Back up in LM 20 Cinnamon

[OveS]

Just run Timeshift and YES. It will back up /home too, but I exclude and did the root only and hidden in Home. I can not copy the snapshot from root to external usb
HDD SSD(240G). Permition deny. That beat the purpose of backing up. If HDD fail the the snapshot gone too. How do I make myself root so I can back up the dir?.

For me, Timeshift creates the snapshot to an external (USB attached) HDD directly.

[myface68]

I must to miss that option. Will look at Timeshift again.

[JerryF]

I have running Cinnamon v20. I try the Backup and all what did is a list. Is this a joke software or I am doing something wrong?. Any decent software to back up installed programs?. I have copy of my /home and if something happen( or I screw up), I can reinstall OS, but hate to download software again.

No, the Mint Backup Tool is not a joke.

Yes, it creates a list of which programs you have installed. When you perform a "Restore", it will install the programs that are missing from your current Mint.

I just used it today when I upgraded from 19.3 to 20.

And what I can do with the list?. The list is useless without actual software back up. Am I missing something?. When the hdd "beat the dust" what is that list good for?.

Run the Backup Tool again and select "Restore..." and then choose the list file. It will reinstall the apps.

[myface68]

No, the Mint Backup Tool is not a joke.

Yes, it creates a list of which programs you have installed. When you perform a "Restore", it will install the programs that are missing from your current Mint.

I just used it today when I upgraded from 19.3 to 20.

And what I can do with the list?. The list is useless without actual software back up. Am I missing something?. When the hdd "beat the dust" what is that list good for?.

Run the Backup Tool again and select "Restore..." and then choose the list file. It will reinstall the apps.

Restore from what? What list is good for if I do not have the apps. The backup do not backup the apps, only create the list.

[JerryF]

...
Restore from what? What list is good for if I do not have the apps. The backup do not backup the apps, only create the list.

I see your point. The Backup Tool doesn't actually backup the files of programs.

It uses the list to restore programs from the repositories online.

[myface68]

It is misleading name. I will find real bacup program.

[hydrurga]

Ok, I'll add my opinion to the mix.

A piece of software will have the following presence on a system (apologies for the use of my own personal terminology in the following):

. The software's system files - these can be re-installed (and auto re-configured automatically) at any point.

. The personal configuration associated with the software (preferences etc.) - this is usually stored in dot folders/files in your home directory.

. Personal files and documents associated with the use of that software - these are usually kept in your home folder, saved by your good self, but may also be kept in other places (my data and documents are all kept on a separate encrypted partition, for example).

It is assumed that a user backs up all their personal files and documents as a matter of course. So, if their hard disk goes phut!, all they need to do is reinstall the software (a list of which can be saved with the Backup Tool to make the job easier, otherwise they should have written down a list somewhere) and restore their backed-up documents. However, what remains? The dot configuration folders and files. For which there are two solutions - (i) back these up too and restore them if required, or (ii) re-enter all the configuration information for each piece of software, plentiful notes of which you have kept in a saved document somewhere.

Pretty simple, I would have thought. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise, of course...

[myface68]

A backup tool is a back up of whatever some choose. If /Home then backup tool will backup /home with all the files in it, not only a list or will backup whole hdd. That is purpose of backup. I have copy of my /home stored on external usb hdd - some may called it "backup" but it is a copy. What I want is to backup software that I downloaded ( with all the require libs) so I do not have to download again. Still looking for proper software.

[fstjohn]

I just used Aptik (the pay version) to restore all my programs after a clean install of Mint 20. Worked pretty well, but I had to enable Snap in 20 before the restore since I was using Snap programs in 19.3. It saved many hours.
I've also used a combination of Timeshift and BackInTime. Timeshift restores the system and BackInTime restores your data.
https://teejeetech.in/aptik-3/

[myface68]

I found a issue with Timeshift ( or could be me). When complete it goes into hiding. It place in/home and have no option to save into external usb hdd. I had to log in as root to copy the timeshift folder. No point of having timeshift on main drive - can beat the dust any time and timeshift gone too. Again, could be me not seeing the option.

[JerryF]

I found a issue with Timeshift ( or could be me). When complete it goes into hiding. It place in/home and have no option to save into external usb hdd. I had to log in as root to copy the timeshift folder. No point of having timeshift on main drive - can beat the dust any time and timeshift gone too. Again, could be me not seeing the option.

You can change where the Timeshift snapshots are stored.

Open Timeshift, Settings, Location.

[myface68]

My bad. Thanks.

[antikythera]

Always make sure the external drive is plugged in and recognised by the system before you launch Timeshift. You do not have to physically mount the drive in a file manager though. Timeshift cannot detect drives plugged in after the program is launched.

