Backups and Data Storage on Linux
Written on Mar 9, 2026
Several backup utilities exist for Linux distributions. I'm sure there's similar software for Windows, but I don't use Windows enough to care. Although there are automated applications to back things up on a schedule, I don't use them. I don't use "Timeshift" even though it's highly recommended. I keep everything important stored on portable drives and cloud services.
Image Backups
The only time I'll create full-system image backups is when I'm getting ready to upgrade my system or do something stupid. I learned this lesson years ago, so I leave nothing to chance. I always keep Rescuezilla on a Ventoy USB stick, along with operating system images.
I have several portable drives, with the largest being a five-terabyte hard drive. I usually keep two or three image backups for every computer I own on it, with plenty of room to spare.
File Backups
I use two utilities to create file backups, Rsync and Rclone. Rsync is usually included with Linux distributions while Rclone has to be installed. The repository version is a few versions behind the website version. To easily install Rclone in the terminal:
curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash
Rsync is for synchronizing files from location to location, whether those locations are on separate drives or not. Rclone is for synchronizing files on a local drive with a cloud drive.
Use "rclone config" in the terminal to add remotes. Remotes are simply cloud drive services. I use the crontab to backup my document directories, including the files for this website:
@hourly rclone sync --delete-excluded /home/username/Blog/ remotename: @hourly rclone sync --delete-excluded /home/username/Documents/ remotename:
Use a real username, of course, and always end the remote name with a full colon. The only drawback is the cloud space available. You may not get enough for your needs on a free tier.
There are some things, like videos, that I always keep on a portable drive. When my phone gets low on space, or when I get a new phone, I dump all the photos on a portable drive.
I used to synchronize my music and picture directories hourly, but now I just keep them on portable drives (I tend to listen to music on my phone nowadays). The only thing I keep up-to-date on my system drive are documents. If I need something to be permanent, I'll just drop it in my document directory. I'm using less than 2.5 gigabytes out of 15 on Google Drive, which includes Gmail and Google Photos.
If I want to synchronize a system directory to a portable drive directory, I'll just do it manually, like this:
rsync -avzh /home/username/Music/ /media/username/5a659a1f-1b7a-4402-bffe-2c74af75ebc7/Music --delete
Again, use a real username.
The Importance of Backups and Data Storage
Since I store most of my data on portable drives, I'm concerned about reliability. I can't afford to lose some of it, so I usually clone one drive to another as yet another backup. It doesn't matter to me if I have multiple copies on multiple drives. Those drives cost me a mere $25 USD each when I bought them.
If I have to reinstall my system, regardless of the reason, I can set aside a day for it and when I'm done, I can simply copy back what I need from Google Drive or from one of the portable drives.
Image by Jan Van Bizar from Pixabay