I have read multiple ways to back up an existing Linux machine and restore it in full on a new machine. What is the best fool proof method and tool.
You have the option of a full system back up which can be achieved with Clonezilla or you can use a file level back up with Deja Dup. You could also do file level backup with rsync but it is command line based unlike Deja Dup which is GUI. There is nothing like fool proof when it comes to backing up a Linux system but the options I mentioned are to a large extent reliable.
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Welcome to the forum, @troutseeker! Yes Clonezilla stands out as a foolproof tool. It allows you to clone your entire disk or specific partitions and restore them to a new machine efficiently.
It’s especially useful if you’re moving to hardware with similar or compatible configurations. Remember to check the new machine’s hardware compatibility and adjust any necessary configurations post-restore.
Below is a combined list of every tool or method mentioned in this thread.
Linux Backup & Restore Tools
Clonezilla — One of the most recommended tools for disk cloning and full system backups. Excellent when moving to similar hardware. UI can be clunky, but it’s reliable. Supports image creation and restoration from ISO.
Rescuezilla — A GUI frontend for Clonezilla that simplifies the process. Supports cloning and restoring full drives with multiple partitions. Useful when dealing with mixed OS environments.
TimeShift — Great for system snapshots and rollbacks. Not a full backup tool, but works well to restore to previous states. Watch out for UUID mismatches on new machines.
Deja Dup — User-friendly GUI backup utility that supports incremental backups, encryption, and cloud storage. Ideal for personal files and scheduled backups.
rsync — Command-line powerhouse for incremental file-level backups. Can be scripted for automation and paired with cron jobs.
dd — Performs raw disk cloning. Bit-for-bit backups. High risk if misused, but powerful when handled carefully.
FSArchiver — Backup tool that allows restoring to partitions of different sizes. Stores data in compressed archives. Works well for full file system backups.
G4L (Ghost for Linux) — Imaging tool with support for multiple file systems and network backups. Good alternative to Clonezilla.
UrBackup — Client-server backup tool for Linux and Windows. Supports image and file backups, good for networked environments.
Rclone — Cloud sync tool that can mount or mirror cloud storage providers like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive. Combine with rsync for persistent backups.
google-drive-ocamlfuse — FUSE-based Google Drive mount for Linux. Useful for those using GNOME or Thunar with mounted cloud storage.
Back In Time — Simple backup tool with rsync backend. Supports snapshot-style backups and scheduling.
BorgBackup — Efficient deduplicating and compressing backup tool. Especially strong for incremental backups.
Vorta — GUI frontend for Borg, making setup and scheduling easier.
Incus — Successor to LXD. Allows backup/export of full container or VM setups. Great for reproducible environments.
Tips:
- Use
blkidto get the new UUID and update/etc/fstabafter restoring with TimeShift or other file-based tools. - Store backups off-site or encrypted to avoid data loss or theft.
- For VM backups, direct file copies (e.g.,
.qcow2,.vdi) can be efficient if done periodically.
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Greatly appreciated !
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I’m a dd fan too, but I vaguely recall it didn’t handle devices/drivers well. Is my memory faulty? The memory has something to do with configuration or bits (as in what ls would show).
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Deja Dup looks well-designed, but I wonder whether it’s possible with an incremental backup tool like this to remove old backups containing large files that have since been discarded, to keep the backup size in check.
@AnthonyRKing @hydn i would like to introduce timeshift timeshift - Fedora Packages which is much better and highly configurable. You can take complete restore and backup of your drive and also restore it to a particular date. You can set monthly or weekly backups and it is the same as snapshot of the system in other operating system. This comes very handy and can help you restore system at the same state so that you dont have to configure and install a system again and again.
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Indeed. Thanks for adding that! There’s also:
I’ve been using rclone to mount my Google Drive cloud storage to the file system and sync in real-time.
Works great because I can access files via thunar:
Edit:
I’ve switched away from i3wm and gone to a full DE. The nice thing about Gnome is the built-in cloud sync options with Google, Microsoft 365, NextCloud, etc.
Gnome 47 - Nautilus screenshot (aka Gnome Files)
Both the first and 2nd screenshot work well. The i3wm method (rclone) uses rsync to keep a copy stored permanently.
