I'm new to Manjaro and very impressed with what I've seen so far. At this point I seem to break things easily do to my lack of experience. I'd like to find a way to do a full system backup. I've tried a variety of software (grsync, luckybackup, back in time etc) to do backups, but none seem to have the option to backup to an external drive. Seem kind of pointless to me. I have to be doing something wrong.
Could someone please help me?
Thanks.
I'm using customized rsync script, based on this:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/full_system_backup_with_rsync
In Grsync you can "in the same way" setup destination folder - for example localted on external HDD.
PS
Try also CloneZilla - in this case their livecd. Read tutorials, etc.,etc ;]
It is a bootable disc or USB flash drive but try Clonezilla. It will help you to image the drive whre your Manjaro is and restore it as well.
Thanks for the reply. My problem first and foremost, no matter what solution I've tried, I have no destination to select.
So it's not seeing the external drive? What kernel version are you using?
I can now see my drive, but I can't write to it. No idea what kernel or how to find out.
My solution for my needs is Redo Backup.
Allows me to backup my Win7 and Linux partitions to external usb drives.
Easier drop dead simple for backup and restore. Includes additional tools including gparted.
A 200mb bootable iso that requires you to boot into live cd.
Uses the same under the hood engine as Clonezilla. But with simpler Gui method.
Found Clonezilla confusing and for me prone to make mistakes with wrong keystrokes.
Don't get me wrong Clonezilla is a powerfully Great since "Sliced Bread" Tool.
Just don't need all that power and options for doing simple partitions backups.
Open a terminal and type "uname -r", that'll show you the information.
My kernel is: 4.4.11-1-MANJARO
How is it formatted? Linux, NTFS,...? And could it have been created as root, but you are trying to access it as a regular user?
I wonder if upgrading the kernel to 4.5.5 would help. I needed to update it to be able to see and use my USB thumb drive. That's pretty easy with the Manjaro tool to do so.
I installed the suggested kernel. Rebooted. It's installed, but the system isn't using it.
Clonezilla is the way to go for what you want.
This is my 5-step workflow for backing up my Manjaro system using Clonezilla:
I make a backup of my system before every cycle of Manjaro updates (roughly once every 2 weeks) - and before fiddling with my system in a way that could break it.
The way I make these backups is as follows.
1. Boot the Manjaro live installation media (from a usb stick for example)
2. Install Clonezilla via Manjaro's package manager. (use the Manjaro repositories just to be safe, not the AUR)
3. Attach an external backup drive to the PC
4. Open a terminal window and type: sudo clonezilla
5. Run through the steps in Clonezilla to make a backup image of your Manjaro installation (source drive). And make sure you store the Clonezilla backup image in a folder located in the root of the external drive. (the latter is important or it won't work)
That's it. To recover the image, do the same, but instead run the procedure in Clonezilla to copy the backup image to your main drive. (via expert mode)
You will find that after a restore, Grub will be broken and needs to be reinstalled and updated. You can use my tutorial to do exactly that:
Some backup programs need your destination disk/drive to either be mounted or unmounted to be able to detect or select it. This can differ per backup utility.
If I remember correctly, Clonezilla only lists destination disks/drives that were initially unmounted before Clonezilla was started.
As said, this can differ per backup utility.
You can look up online on how to mount or unmount a disk/drive in Linux. To see all your disks/drives regardless of whether they are mounted or unmounted, type the following command in a terminal:
lsblk
To then see which disks/drives of that list are mounted, type the following command:
df
This tutorial also might be of help to you:
When grub menu comes up choose ADVANCED and select the newest kernel. Then from now on system will use it.
By the way, here's how you mount and unmount disks/drives:
Mount a drive:
sudo mount /dev/sdX /mnt
Unmount a drive:
sudo umount /dev/sdX
What is mounting you might ask? Mounting is taking the file tree structure of a device and placing it into a directory. So in this case you place the contents of drive sdX into the directory /mnt.
That's it.
I use Timeshift which is a GUI program like system restore in Windows.
The one in Aur ? What Desktop are you using with it? I can't get it to run correctly in Plasma 5
How do you restore your Manjaro installation using Timeshift when your system breaks and doesn't even boot though?
With Clonezilla you boot into the live cd and restore your system from the backup image you made earlier. (which you stored on an external disk for example)
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