Backup Solution for Bob

[Zachary Liebl]

Hi Bob,

I am messaging the whole group in case someone else wants to jump in with an idea.

I remember that you wanted to back up your desktop and wanted to be able to quickly recover in case of failure. However I remember you had some very specific requirements. 

Have you found a way of getting that done? 

If not can you write out a specific list of requirements for what exactly you are looking for?

From,

Zachary Liebl

[Bob Mariotti]

Thanks for getting back so quickly Zack!

Actually what I'm looking for is not that unique or strange.  I am
searching for a method to create a bootable backup of my current running
Linux Mint system while ignoring certain directories.   The purpose is
to allow me to boot from this backup then restore the system component
of my system.   Sounds easy enough but everything I've tried so far does
not result in a bootable backup.

Just for starters here's how my system is physically configured:

I have two physical drives installed.  The first is a 1TB sdax and
contains the boot information and the OS image.  It does NOT include the
/home directory as that is installed on a 4TB 2nd drive sdbx .  My
configuration properly identifies my /home directory which is where I
keep the vast majority of my production files, documents, virtually
everything but the OS.

My /home directory is backed up daily using timeshift in differential
mode storing the output on an external 4TB USB hdd. I've had to access
this backup on a number of occasions and was always able to retrieve
what I needed.

To give you an example of typically what happens is that a couple of
weeks ago mint sent down an OS update which I applied as I normally have
done but upon completion when a reboot is required I could NOT get it to
do so.  I had to reinstall the OS from the original ISO file.  Of
course, upon completion I had to do a detailed reinstall and
redefinition of my normal configuration. Honestly, what a PIA.

I've been doing research into various backup products and all that I've
tried do NOT create what they're touted to do.  That includes
Clonezilla, Foxzilla, dd, rear and just about everything else.

So hopefully this description give you and anyone else a reasonably
clear understanding of what I'm trying to do.

The reason for this is because for what ever reasons over the past
couple of years I've lost access to one or both of these drives and I've
had to reinstall the OS from a distro and start all over again.

If you or anyone else has any "reasonable" suggestions I'm all ears
(well, eyes in this case).

BobMCT

[Zachary Liebl]

Hi Bob,

You said that dd didn't work. Do you remember exactly what about dd didn't work? Was it not bootable? And did you mess around with BIOS settings at all?
From,
Zachary Liebl

Apr 12, 2025, 11:59 PM by bobmct666_at_gma...@simplelogin.co:

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[HartfordLUG]

You might be able to DD each directory and then splat them out partition by partition with a script?