My SSD has Died and No Backups.

I did forget to mention one thing...I won't recommend Rescuezilla as I've had nothing but trouble with it twice...a few months ago and today.

When you install the ISO to a Flash Drive with Etcher...it doesn't show on the Desktop...go to Computer you see this...
View attachment 20198
It won't open either.
So I copied the ISO in to Ventoy...created a Folder on my Portable SSD and booted to Ventoy then Rescuezilla. Started creating an image of my system...took about 50 mins...when it got to the end I got a message saying...Failed to output checksum file info-id-txt...what ever the hell that is. View attachment 20201
So I tried to delete the image Folder and got this...
View attachment 20200
I couldn't run the verify tool either...couldn't delete the bloody thing and was 120GB...had to open as Root and delete it from there...why this happened who knows but I'll never use it again...if you want to use this do so at your own risk. View attachment 20202
I'd never use clonezilla either or anything ending in zilla just to be safe. View attachment 20203

I strongly suspect the only thing that can cure / combat any *zilla problems would be Godzilla. Just sayin'. ;)
 


I was thinking the other day...what would happen if my 500GB SSD died and I was stupid enough not to have a backup. Could I remember what I had and how long would it take to Re-Install everything. View attachment 20176

I'm not talking about a few System files but a full Backup of everything on the Drive...at the moment mine is 158GB.
This is what I would have to do...
Reinstall Distro
Customise System and Settings...Install all Updates
Install all software...try to remember what software I had and Optimise SSD
Install all browsers...add-ons and websites that I can remember.
Install...wine... Re-Install VMs...change DNS
Install Printer and Scanner...download and install drivers
Run Driver Manager ...Enable Firewall
Setup Timeshift on External HDD and create a snapshot which should have been done in the first place.
Create image with both Foxclone and Redorescue on External SSD
All files...Pictures...Music...Documents etc are lost...have to start from scratch.
Install vpn or proxy again
Download new Wallpapers and change my Login Wallpaper.


What a list...could be more and would take days or a week to complete and be without a computer but how long would it take if I had a full backup of my System...lets see in this case to a new SSD of the same size how long it would take...

Timeshift snapshot from an External HDD...10 minutes
Foxclone and Redorescue from an External SSD about 45 minutes.

Of course Drive failure isn't the only thing that could destroy your System...a bad Terminal command...deleting something you shouldn't etc, so if you're a beginner and you don't have a decent Backup as above...you've only yourself to blame. View attachment 20177
What brand of SSD is this? I have used some "off brands" and found they fail easy and are often sub standard. This is why I only sell western digital, Seagate, Kingston, or crucial. Those brands stand behind the product. Many off brand use amazon as RMA and tell you to buy a new one and return the bad one to amazon letting them pay for the sub standard product.

I also would not rely on timeshift for backup because it has to be installed and system set up before you restore from disaster. I use "REDO" for images. timeshift is great if you make a mistake you want to undo or lose files but when the entire drive is gone, timeshift is a PITA to restore compared to using REDO and just saying restore to a new blank drive. But some people enjoy doing things the hard way.
 
The Rescuezilla problem has been solved.
1717132433626.gif


It wasn't the External Drives or Flash Drives...it was Rescuezilla itself.

It seems Rescuezilla doesn't like it's backups being on the same External HDD or SSD as other backups...like Foxclone and or Redorescue. If you do this it chucks a fit and you can't create a backup...all you get are errors but if you use an empty External Drive it works...
1717131296475.png

1717131328494.png


No where in the instructions does it say what I've found...so I won't use this software again.
1717132099990.gif


I can understand Timeshift needs to be on it's own External Drive because the Drive or a created partition must be EXT4 but shouldn't be the case with Rescuezilla. You can have Foxclone and Redorescue images on the same External SSD or HDD and restore with no problem...as it should be.
1717132536617.gif


I did restore the Rescuezilla image I created shown above...so it does work but I don't feel comfortable with it...so it's Timeshift...Foxclone and Redorescue for me.
1717132392502.gif
 
