How To Restore A Timeshift Snapshot From An External HDD.

[bob466]

I'm using a 2TB External HDD Formatted to EXT4 and Timeshift set to include all files with snapshots installed and Mint Cinnamon 21.1 Live Session.

With the External HDD plugged in...Boot to the Live Session...open Timeshift click Finish...go to Settings...Location and select your External HDD...

Click OK...select your snapshot...click Restore...

Click Next...when you get to Confirm Actions click Next and Next again...snapshot will be restored.
You'll see Restore Completed...click Close and restart...remove Flash Drive press Enter...wait for Login Screen and enter your password...that's it.

You can put the snapshot back on the same Drive or another of the same size...you can do a clean install and put the snapshot on it.
The snapshot I restored includes everything on the SSD was 158GB and from the time I clicked Restore to finish took 10 minutes.

Warning...If you plug in your external HDD or SSD to the Desktop and click Restore...you'll end up with a black screen and it won't Boot because I tried it. Timeshift isn't my only backup solution...I have Foxclone and Redorescue as well...hope this helps someone.

 

[wizardfromoz]

You can actually restore the snapshot to a smaller sized drive, provided that you have a partition there that is a couple of GiB larger than the space consumed by the snapshot.

There is no compression with Timeshift, it is 1:1, and its operation is not like Clonezilla, where it does a low level formatting of all blocks, used or unused.

Simply put, if my Linux Mint is on a 2TB drive, in a partition of 50 GB where only 20 GB is consumed, its snapshot will be the same 20 GB (if Home is included), and so I can restore the snapshot to a drive of only, say 500 GB, into a partition of only 30 GB (of course you should allow for growth over time).

Cheers

Wiz

 

[bob466]

Thanks for that wizard, very handy to know.

If someone said it only takes 10 mins to restore the snapshot that's 158GB I'd say that's BS because both Foxclone and Redorescue take over 45 mins but it's true.

Compression doesn't matter as it's on a 2TB HDD and I can delete older snapshots when ever.