Hello all.  

I have Timeshift setup for five weekly plus the original backup, to an internal HDD, while the system runs off an nVME SSD, and that is working fine.

If the SYSTEM SSD dies, I can always boot from a live USB, and use the timeshift backups on the HDD to restore the system.  But I am CONSIDERING using a good quality USB flash-drive for the timesh*t alone, but now I am confusing myself as to which would be better.

HDD's are pretty reliable - even OLD ones - provided you don't stress them out too much with continious writing.  Reading always seems very reliable over time.....BUT.....

HDD's DO fail.  EVERYTHING fails.

Would the members recommend that Timeshift saves it's backups to an internal HDD over a USB3 flash-drive of good quality?

Trying to decide if I should change from what I have, or stay pat.  

---

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

Prayer sometimes helps when it comes to backups.

;)

I would use timeshift only for the system. System is not that important to me, I can always rebuild it, a backup saves time..

For the data I would use classic tools like "mintbackup".
Incremental backups are nice and the most convenient tool I found is:
which usesd rsync as backend.

I would use multiple external SSD's for Data if I would want to do it seriously..

edit
Edited 2026-01-16 18:39 by dddns

There are all kinds of ways to do backups. It depends on what is important and how fast you want to recover. I have tried several methods over the years.

Currently my AMD Fedora desktop is setup this way.

1. 4T SSD for OS and home drive

2. 4T WD RED SATA which is a mirror of the SSD but left unplugged.

3. 18T SATA partitioned for various types of files (media, software, library, old work files, VMs, a mirror of home drive from the SSD, and 2T for Timeshift backups).

4. 18T mirror of the other 18T but left unplugged.

The SSD is fast and has the most used files. The WD RED SATA is slow but is extremely reliable. If something happens to the SSD, I can just swap drive connectors, boot off the SATA and pick the latest Timeshift backup to restore the system to the latest OS. I can then either figure out how to recover the SSD, usually just a timeshift backup, or have the option to clone the SATA to the SSD and swap it back. The SATA is left unpowered normally as it just uses power and accumulates run time.

The 18T has a backup of the home files and the Timeshift files. Timeshift is usually 5 daily backups, a weekly backup and a monthly backup. Since this drive is active, I keep a mirror of the home/user files in case something happens to the SSD files. Timeshift files are kept off the SSD drive for obvious reasons.  

The second 18T drive is powered up and rsynced to the first 18T drive a couple of times a month. This is in case the first 18T drive fails. None of the drives have failed in the last few years but I messed up some OS files a couple of times while experimenting with some custom drivers. Going back one Timeshift backup fixed the SSD.

You may call me paranoid but I have a second desktop system based on an older 6-core I7 that has the same SSD and WD drive pair and a pair of 20T SATAs all setup the same as my primary desktop. I power up once a week to do an OS update and incremental backup. The desktops are on a common KVM switch. I have the option if I have a problem with the AMD system (blown power supply or motherboard), I can just switch to the backup I7 desktop which is never more than one week behind the main system and uses the same display, keyboard and mouse. The systems are so similar that I use a different background so I don't get them mixed up. Can always pull the 18T drive out and put it in the backup desktop to get an up to date copy of files if I need them.

I have used a NAS backup system in the past but decided to use two almost identical desktops, on a KVM, each with redundant drives and Timeshift backups. This configuration gives me eight backups of my most important files (two are daily or hourly current and six are within one week) and four backups of everything else. I have also used 50G bluray backups in the past for long term storage but they are just too small today to be practical. I have some things backed up on big microSDs but I don't really trust them for long term reliability and by design, they often get slower as you write to them. I have not warmed up to using USB thumb drives as backups, partially for size and write speed. My daily Timeshift backups are about 50G so saving eight to 12 backups on a USB thumb drive requires a lot of space and I am not confident on long term reliability.

Something new I have been using for my laptop is a pair of 5T USB-C attached SSDs. I got one while traveling for my laptop to store videos and photos. They are reasonably fast and very small. I backup my laptop to my desktop while home but the little SSDs are great for traveling backups or for storing terabytes of video from long vacations. One of these as a backup for your desktop would be great. Store your Timeshift backups on it as well.

Disk drives are pretty cheap these days so having a bunch of big or SSD drives is not that unusual. The little 5T drives with USB-C connections are much faster and really cheap.

Thanks for the advice.  I will have a bit more of a think about it.

I still use my standard "Triple-redundant" backup method, when it comes to any of my data files themselves(local, external offsite backup drive, and the cloud) if they are important, so I am only considering the SYSTEM for this stuff.

The idea is to get the system up and running again ASAP, rather then having to reinstall EVERYTHING from the beginning all over again - which is still a last-gasp process I can do if push comes to shove.