backup settings Solved with backintime

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decrepit
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backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by decrepit »

Hi guys,
I thought back ups storage location could be permanently set, but I find now I have to browse through to the back up drive.
That's OK at home, but I may not always be doing it at the office. It would be better there if auto backups could be set up. Failing that if button could just be pressed once a day for it to happen.
Is this possible please?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Petermint
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Re: backup settings

Post by Petermint »

Are you on a desktop with built in drives or a notebook with plug in backup drives?

I use Backintime as it has more options. For my desktop, I have built in backup disks and external USB disks. Backintime is set to automatically use the built in disks and has backup profiles for when I plug in USB disks. As the notebook has just one disk, all the backups are to USB disks and I run the backups manually after plugging in the external disk.
Cosmo.
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Re: backup settings

Post by Cosmo. »

How do you do the backups? It doesn't look, as if you are using a dedicated backup software.
decrepit
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Re: backup settings

Post by decrepit »

Thanks Cosmo, I'm using the default "Backup Tool" but it has no option to schedule auto Backups, and doesn't save the destination folder. (At least, I can't figure out how to)

Thanks Petermint, It's a desktop with permanent USB 1Tb drive plugged in for the backups.

I've just tried Back in Time, but it doesn't seem to work. It goes into "now" mode, when asked to backup it comes back with, "nothing to do" and there's no files in the tree it's created.
pbear
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Re: backup settings

Post by pbear »

decrepit wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:11 pm I'm using the default "Backup Tool"
Last I checked, the default tool copies all your files every time you backup, which is pretty inefficient. And wastes a lot of time if you have a lot of files. There are other options which will copy only new or changed files, e.g., Back in Time, Grsync and Lucky Backup, all available in Software Manager.

Don't know the answer to the question you asked, as I use rsync (a command line tool), but thought I'd mention the other options.
decrepit
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Re: backup settings

Post by decrepit »

Thanks pbear,
I'll read the back in time manual, and see if I can get it to work.
Cosmo.
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Re: backup settings

Post by Cosmo. »

The default Backup tool is (perhaps) suitable for a one-time backup before upgrading the system and only in case, that there is not a better tool installed. Don't expect any features in it.
decrepit wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:11 pm I've just tried Back in Time, but it doesn't seem to work. It goes into "now" mode, when asked to backup it comes back with, "nothing to do" and there's no files in the tree it's created.
I use BiT since many years and it works (near to) perfectly. For being able to help you we need more details. For example I have no idea what you name "now mode".
Petermint
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Re: backup settings

Post by Petermint »

Backintime allows multiple "profiles" and each one has a destination. If you have three backup disks and want one daily, one weekly, and one monthly, you set up a profile for each.

An actual backup is the same as the single backup in Timeshift except that it backs up your home directory instead of the system. Both Backintime and Timeshift run rsync in the background which means they are really efficient only when the backup partition is ext4.

The default profile includes exclusions for some temp files. Select a profile, top left, then look in settings. You will see whatever is set for that profile.

The configuration is stored in your home directory as .config/backintime/config. There is also stuff in .local/share/backintime. The backup is where you specify in destination. The result is a config line like the following.
profile2.snapshots.local_encfs.path=/media/me/adiskpartition
decrepit
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Re: backup settings

Post by decrepit »

Cosmo, Now mode is what's displayed at the top left hand corner of BiT. There's also a symbol at the top right corner, that says it's grayed out when in Now mode. I have no idea what this means.

Petermint. I didn't realise BiT needs ext4. I'll have to reformat the drive. Thanks for that.
decrepit
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Re: backup settings

Post by decrepit »

Installed backintime on the office computer, created a new ext4 partition in the back up drive, and all seems to be working well.
I used every boot/reboot as the back up times. I think that suits the intermittent office use the best.

Thanks guys, great help.
Cosmo.
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Re: backup settings

Post by Cosmo. »

decrepit wrote: Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:14 pm Cosmo, Now mode is what's displayed at the top left hand corner of BiT.
This is no mode. It is filter. Below this filter you will find the list of all available snapshots and you can select any of them to find a file, you might want to restore. With the filter "now" you see, what currently exists on your machine.

Have you already created a backup-profile? If yes, than doing a snapshot (the first icon next to the profile name) will do a backup and you find an entry in the snapshot list. If you now do another snapshot BiT willl likely tell you, that there is nothing to do. This happens, because BiT checks at first, if there is any new or changed file; if not a new snapshot is obviously senseless.
decrepit
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Re: backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by decrepit »

I had created a profile, but after it said, nothing to do, there was no snapshot, the back up directory was empty.

However, the one on the office computer seems to be working fine. So maybe it was just me before.
Cosmo.
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Re: backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by Cosmo. »

What was the source to back-up and what the target for the backups in the profile, which does nothing?
decrepit
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Re: backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by decrepit »

Sorry cosmo, this is all in the past now, and with my poor memory I'm only guessing. But I think the source was Documents in my home directory, and the target was an NTFS formatted 1Tb USB HDD
Cosmo.
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Re: backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by Cosmo. »

Although a ntfs-drive is usable as target, it has limitations. You should use a ext3/4 partition / drive.
decrepit
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Re: backup settings Solved with backintime

Post by decrepit »

Cosmo, if you look at the post where I called this solved, ( Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:21 pm), that's exactly what I've done at the office, due to petermint's advice.
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