[bob466]

I can't believe people think Timeshift is a Backup Tool...even when the guy who developed it says it's not a Backup Tool.

If after looking this...https://teejeetech.in/timeshift/ you want to use it as a Backup tool...do so at your own risk.

There are only two ways to Backup your whole System that really work...Macrium from here viewtopic.php?p=1434480#p1434480 and Foxclone...as always the choice is yours.

[hydrurga]

I can't believe people think Timeshift is a Backup Tool...even when the guy who developed it says it's not a Backup Tool.

If after looking this...https://teejeetech.in/timeshift/ you want to use it as a Backup tool...do so at your own risk.

There are only two ways to Backup your whole System that really work...Macrium from here viewtopic.php?p=1434480#p1434480 and Foxclone...as always the choice is yours.

It's interesting the different interpretations of terminology, isn't it. I personally wouldn't call Macrium Reflect a backup tool, for me it is an imaging program. I consider there to be three different types of tool (and I could well be wrong, but it's just how I see it):

. Imaging program - this allows you to back up entire partitions or disks at a time. I use these to take sporadic images in case my hard disk goes phut. I personally use Macrium (because I come originally from the Windows world) but Foxclone, Clonezilla etc. do the trick too.

. Snapshot program - this takes snapshots of your system, allowing you to rollback if you screw up your system or feel that it may have been infected. I only use this for short rollbacks of a maximum of several days, because that is how long it takes me to realise that I'm not comfortable with my system as it is. TimeShift does the business here.

. Backup program - this allows you to back up all your documents and other files (and system files if you so desire, but I don't use it for that) to an external device, allowing safety and fine-grained recovery if files are deleted or incorrectly modified on the original system in some way. I do this regularly with FreeFileSync. This is by far the most important. You can reinstall a system from scratch, you can reinstall all the software and configure it just how you want it. But, if you lose your personal documents and data files, and don't have adequate backup copies, you're up the creek.

Each person has their own approach to backups/imaging/snapshots, but the questions that they should always ask themselves (and these aren't exclusive) are:

. How can I recover if my hard disk goes phut, without losing any data?

. If I have to (re)install Mint on another computer, with all my software and data, how can I do this easily?

. If I accidentally delete files or folders, or modify them wrongly, how can I recover the situation?

. If I screw up my system or feel that my system is infected/compromised, how can I roll back to a previous situation where that probably wasn't the case?

If your imaging/backup/snapshot methods can answer these questions, then you've probably got it right.

In saying all this, I also personally keep detailed notes on all the software I install and how I obtain/install/configure/use them. These have been invaluable for me over the years in situations where I want to do fresh installs for some reason, reinstall software, or offer advice to others on how to install/configure/use software. I'm not sure that many people would want to bother doing that, but those notes have followed me through thick and thin.

[myface68]

I am not afraid of Clonezilla. Kind of like it, but the problem with cloning is the source and destination size. If I am 1G off then will not work. I have 3 ssd 240G and all of them different size. Cloning from smaller one to larger - no problem. Partimage was good cloning tool, but unfortunately do not support ext4. Partimage clone only actual use blocks. Do not clone empty space like dd, so my clone drive would be 80G, not 240. I wish that person will make ext4 support.

[myface68]

FSArchiver is another utility that supposed to archive hdd without empty space. I will give a try - downloading now.

[bob466]

I can't believe people think Timeshift is a Backup Tool...even when the guy who developed it says it's not a Backup Tool.

If after looking this...https://teejeetech.in/timeshift/ you want to use it as a Backup tool...do so at your own risk.

There are only two ways to Backup your whole System that really work...Macrium from here viewtopic.php?p=1434480#p1434480 and Foxclone...as always the choice is yours.

It's interesting the different interpretations of terminology, isn't it. I personally wouldn't call Macrium Reflect a backup tool, for me it is an imaging program.

What do you think an Image is...it's an exact copy of your Operating System that's stored on an External HDD...in case disaster strikes...HDD or SSD failure being the worst.
When you first Install Linux Mint and get it the way you like...Software...System Settings...Web Browsers etc...you then create an Image of it using either Macrium or Foxclone and the Created Image is stored on an External HDD.

So should anything happen and the list is very long for new users...you don't have to spend hours...days on the Net trying to find out how to fix it...just put the Image back on the Drive. You don't have to Re-Install the OS and everything else....you can put that Image on another HDD or SSD or Computer.

Using Macrium Rescue Media...I created an Image of my 500GB HDD and put it on my 500GB SSD and it works just fine and that was over a year ago...Every month or so I'll create an Image of my SSD because of new Software or Virtual Machines I've installed. Apart from this...I will place Videos...music...Files etc on an External HDD as well.