Score:1

Deja Dup not backing up entire system

cn flag

Thanks in advance for your assistance...

I installed Deja Dup and tried to do a complete back by selecting any folders I have installed to or edited files (config files etc) and discovered that I could not add specific folders like /etc because Deja Dup said it didn't have authorization to those folders.

I read in the forum that I should set Deja Dup to backup the root folder /. So I did that and it did backup more than just /home but it only backed up /home /usr /var and nothing else (watching the details of the backup) and is also evident by the backup folder only being 19GB but my system drive is 63GB of data.

I edited plenty of config files in /etc that I don't want to have to do again if I restore a new install - so what do I do in Deja Dup so it will backup ALL data on my system drive..?

heynnema avatar
ru flag
Deja Dup (Backups) was never intended to backup the entire system disk. Use it for your /home, and use TimeShift for the system.
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
Does this answer your question? [Comparison of backup tools](https://askubuntu.com/questions/2596/comparison-of-backup-tools)
karel avatar
sa flag
I also recommend Timeshift for backup/restore of the entire system for users of Ubuntu 20.04 and later.
SiliconVoid avatar
cn flag
I tried Timeshift, it looked as if it backed up the entire drive data (at least the backup folder was approximately the same size as the data on my system drive) however - it only backed up to the system drive itself, with no option to put the backup on a different drive... I do not understand what security it provides if the drive went down which would take the backup with it. I tried Back in Time, which I cannot say exactly what it was doing, it did allow putting the backup on a different drive but it also made a backup folder almost twice the size of my data...
SiliconVoid avatar
cn flag
What I want/need is a program that will read/backup the entire root directory and save that archive on a different drive.. I don't understand why that straight forward function is such a unicorn....
heynnema avatar
ru flag
@SiliconVoid Between Deja Dup, Timeshift, and BackInTime, you should be able to backup what you want. If what you want is an image of the entire disk, check out Clonezilla.
SiliconVoid avatar
cn flag
Thank you heynnema for clarifying that I would need to look to another app - and N0rbert for the link where I found Vorta.
Score:2
cn flag

Thanks for the assistance. As noted Deja Dup doesn't do full backup of your system drive... So that was answered.

For anyone else looking to backup their system drive (local or remote storage) I found the unicorn.. Vorta

It has more functionality than needed for basic backup (remote repositories, backing up remote storage drives, etc..) but it will backup your system drive to local storage if desired, and to a multitude of drive formats (etx4,ntfs,fat32.. and hfs I'm sure as it is a also a MacOS app, though you might need hfs support installed on your Linux box).

The archive is also compressed so it is a fraction of your actual data size.

Haven't done any type of restore of course, but the process seems pretty basic.

mangohost

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