Timeshift alternative?

Support Software & Applications
1

I’m looking for an alternative to Timeshift that will allow me to:

  1. get a full backup of my Manjaro installation (software and configs included)
  2. save the resulting file/image in a non EXT* partition (NTFS/FAT)

any idea is welcome!

1 Like
2

Do you know Deja-Dup?

pamac search deja-dup

3

thanks for the reply :slight_smile:
yes I know this software but it’s not what I am looking for, quoting from Deja Dup description

Blockquote “If you need a full system backup or an archival program, you may prefer other backup apps”

I am looking for a “one click, set and forget” solution to fully backup the entire system and restore it in the same exact way.
I tried Timeshift and it’s good, but severely limiting in its choice of “EXT* only” :\

4

Hi there,

I’ve used Clonezilla / Clonezilla Live for this sort of thing in the past and it’s worked really well for me. The interface isn’t the prettiest thing to look at but it’s gotten the job done.

To be fair, it’s a bit more involved than “one click, set and forget” but depending on which drive(s) you’re backing up it could be done with a cron job. The interface does show you what the command it’s using is once all of the options have been set.

kev.

5

thanks for replying :slight_smile:
nope, Clonezilla requires EXT* as target and therefore doesn’t match my needs :\

6

Really? That must be new. I’ve backed up images to NTFS external HDs before with it while booted from the live disk. I’m pretty sure I’ve also backed up to NTFS drives mounted on other machines via ssh with it.

7

then I may have done something wrong, but I installed it right now, run a quick test, and only the EXT partitions showed up as destinations. xD

8

If memory serves–and I don’t have it open in front of me at the moment–you should be able to specify any mounted path as the destination when it gets to the step to mount /partimage no?

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9

Hi @LDC :wink:

I guess you are looking for something like borg:

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/quickstart.html

In theory it works with any file system and is able to backup the whole drive.

  • Cron-friendly
  • encryption
  • dedublication
  • compression

There is also a nice example script:

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/quickstart.html#automating-backups

1 Like
10

So many choices.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Synchronization_and_backup_programs#Incremental_backups

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11

You want to backup an EXT4 partition to NTFS/FAT? That’s a very bad idea as those file systems do not support permissions. You want the same file system for the source and destination.

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12

the original goal was to just have a big .tar (or ISO) file that could be moved anywhere.
I tried most of the software listed in the Arch Wiki, but none matches my criteria, therefore I’ll simply adapt and format an external disk with EXT.

thanks all for contributing :slight_smile:

13

I agree with Yochanan…

But, let me make sure I understand, you want to back the entire system as an image file continually?

14

it has not be “continually”… does anybody remember the old DOS era and products like Norton Ghost? looking for something like that. A “one click” solution that just backs up the full disk and that can be stored/moved anywhere

Incidentally, the backup created with Timeshift seems to be allergic to being compressed (in a single tarball) and moved/copied, even as root.

15

The only proper way of doing what you are looking for is to boot into a live ISO, and run dd command or use Clonezilla.

I don’t really see the logic of your approach, I use BackInTime and Timeshift, and they are set to backup to external USB drive, the drive is portable, I can take it anywhere.

16

well, I do have external USB units, but they are all FAT/NTFS so, as I mentioned earlier, my solution is to simply buy a new unit, format it with EXT and just assign that as backup partition.

17

Why not just format your current backup drive? Okay you’ll lose your previous backups, but as long as you’re careful for a few days, you won’t need any backup during that time and then you’ll be fine.

18

Have you tried Back in time?

I have time to use it and it works well. It is relatively easy to set up and has saved me a couple of times.

19

because said USB drive is half full of important stuff xD

20

Using clonezilla will allow you to do almost everything - but you could peek into redo backup which is a bare-metal backup solution.

I know redo backup from years back - it has been dormant for years but recently sprung back to life. In fact due the this dormancy - I seriously considered creating an alternative :slight_smile: based on Manjaro.

The functionality was provided using Ubuntu but is now based on Debian and a php application.

Disclaimer
You should be aware that the solution creates a vncserver and the possibilibty of requesting remote support using said vnc. This conclusion is not based on a physical test but on reading the source code available.