encrypted folder backup

[tellymandeus]

Hi there,

for the last 5 or more years I haven't done too much with files on my computer, and what I did was all in the dropbox folder so was automatically backed-up. I used a couple of external HDD for ARCHIVE (stuff that doesn't live on my laptop ssd dropbox folder - old files, family photos, old art projects etc).

(addtional: there seems to be an issue with dropbox discontinuing (in multifarious ways) support for linux - I'm fine with quitting dropbox though ideally I'd like a privacy-minded alternative in addition to HDDs)

However, I'm now embarking on a new project that has me doing more graphics and video, so I need to sort myself out a good backup system for CURRENT work as well.

I've also become more aware (paranoid - in a good way) of the need for encryption of my data - in particular because with my life's ARCHIVE on external HDDs I don't really want those to be easily accessible by anyone....one HDD will sit at home, one will sit in my car (safe if my home burns down!) and one will sit in my EDC bag. The above mentioned cloud storage will provide a 4th backup location for in case I somehow survive all the HDDs getting destroyed in a nighttime asteroid strike on my neighbourhood....

So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good way to encrypt then backup folders. I'm likely to create 2 separate encrypted folders - one will be ARCHIVE and will contain everything that is not in current use and will live on several external HDDs (but not on my laptop), and a second will be CURRENT and will be a sync of whatever I am currently working on on my laptop. That could be /home (to save everything - downloads etc) tho doesn't really need to be.

Finally, I've never worried too much about backing up my mint installation because I figure any disaster requiring re-installing is a good opportunity to do a fresh install and wouldn't take more than a couple of hours (biggest pain: installing japanese input methods, tho I usually get it done eventually). However now my computer has become a little more mission-critical i suppose saving myself a few hours work by also running a system backup tool might be worth the effort it takes to set up.

So if anyone has any recommendations I'd be very grateful - I have gooooogled, but there were lots of options so I'm hoping mint users will be able to recommend me some reliable best-practice solutions.

Thanks!

[fabien85]

Hi,
for backing up the system, the one Mint-recommended solution is timeshift.
It is installed by default in Mint 19 (and I think already with 18.3 if not 18.2), and for older versions it's available on the repositories, so just a few clicks away through the software manager. You then just need to configure it to tell where to store the snapshots. The graphical interface is quite simple and explicative.

For backing up your data, you could do it manually on an encrypted folder. There are many solutions e.g. encfs.
Another solution is to use a backup software that supports encryption. For example backintime can do that and is available in the software manager. Backintime is a bit less user-friendly than timeshift in terms of user interface, but it's quite powerful (e.g. it can make backups to a remote server via ssh).

[tellymandeus]

thanks, I'll have a look at those!