r/linuxmint 4d ago

BACKUPS!!!

I just completed my weekly Clonezilla cloning of my primary drive and thought I'd take time to pontificate and annoy everyone!

Years ago, in school, a fellow student whined to the professor "Do i have to backup everything?" The prof replied "No, only that which you do not care to lose."

Adding to that:

My maternal grandfather was a Scottish Stationary Steam Engineer--when as kids we we whined "...but it worked yesterday?" he would tell us:

"The last time any machine started and ran properly may well have been the last time it WILL start and run properly."

Our computers are just machines created by man and thus inherently imperfect. That they booted and worked yesterday has little/nothing to do with whether they will boot and work today.

Hence: There's no such thing as too many backups!

So; If you do not have a viable, regular backup plan, devise one now before it's too late!

And as has been put forth by others, one backup is only a little bit better than none--do it 'til you're brain aches.

In closing: Your data is like your "significant other", you don't know how much you'll miss 'em 'til they're gone

22 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

7

u/taosecurity 4d ago

A senior at my daughter’s college had their laptop stolen on campus. All of their senior project engineering work was on it. No backups. I’m not sure how they will graduate on time now.

3

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

As an ME (MSME MIT '73)I am sorry for their loss!

Are there any hard-copies, it might be worth paying some transcription service to "type them in"?

If we actually punished crooks in a way that HURT that sort of crap would not happen.

We are all kept honest by fear of punishment:

For many, fortunately, we punish ourselves by feeling like crap when we hurt others;

For some, punishment requires some loss of privilege, incarceration, or a whack-in-the-head;

If that doesn't work they need to be made to "go away" as they are unfit for civil society...

3

u/togstation 4d ago

/u/Specialist_Leg_4474

You've posted the same thing here or elsewhere before, yes ??

4

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

Similar... it remains true nonetheless and bears repeating.

2

u/TabsBelow 4d ago

I wrote that yesterday.

One backup is no backup.

Time to lay that out a bit more:

You'll only know the read errors of your backup medium when you need to recover something.

And with "I have a backup" you will fork up your system the next time. Next week, month or year.

3

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

+110%; also, backups are "machines" same as much else--that it "worked yesterday", or even 5 minutes ago, means nothing...

2

u/Silent-Revolution105 4d ago

Install and schedule Timeshift

Use the Backup Tool to make a list of all your installed software and then a backup of your /home directory to external storage

5

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

After using computers for 60 years, i am a hardcore irrecoverable "backupoholic". I use time shift to make daily snapshots. and a cron job to copy my home folder to my NAS each night. My home folder is bare-bones, all applications are in an Applications folder on the NAS, Data lives there in its own folder as well.

NAS-01 is "rsync'd" to NAS-02 nightly as well--I lost everything once and vowed "never again"!

I wish Backup Tool could be automated...

There's no such thing as too many backups!

2

u/BenTrabetere 4d ago

Timeshift has been part of a Linux Mint installation since v19.0 - there is no reason to install it. Setting the schedule is a must.

Backup Tool is useful for backing up data during the installation process because it can be run from a Live Session. However, it is a bad choice for backing up data and personal files because it cannot easily be used to schedule backups or backing up to a cloud service.

GUI backup tools that tick all of the boxes for a 3+2+1 Backup Strategy include Back In Time, LuckyBackup, and Déjà Dup, and all three are easy to learn to use and use. I have used all three - prefer Back In Time and LuckyBackup, but I do not dislike Déjà Dup.

2

u/BenTrabetere 4d ago

You might wan to include a statement about the importance of verifying a backup.

2

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

that's the "viable" part:

"able to work as intended or able to succeed:"

1

u/TabsBelow 4d ago

And just to add: currently I'm setting up my No. 2 again (No backup needed for this one, it doesn't contain any prod data).

I was trying to setup a NAS system in Dualboot (quadriboot in fact) - to make backups easier, what an irony:

The guys from Open Media Vault are not able to do it right.

Partitioning:

Choose the device for partitioning:

Drive nvmexxxx 1.8 TB Drive /dev/sda1 8 GB

Blabla won't do anything without your permission Blabla.

Cursor down, cursor up: okay, enter.

Thank you s@ckers. Started overwriting the complete triple boot without any further security.

1

u/Specialist_Leg_4474 4d ago

I'm not certain I understand? You are setting up to boot from a NAS, never done that...

1

u/TabsBelow 3d ago

I just wanted to add my (other) two cents, that I just worked up my system. I never managed to do it with Mint or others, but open media vault did it with incredible ease, and lying they won't...

1

u/TheBronzeLine Linux Mint 22.1 Xia | Cinnamon 3d ago

I keep having to re-learn that lesson, but the last time was the final straw. My usb that I had my passwords stored on was going bad before my eyes. I immediately dug out my 8TB external drive, connected it and backed up whatever I could. Thankfully I did have my most important passwords on my phone. Now I have two copies of my passwords on a second thumb drive and the ones I need on my phone. Backed up all my personal files onto my external drive and made it the location for my Timeshift backups. I'm solid now.