Also checkout: google-drive-ocamlfuse | FUSE filesystem over Google Drive
I wish rclone will better work with ProtonDrive. I missing this easy access since i switch from google and dropbox to proton
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Like @anon19981772 , I regularly use TimeShift for retaining system images for backup purposes. It should work just as well for applying a backup to a new system. An alternative Ioccasionally use is the disk cloning capability in Rescuezilla which is based upon CloneZilla. It’s very helpful when the drive contains multiple partitions.
UPDATE: I recommend using RescueZilla’s clone ability for this as it will create an entire image of the drive which can then be applied to the drive on the new system. Note that drivers and such may need to be altered if the hardware is different but that would be true pretty much regardless of how you apply an image from one computer to another.
A caveat with trying to use TimeShift for this: After boot, it will likely not bring up the desktop but will land at a command login prompt with a read-only file-system. This is because the mount point in fstab will be different for the drive. Use the command blkid to find the UUID of the new drive, then sudo mount -o remount,rw /dev/<drive> to mount the drive rw and then edit /etc/fstab and enter that correct UUID. Should be good then and a reboot will confirm.
NOTE: I just encountered this issue in trying to restore a TimeShift backup to a drive which had been resized, thus giving it a new UUID. 
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For my backups I’m using Timeshift for system snapshot and the utility Backup (Dejadup) for some important files with incremental backup option.
For my virtual machine (a single virtual hard drive file, almost 120gb), I prefer manual copy.
For my Windows installation (I use it for work in a separate notebook), I’m using Aomei Professional, I bought the license key and everything is going good.
I’m backupping my pc almost every 10 -15 days on an external hard drive, which is in my house holded in a locked box.
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I would say - for servers for example - just use incus (ex lxd) based containers. you can export the whole setup very simple and very efficient from one machine to another machine running incus.
One or more containers or vms, no problem.
If you need a good backup solution, just use borg backup and you’re good to go.
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Hey man, I did not know about Incus … yesterday evening I watch a video tutorial about, but for what I understood it’s so closer to dockers, it offer some containers management…
For my needings I think I don’t need to use Incus, are there some advantages about using it instead some VM or Dockers?
Last but not least I often heard about the software borg but I never went deep into it. The thing I’m looking for is improving my virtual machines backups: I need to backup more then 120gb like once every month, and I’m looking for something incremental. With the option Rsync or Dejadup for create an incremental backup of my virtual machine is taking about 50 minutes / 1 hour, that’s not the most efficent way.
What options do I have with borg?
Edit 2 days after:
I tried installing Borg as backup solution, for my use case it’s working very wells. Some numbers:
As I said I need to backup almost 120gb twice at month, I tried to backup that files with Borg and I notice that first backup was during like 25 mins, I tried do another 3-4 incremental backups and they took almost 7-8 minutes each.
That’s very acceptable.
NOTE I’m using Borg with Vorta, it’s a GUI made specifically for Borg. Very simple very intuitive. Thanks for this tip, I think that would become my final thought about VMs backup.
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I’ve done full system backups/restores with Clonezilla in the past. The UI is extremely clunky and the documentation does not explain the procedure well. It is great at what it does, but it really needs a UI overhaul.
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Hi @delta1071 welcome to the community! 
I agree with you. I used it about a year ago. And the UI wasn’t clear. I really had to double check a lot of actions because it didn’t give me the confidence. I thought maybe it was just me being paranoid. But sounds like here is indeed room for improvement.
I agree with you @delta1071. Clonezilla can do a lot but is sometimes very cumbersome.
I think at least some people know that Clonezilla offers the possibility to create an ISO from a created image with which you can automatically (or partially) restore a system.
At my old employer I used this to easily restore Linux and Windows images and made the ISOs available to customers.
Privately I use Back in Time and rsync for my backups 
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Hei @delta1071 welcome to the community 
I heard alot about Clonezilla, I’m not so expert about this software but I can say you something:
I recently tried to recover a timeshift backup from an external hard drive. It went succesfull but after restored I had alot of broken modules, because timeshift will backup only the files and folders from filesystem but not all the Kernel backend.
In my opinion Clonezilla might be a little cumbersome and tricky to learn, but if learnt well and done with the correct proceure it might be a very powerful instrument, comparable to commercial software such as Macrium Reflect or Aomei in Windows. These are easier instruments but the idea is the same: do a full partition image instead only copy just the files and folders from hard drive.
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Timeshift only takes snapshots and is not really suitable for complete backups. Rather as a backup just in case.