MX Linux Forum

hi is there a good, fast, secure software that i can use to make an image of my MX-Linux System?

which one are you using and you are satisfy with that?

MX Snapshot is included on MX. Please read the manual.

very nice. can i with that make an backup and restore it?
i am thinking that the backup is possible to save it directly on a external hdd?
does it say before how many GB he needs?

sisqonrw wrote: Sat Dec 28, 2024 7:57 am very nice. can i with that make an backup and restore it?

It looks like the MX User Manual comes in several languages and has two sections on backup software and best practices ("4.8.1 Backup" and "6.6.4 Live Remaster (MX Snapshot and RemasterCC)", with links to YouTube tutorials, too).

You can even use the same iso on different machines. I have 2, a laptop & a minipc, & also use the same passwords just for simplicity's sake.

sisqonrw wrote: Sat Dec 28, 2024 7:57 am very nice. can i with that make an backup and restore it?
i am thinking that the backup is possible to save it directly on a external hdd?

Does that mean you want to backup by cloning your hdd?
Because that can be done directly, without creating a bootable *.iso file.

LuckyBackup, TimeShift, MX-Snapshot, rsync through the Terminal, dd through Terminal, 3rd party Cloud backup, and a myriad of other options in the standard Debian Repos.

It all depends on what exactly you want to backup. We've seen reports here of folk using MX-Snapshot to create an ISO image of their complete system as large as 700-800GB in size, and verified them to be a workable full-recovery solution.

Backup of the system:

1) I use MX-snapshot to create an iso file which I store safely in an MX live USB. I recently did a snapshot of my newer lappy's MX23 to install on my old ASUS laotop.
2) Once every few months I use GParted, while booted into another distro on my multiboot PC, to copy the MX [and any other distro's] partition to an external USB drive

Backup of my data, which is in a separate Data partition used by all my distros:
1) I use Luckupbackup [GUI for rsync] to backup the Data partition to another external USB drive
2) I also backup to my NAS drive

Timeshift is to me not really a true backup solution. It creates a Restore point snapshot(s) for your system, and if your system is borked after an update, you can revert your system to any of the Restore points reflected by the various Timeshift snapshots you have saved. I don't bother to use it for MX since Debian Stable is just super stable for me. I only use Timeshift for my Manjaro and Arch installs. But it's really up to you, and perhaps I don't have issues because I don't have Nvidia graphics which from what I see tends to get messed up after a kernel upgrade/install. Perhaps if I used Nvidia I would be using Timeshift on all my distros!

It's to be noted that my Data includes my customisation stuff [icons, themes, conkies, wallpaper, the UIP files, xfce panel backup files], which is why I'm not too concerned about not having Timeshift for most of my distros. If something is really messed up, I can either reinstall [last resort] and then redo the customisation, or most of the time I simply copy and paste back from my external USB drive the last working gparted backup of the distro in question. I don't have to run a subsequent sudo update-grub from the distro that controls grub [older backups may be running on different kernels] because I have a custom grub config file that looks not for specific kernels but simply the existing grub.cfg file on each distro's root partition.

Is the backup of MX-snapshot an image of your PC?

i have done it with mx-snapshot. I have a iso file now. for what is it? to make a bootable usb stick to restore the backup?

m_pav wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 3:49 am We've seen reports here of folk using MX-Snapshot to create an ISO image of their complete system as large as 700-800GB in size, and verified them to be a workable full-recovery solution.

That's pretty cool. MX-Snapshot is really one of the gems of the MX-Tools suite.

I'd recommend backing up data (especially in the 100s of GBs) separately from the system, though

sisqonrw wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 5:45 am Is the backup of MX-snapshot an image of your PC?

No MX Snapshot is not "an image" of your machine. It IS a a bootable, installable, type of backup, that backs up your system install, config and your home data.

HOWEVER... there can be an issue with size. If your ~/home contains hundreds or gigabytes like Mad Max indicated. (ie your ISO maybe so large that you cannot boot from it or it will not fit on your pocket drive, and you *may* have to exclude some data to make it all work.

Timeshift, does not backup user files by default - only the system. And as indicated by users in previous posts here, it is like a "system restore" and does not help restore data. ( unless you specifically set it to back up data - and that can be dangerous!)

