From: vallor@vallor.earth   
      
   At Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:22:56 +0100, occam  wrote:   
      
   > On 14/02/2026 00:08, Shimon wrote:   
   > > On 13/02/2026 13:14, occam wrote:   
   > >> I'm currently transitioning from Windows to Linux Mint (under dual   
   > >> boot). Before I abandon Win10 for good I want to be sure I am able do   
   > >> everything in LM that I normally do under Win10.   
   > >>   
   > >> Is there an LM way of backing up /synchronising my data files onto an   
   > >> external drive? My favourite Windows program is SyncBack, which allows   
   > >> the synching of the two drives (i.e. incremental backup) without the   
   > >> need for a full backup every time. It shows me which files are to be   
   > >> deleted, which are to be updated and which are new files to be   
   > >> transferred - displayed in an easy-to-follow screen.   
   > >>   
   > >> Thanks for any pointers.   
   > >>   
   > >>   
   > >   
   > > These tools are great if you want easy file or folder backups without   
   > > much setup:   
   > >   
   > > Déjà Dup Backups    
   > > A user-friendly GUI backup tool (often installed by default on GNOME   
   desktops). Supports scheduled backups, encryption, and cloud services (e.g.,   
   Google Drive).   
   > >   
   > > TimeShift    
   > > Creates system snapshots (like Windows System Restore). Ideal for   
   restoring your system after a bad update or change   
   > >   
   > > GNOME Backups    
   > > Simple graphical backup utility with scheduled backups and   
   > > incremental support.   
   > >   
   > > rsync    
   > >   
   > > The classic file-sync tool. Efficient and scriptable for custom backups,   
   network backups, and incremental copies.   
   > >   
   > >   
   > > rclone    
   > > Syncs and backs up to cloud storage providers (Google Drive, OneDrive, S3,   
   etc.).   
   > >   
   > >   
   >   
   > Wow! Thanks for the menu. I'll work my way down. (Deja Dup and rsync I   
   > have already seen mentioned above.)   
      
   Timeshift uses rsync on the backend (or btrfs snapshots, which I don't   
   use.)  It expects the backup media to be on the local machine, but I   
   use it to back up to an SanDisk Corp. Extreme Pro 55AF, which is   
   NVME over USB, 4TB.  I also have a cron job to back up the Extreme Pro   
   to the NAS periodically.  If I didn't have the Extreme Pro, I'd   
   use iSCSI with the NAS, which will appear as a local block device   
   on Linux (which means Timeshift will use it).   
      
   By default, Timeshift doesn't back up /home directories, but you   
   can configure it to do so.   
      
   It's a shame we can't convince the Timeshift maintainers to support   
   native backup to NFS...   
      
   I'm also using the Extreme Pro for Time machine backups from our   
   Mac Studio, which required setting up Samba on my workstation with   
   the "fruit" extensions...   
      
   --   
   -v System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 Mem: 258G   
      OS: Linux 6.19.0 D: Mint 22.3 DE: Xfce 4.18 (X11)   
      NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090Ti (24G) (590.48.01)   
      "I Have To Stop Now, My Fingers Are Getting Hoarse!"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)