I would like to thank everyone that responded.

I have installed FreeFileSync and it seems to be working the way I want it to, so far.

As for all the comments suggesting that I do not back up to an internal HD, I also use external HD's that are kept in a fireproof safe, plus I own 30+ websites on multiple servers, (off site) that I used for another level of data storage in password protected folders.

Prior to my retirement many years ago, I owned a very large computer store and know the true value of any computer is the data it stores. I still have a stack of old IDE hard drives that have data on them from Windows 3.1 in dos as well as 3.5" floppy disks.

So again, I appreciate all the input and information.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I would like to thank everyone that responded.

I have installed FreeFileSync and it seems to be working the way I want it to, so far.

As for all the comments suggesting that I do not back up to an internal HD, I also use external HD's that are kept in a fireproof safe, plus I own 30+ websites on multiple servers, (off site) that I used for another level of data storage in password protected folders.

Prior to my retirement many years ago, I owned a very large computer store and know the true value of any computer is the data it stores. I still have a stack of old IDE hard drives that have data on them from Windows 3.1 in dos as well as 3.5" floppy disks.

So again, I appreciate all the input and information.

OOOKKKK, you have all your bases covered.

I'm curious about your IDE HDDs and floppy disks? Do you have those backed up on newer technology (or do you not care about that data anymore)? A lot of data gets lost because it's on media that no longer have the hardware to read them.

[mikeflan]

This setting for soft links is not activated by default. You might want to set it this way:

And I suspect you are doing a Mirror. That is the normal setting: