[SOLVED] What program to back up all of my system ?

[Lumiere]

Hi I'm looking for a tool to back up my system (mint 19.1) but I don't know much about them.
I'm not even sure if that's the system that I want to back up or the partitions. So here is what I'd want :

- Back up everything: root, home (they're on the same partition) and the boot partiton
- Back up to an external HDD in ntfs format
- Basically if the system becomes broken or if my drive dies, I can restore everything as it was at the time of the back up
- One single utility would be prefered

By doing a fresh reinstallation and then restoring from inside the system, is it possible ?
Or is it from a live usb that I operate ?
I'm open for your software suggestions of course

Thanks

[kc1di]

Of Course timeshift comes pre- installed and does a good job of taking snapshost of your system.
But if you want to do a complete back up Clonezilla may be better tool. It's in the repository and can be installed via Synaptic.
You can read more about it here: https://clonezilla.org

[JerryF]

I don't think that Timeshift can save its files to NTFS filesystem.

Edit: Any particular reason why you want to save to NTFS disk? If you have room, I would partition the external disk so that there's an EXT4 partition to use for Timeshift or other programs.

I dual boot so:

I split my second hard drive so I can use File History and a backup tool in Windows (NTFS) and then use Timeshift and Aptik and other backup tools for Linux (EXT4)

[Lumiere]

No it can't. Clonezilla seems to be an option though.
Waiting to see if other suggestions pop up, but thanks for your answers so far

[JerryF]

See edit above.

[jglen490]

Hi I'm looking for a tool to back up my system (mint 19.1) but I don't know much about them.
I'm not even sure if that's the system that I want to back up or the partitions. So here is what I'd want :

- Back up everything: root, home (they're on the same partition) and the boot partiton
- Back up to an external HDD in ntfs format
- Basically if the system becomes broken or if my drive dies, I can restore everything as it was at the time of the back up
- One single utility would be prefered

By doing a fresh reinstallation and then restoring from inside the system, is it possible ?
Or is it from a live usb that I operate ?
I'm open for your software suggestions of course

Thanks

The real problem is NTFS. Is there a specific reason why you want to backup to an NTFS filesystem rather than an ext4 filesystem?

[Lumiere]

Hi, I dual boot (windows / L.mint 19.1) so it's just to be able to access the whole disk from both systems, but I admit the idea of splitting it for an ext4 partition is not bad and I didn't think of it.

Now it seems that what I'm looking for is more along the lines of Clonezilla (and would work with one ntfs partition).
So now I'm wondering, while I'm in a LM19.1 live usb session, can I install a program right there on the usb drive in LM and will it be persistent ?

[JerryF]

...
So now I'm wondering, while I'm in a LM19.1 live usb session, can I install a program right there on the usb drive in LM and will it be persistent ?

Only if you burned the ISO on the USB with the persistence option.

[AndyMH]

You need to clear on what you want, timeshift and clonezilla are two completely different things:

• timeshift is a file backup utility (by default it backs up / excluding /home) and when paired with a utility like backintime (backups up /home only by default) covers everything. With a file backup utility you can restore individual files.

• Clonezilla is an image backup utility, it backs up complete partitions, it doesn't care about files. When you restore you have to restore the entire partition.

Ideally you want both, and backing up to an different drive, preferably external. Clonezilla and backintime will write to ntfs partitions, timeshift insists on ext4 (to preserve all the file permissions).

[Linux-Bill]

All software cloning is problematic. Hence, I use hardware cloning only. Never any failures.

[Lumiere]

Thanks a lot to all of you, I've got my answers and learned a few things.

So yeah, now I know that it's a partition backup tool that I want. To restore the whole system, even if it's the entire drive that has died, or like just the boot partition if it got messed up.

Individual files, I've always backed them up manually.
But now I know my options, what I want and how it is done, thanks !

[AndyMH]

So yeah, now I know that it's a partition backup tool that I want

Have PM'ed you

[Daddylongleg]

Hi Lumiere, a little late I admit. But my experience may help you to save time. I use win10-64bit and Mint19.3 on a single (Laptop) HD as Dual-Boot. Tried Timeshift and WinImageBackup, but could not restore neither system WIN nor MINT! Data of course on seperate USB-HD. A solution is certainly Clonezilla, but not easy to handle. The only simple way, to me experience, was using Acronis TrueImage (a Trial-Version is free of charge). I tested it many times, it works. Hope my comment helps you.
Additonal comment: The idea to backup and restore the different partitions NTFS and ext4 separatly did not work.