Hey there, folks! Currently playing around with a laptop that’s got three SSDs. Running Arch but that isn’t quite related. I have everything configured on one SSD, the other two are totally fresh. What do I need to do to setup one of those fresh SSDs for Timeshift backups? Please walk me through it from the very start- I think I understand some parts but I’m not too certain.

I can format the drives using mkfs.btrfs without any issues, but I’m confused about how I can add subvolumes and configure their root permissions properly to allow Timeshift snapshots.

EDIT: I see now that I misunderstood what Timeshift does. New question- which tool can I use to make a backup of my entire filesystem onto another drive such that it can be restored?

  • moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    I’m pretty sure it’s possible to use timeshift to create backups on another drive using rsync (instead of btrfs). They are incremental, and deduplicated, as well.

    But the other commenters are correct, timeshift is not a backup tool, it’s more for snapshots to undo system changes you may not want. In addition to that, it doesn’t do user files by default — because again, it’s not a backup tool.

    btrfs send/receive technically does what you want, using btrfs to do backups to another drive, but I don’t think any GUI app supports it. Plus, you would have to create snapshots for btrfs from the command line.

    Your best bet are apps explicitly designed for this usecase, like someone mentioned pika, or borg or restic are good choices. They don’t do BTRFS, but they do incremental, deduplicated updates in a user friendly way.