How to backup data to an external HDD in Linux?

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

Hey,
I have a couple of GBs of data on my PC’s internal hard drive that I regularly work on that are important to me and I would like to have a recent backup of them. For now I don’t want to use a cloud backup solution and I want to have them backed up to an external HDD/SSD that I will keep on my desk. These are the main reasons I want to protect my data:

  • Accidental deletion through something like unintended Shift + Del
  • Accidental deletion through something like unintended formatting of that hard drive
  • If I work on a document and delete some information inside it and then I accidentally save it I would like to restore a previous version
  • My hard drives are not the newest so if they fail I want to make sure I have a backup of my most important stuff
  • Pipe breaks, minor floods etc.

I don’t need to backup my whole HDD only a few folders that contain the business data. I am thinking that it’s probably a good idea to have two different versions of each document for example a recent backup (since last close or something like that) and a week-old one in case I want to restore something that I deleted previously.

Can you tell me how can I set all this up please?

Thanks.

2

Not sure about the automation part of the backup in Windows, but as for a backup tool that can ‘version’ files and arbitrarily backup only certain directories, I suggest restic. Its command line driven and extremely flexible.

https://restic.net/

3

I use Duplicity. It is mainly used for pointing backups at remote systems, but you should be able to backup to a local drive as well.

1 Like
4

If you’re using Ubuntu, Déjà Dup is the default backup program. I use it myself, dead easy to use.

It has an gui if you aren’t that well versed with the terminal.

5

my solution is to make BTRFS snapshots and export the resulting file. as well as rsync the subvolume just to be redundant.