I was thinking the other day...what would happen if my 500GB SSD died and I was stupid enough not to have a backup. Could I remember what I had and how long would it take to Re-Install everything. View attachment 20176

I'm not talking about a few System files but a full Backup of everything on the Drive...at the moment mine is 158GB.
This is what I would have to do...
Reinstall Distro
Customise System and Settings...Install all Updates
Install all software...try to remember what software I had and Optimise SSD
Install all browsers...add-ons and websites that I can remember.
Install...wine... Re-Install VMs...change DNS
Install Printer and Scanner...download and install drivers
Run Driver Manager ...Enable Firewall
Setup Timeshift on External HDD and create a snapshot which should have been done in the first place.
Create image with both Foxclone and Redorescue on External SSD
All files...Pictures...Music...Documents etc are lost...have to start from scratch.
Install vpn or proxy again
Download new Wallpapers and change my Login Wallpaper.


What a list...could be more and would take days or a week to complete and be without a computer but how long would it take if I had a full backup of my System...lets see in this case to a new SSD of the same size how long it would take...

Timeshift snapshot from an External HDD...10 minutes
Foxclone and Redorescue from an External SSD about 45 minutes.

Of course Drive failure isn't the only thing that could destroy your System...a bad Terminal command...deleting something you shouldn't etc, so if you're a beginner and you don't have a decent Backup as above...you've only yourself to blame. View attachment 20177

I still have this project (many actually) to re-install my PC in about 1 hour ... and it is a Windows. I mean, re-inatll the OS and all my applications. So, for Linux, that should go faster - I guess.
They key to it is practice, and scripting. Doesn't matter if Linux or Windows.
And, a regular backup doesn't hurt.
 
In case anyone asks...I did run the checksum on the rescuezilla ISO...
1717197216984.png


I changed to a Lexar Flash Drive and installed rescuezilla...it takes up space on the Drive but doesn't show any files which is very strange...
1717197442383.png


I then tried to run it in my win 7 VM...said you must format the Drive and gave my an error...that's it for me with this software.
1717197907410.gif
 
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I am new to Linux but this is a good starting overview what is ahead of me LOL. I recently reinstalled Win10, so I have a brief idea what needs to be done, but I guess for Linux it will be somewhat different, more things to do. I am very security concerned, so I might be a frequent here, asking questions. Haven't even decided for a distro yet.
 
Welcome to the Forum.
1718012325383.gif


I haven't used windoze for 9 years and I don't miss it one bit...Linux isn't windoze and there's some learning to be done but it's not hard and you'll get the hang of it in no time.
1718012706106.gif
 
I generally make a cold storage backup on a periodic basis to protect against such loss. I have already had to use it once when Linux screwed up my /backup partition and lost several gigabytes of data. It took hours to recover instead of weeks. I had just backed everything up like the day before so it was easy to fix. It can take about eight hours or so to make the backup. I created a bash script to make sure the cold storage file system was mounted with the correct options, since I really can't trust the mount command to get it right with /etc/fstab alone. Then I also have a nice bash script that handles the whole backup process and provides the exit codes for each of those copy operations, along with other statistics. I use a separate USB hard drive to hold these backups and found that it can store about four such full backups and have a little room left over.

I have read reviews that suggest that SSDs wear out much faster than traditional hard drives which is why I refuse to use one. In one such review the customer complained that their SSD wore out in about a month or so. A decent hard drive should last for years if you take good care of it. SD cards wear out with use too. Writing to them slowing damages them.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
I have read reviews that suggest that SSDs wear out much faster than traditional hard drives which is why I refuse to use one. In one such review the customer complained that their SSD wore out in about a month or so. A decent hard drive should last for years if you take good care of it. SD cards wear out with use too. Writing to them slowing damages them.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
I have read that formatting for NFTS wears them faster than for Fat32 or ExFAT. Some metadata in the background for the NFTS. most of my stuff is formatted to NFTS, that before I found out about this. Reconsidering my life choices :D And that Fat32 has a limit to 4GB per file, so the exFAT looks like probably the best option for just general backup of data.
 
I use timeshift for my backup on linux,
 

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