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linuxmint / timeshift

System restore tool for Linux. Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks, or BTRFS snapshots. Supports scheduled snapshots, multiple backup levels, and exclude filters. Snapshots can be restored while system is running or from Live CD/USB.
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Is it possible to make system backup with timeshift on different hard drives? #348

Open bjce opened 1 week ago

bjce commented 1 week ago

First of all: thank you very much to the maintainers of timeshift which is a very useful and great piece of software.

As several backups are safer than only one and as hard links are difficult to copy from one hard drive to another, I would like to setup timeshift so that it does regular backups on different external hard drives. Is there a way to do so?

Many thanks

rp88-rp88 commented 1 week ago

Oops, sorry, misread your post, I thought you were asking about doing a restore to a different drive, like after replacing a dying HDD. No, I don't know about automatic ways to rotate which external drive an image gets written to. It might not even be possible as timeshift backups, after the first one, don;t back everything up, just the things that have changed since the first one. My tutorial does discuss making a timeshift image to an external drive, that much is easy, but my procedure isn't really designed for regularly repeated backups.

Previous text of comment is below

Look at my tutorial linked to from: https://github.com/linuxmint/timeshift/issues/335

it does what you're after BUT as yet it sometimes doesn;t copy your Wine and Snap applications in such a fashion as to ensure they work after copying. Everything else, apt-get installs, GUI repository installs, stuff compiled from source, stuff done from deb files... and all your settings for most programs seems to copy across just fine.

P.S. this is for system copying, not personal file copying, the ideal is you set up your system with all your programs and settings as you like them, then make the image. Then you add your personal files and use your system, the timeshift image is ready to let your system, without all the large files being involved, be copied on to new hardware easily... if only it would work for Wine and Snap programs... still trying to work out why it doesn't.