Whatever Operating System you are using, having proper backups is really important. But I never thought about backup when I was using Windows and Mac. Until now,
I started using Linux for my primary needs.
The main challenge of using Linux and messing around with the terminal is things can go ugly unexpectedly.
Long story short, I run the below command in the terminal accidentally.
sudo rm -rf ~/.config 😐
Guess what? 3.5 GB of configuration files are gone.
.config folder contains most of the application configurations related to your user account. This includes operating system customizations and settings. Deleting the folder will not cause any harm to your operating system. But you have to configure all the settings from the beginning. Unless you have a backup.
Timeshift
Timeshift is a system restore tool for Linux. If you ever used Time Machine in MacOS or System Restore in Windows, you will get the idea.
Here are my timeshift settings
Snapshot Type - RSYNC
I'm using a separate Hard Disk for backup. RSYNC allows you to create backups on any Linux partitions. If your system got crashed, you can connect your HDD back, run Timeshift, and use the backup from the HDD to restore.
Storage Location - HDD
I have an M.2 SSD with 256GB capacity and a 2TB Hard Disk for storage and backup purpose. A 100GB ext4 partition is reserved for backup.
Schedule - 2 per week
I am using Arch Linux. I have weekly maintenance scheduled for my PC. Before I start maintenance tasks, I will create a backup, and after the maintenance, I will create another one. Since I'm not storing any large files in the SSD, the backup size is always small.
If you have plenty of space left in your backup drive, you can choose the boot time backup. This will create a backup every time when the PC boots up. Booting speed will not be affected.
Users & Filters
I've created symlinks for folders inside the home directory from my external HDD. All of the hidden folders in the home directory are backed up except .cache. All other system folders are backed up.
After I deleted the .config directory, all my settings are reset. I simply had to open Timeshift and choose the most recent backup.
Let me know your thoughts about backups 😊
Top comments (0)