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?
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?
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
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.
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.
Exactly the information I needed, thank you for this :)