I am currently using EndeavourOS for my laptop. Is there a backup solution that is easy to use, and can be run from the EndeavourOS install media without internet? (RSync is included, but no other backup tools are included, to my knowledge.) I don’t want to use another ISO due to space constraints on my USB.
Timeshift for system files, Backintime for user data.
Neither of those are backup tools. They’re snapshotting tools.
Snapshots are incremental backups.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Synchronization_and_backup_programs#Incremental_backups
They are often incremental but they’re still not a backup.
They are local restore points. That’s better than nothing at all as a local copy can protect against a very limited kind of data hazard and quite handy indeed but not a backup. A backup is always an independent copy.
If your entire machine was to blow up, a backup must be able to retain your data. A copy on the same disks will not.
Now I get your point, sorry. You can use both Timeshift and BackInTime as snapshot tools, but also configure them to create snapshots on a different drive, making it an actual backup.
I for example use Timeshift in Rsync mode for that reason even though I’m also using Btrfs, which Timeshift supports, but only for non-backup snapshots.
Sorry for the confusion, I guess when suggesting both those tools one always has to specify that you need to save snapshots on a secondary drive for it to be a backup.
I tried Backintime and Timeshift recently.
In Backintime I added the dirs I wanted to backup and where to make the backups, pressed “run” and it said there’s nothing to do. Uninstalled. Later on I found out it had added stuff to my crontab even though I never asked it for a recurring schedule.
Timeshift started by asking for the root password right off the bat. Uninstalled. Like, I know it will want root access eventually but at least buy me dinner first. How do I know what a program I’ve never used before wants to do to my system?