I don’t mean system files, but your personal and work files. I have been using Mint for a few years, I use Timeshift for system backups, but archived my personal files by hand. This got me curious to see what other people use. When you daily drive Linux what are your preferred tools to keep backups? I have thousands of pictures, family movies, documents, personal PDFs, etc. that I don’t want to lose. Some are cloud backed but rather haphazardly. I would like to use a more systematic approach and use a tool that is user friendly and easy to setup and program.

  • sneakyninjapants@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    2 years ago

    Kopia repo on a separate disk dedicated to backups. Have Kopia on my servers as well sending to my local s3 gateway and second copy to wasabi.

  • kat@feddit.de
    4·
    2 years ago

    I like Pika Backup. It’s a frontend for borgbackup that also let’s you mount and browse your archive with a few clicks. I think it’s pretty handy on a desktop PC. And since it uses borgbackup you also get encryption with it.

  • denny@feddit.de
    51·
    2 years ago

    Syncthing. I don’t want to invest into a NAS and put some load into my already greedy power bill, so I chose something decentralized. Syncthing really just works like Torrent but for your personal files: Whatever happens on the computer, also does on the phone, and on the laptop. Each have about 1TB of space and 3 times redundancy? Hell yea buddy dig in.

    • Fantasy@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 years ago

      I just found out about syncthing yesterday and it really is superb, it’s so easy to use even crossplatform. unison is another syncing tool that I like, I find it better for bidirectional syncing

  • philipstorry@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    My local backups are handled by rdiff-backup to a mirror set of disks. That means my data is versioned but easily accessible for immediate restore, and now on three disks (my SSD, and two rotating rust drives). It also makes restores as simple as copying a file if I want the latest version, or an easy command if I want an older version. And testing backups is as easy as a diff command to compare the backup version with the live version.

    Having your files just be files in your backup solution is very handy. At work I don’t mind having to use an application like Veeam, because I’m being paid to do that. At home I want to see my backups quickly and easily, because I’d rather be working on my files than wrestling with backup software…

    Remote backups are handled by SpiderOak, who have been fine for me for almost a decade. I also use them to synchronise my desktop and laptop computer. On my desktop SpiderOak also backs up some files in an archive area on the rotating rust mirror set - stuff that’s large and I don’t access often, so don’t need to put on my laptop but do want backed up.

    I also have a USB thumbdrive that’s encrypted and used when I’m travelling to back up changes on my laptop via a simple rsync copy - just in case I have limited internet access and SpiderOak can’t do its thing…

    I did also have a NAS in the mix once, but I realised that it was a waste of energy - both mine and electricity. In normal circumstances my data is on 5 locations (desktop SSD, laptop SSD, desktop mirror set, SpiderOak’s storage) and in the very worst case it’s in two locations (laptop SSD, USB thumbdrive). Rdiff-backup to the NAS was simply overkill once I’d added the local mirror set into my desktop, so I retired it.

    I’d added the local mirror set because I was working with large files - data sets and VM images - and backups over the network to the NAS were taking an age. A local set of cheap disks in my desktop tower was faster and yet still fairly cheap.

    Here’s my advice for your consideration:

    • Simple is better than complicated.
    • How you restore is more important than how you backup; perform test restores regularly.
    • Performance matters; backups that take ages are backups you won’t run.
    • Look to meet the 3-2-1 criteria; 3 copies, on 2 different storage systems, with at least 1 in a different geographic location. Cloud storage helps with this.

    Good luck with your backup strategy!

    • Zucca@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      ⬆️ for rdiff-backup since it keeps the last backup easily readable.

      I had before (and I think I’ll implement it again) snapshot capable filesystem where to I rsynced my stuff. Then once a day did a snapshot of the backups. It has the advantage of all the backups being easily readable as long as your backup filesystem is intact and your kernel can mount it.

  • rodneyck@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 years ago

    KDE user so for my personal files I backup with both Kups and Bups (install both) and you get the choice of cloning type or only changed files with going back in time choices. Integrates into KDE taskbar/system settings.

    For redundancy, I back up my main sync folder on the desktop to my laptop using Syncthing over my WiFi/network.

  • Independent_Node@lemmy.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    I use dirvish a text based cron enabled rsync front end. Read dirvish.org for details about it.

    I use this to clone and hold time based backups to external disks which I can verify or use offsite.

    Rock solid for years.

  • ISOmorph@feddit.de
    3·
    2 years ago

    I almost never see FreeFileSync mentioned in those threads. It’s the only GUI based app I know that also gives you options to not copy file deletions for example. Also has the option to be automated with crontab. Backups are not fragmented or repackaged so you can browse them just fine. Encryption can be done with Veracrypt.