To truly backup you need to use a real backup program. ( Lucky Backup, Back In Time ( my favorite) , etc. )

Think of it all like this: An MX Snapshot can get your machine back up and running pretty quickly / easily. And ... depending up on how much data you have in your ~/home folder, you probably will then need to restore from a backup.

If you want a TRUE image of your computer, then you need to use something like CloneZilla or Gparted to create an image of your system.

CharlesV wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:22 am

sisqonrw wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 5:45 am Is the backup of MX-snapshot an image of your PC?

No MX Snapshot is not "an image" of your machine. It IS a a bootable, installable, type of backup, that backs up your system install, config and your home data.
etc.

Note that the iso itself is not bootable. You use it to make a bootable USB stick with Live uSB Maker.

richb wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:52 am Note that the iso itself is not bootable. You use it to make a bootable USB stick with Live uSB Maker.

To clarify, the ISO itself is also bootable, i.e. you can for example insert it into a virtual optical drive and boot a virtual machine directly from it (use it as a live DVD), without making something else using that ISO first. (Size limitations of the medium apply, but there isn't anything inherently "not bootable" in an ISO made with MX-Snapshot, you can even make a genuine physical live DVD with it by just burning it onto a disc.)

Nokkaelaein wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 12:01 pm

richb wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:52 am Note that the iso itself is not bootable. You use it to make a bootable USB stick with Live uSB Maker.

To clarify, the ISO itself is also bootable, i.e. you can for example insert it into a virtual optical drive and boot a virtual machine directly from it (use it as a live DVD), without making something else using that ISO first.

Thanks for the clarification. I should have said not directly bootable without other steps.

is Redo Backup also like Clonezilla? do both an image of a partition?

sisqonrw wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2024 12:31 pm is Redo Backup also like Clonezilla? do both an image of a partition?

Yes, my understanding of Redo Backup (Redo Rescue) is that it is a bare metal restore.

use hirenboot or macrium reflect or clonezilla can do the job done .You can make a backup (clone of your data without free space and with good compression to save space )I use ventoy on a usb with all iso needed -in this case hirensboot hbcd-15.2-Restored-V1.1-dvd-proteus

I keep most files on a 'Data' partition and recently made a snapshot of my current system to add to another machine.

I created the snapshot, ensuring I didn't include a lot of unwanted files, then used Live USB Maker to create a bootable version of my operating system (with persistence too).

I then booted up a new machine and installed my current system, with personal settings, to the partition I'd prepared and away I go, effectively cloning a system, but in a simple way that adjusts to hardware and drives, rather than doing something more complicated, to achieve the same outcome.

This is also how I run my machines and I find it to be far superior for my use. This is also an amazingly good way to change to a new major version and although you have to adjust the configs, it is MUCH easier.

It's for when you either have a problem with the pc you don't know how to fix, or for cloning the OS to another pc. Clonezilla will only fix a problem with one pc. It will not install itself to another pc like snapshot will, unless of course it's all the exact same hardware, and even then, who actually owns 2 pc's that are exactly the same running the exact same OS with the exact same configuration? That's boring.

It is only worth making an image if you want to try something out on your PC. If the system then no longer works, you can make a backup image and the PC will be in its old state.

You obviously have not encountered the sudden nobootfromhellsnafu situation yet. Always nice to have a snapshot available that is reasonably up to date.

"If the system then (or ever) no longer works, you can make a backup image"
If the system no longer works the backup image should have already been created which is the entire point OF backing up in the 1st place. Has absolutely nothing to do with trying something out. Snapshots have fixed stuff my clonezilla backup would not. And the only reason I was able to make the snapshot was because the clonezilla backup was a hibernated state. I could boot but not reboot. Snaps fixed it. I love hibernating like a bear in winter.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 3:36 am You obviously have not encountered the sudden nobootfromhellsnafu situation yet. Always nice to have a snapshot available that is reasonably up to date.

This, 100%. Regardless of what one does on the computer, disastrous hardware failures can happen no matter what, and that's something only an up to date backup can save.

Different backup strategies aside, just a random shout-out to MX Snapshot again, from here, too. It's one of the top functional details I bring up early in discussions on "why MX Linux?", heh. The ability to setup one's personal OS environment (or some project's, or what ever the need), and then snapshot it exactly in this manner, live bootable and readily installable, this conveniently and reliably directly from a running system... is just massive. I've said it before, but it's such a brilliant tool more people should know about it all over