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?

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    44·
    1 day ago

    Timeshift is not a backup tool, so it’s meant to run on the filesystem you’ve configured it for. If you ran it across many volumes or targets like RAID, it wouldn’t work as you’d expect because it’s not designed to work that way.

    • Cornflake@pawb.socialOPEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Perhaps I’m misunderstanding how Timeshift works. If Timeshift isn’t a backup tool then what does it do? I thought that I could use my primary SSD and save snapshots to a secondary SSD using Timeshift. Everything is formatted to BTRFS by the way, it’s not like the primary drive is in ext4 or something like that.

      Can I configure it to do what I want it to do or do I need some other sort of tool for that?

      • Irdial@lemmy.sdf.org
        91·
        1 day ago

        Timshift is to Linux what Time Machine is to Macs. It’s a snapshot tool that lets you roll back a certain file or your entire filesystem to an earlier state

        • Cornflake@pawb.socialOPEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          That makes more sense- kinda like nondestructive editing when working with audio/video. The snapshot is more or less a list of instructions to revert a system back to a previous state, not an actual copy of everything.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.world
          54·
          1 day ago

          Exactly. A backup tool makes an entire copy of a filesystem. A time-based snapshot tool only covers the delta of changes to the filesystem.

          So if you want a fully functional copy of your filesystem, then you make a full or incremental copy.

          If you just want to be able to “rewind” to a point-in-time version of it, then Timeshift or snapshots allow you to do that.