Timeshift on 19.3 to use in Linux 21.2?

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A  My Bad  blunder upgrading.

Using Linux 19.3 and enjoyed it until no more support as of this April so wanted to upgrade to the latest. Instead of making hops to 21.2, I’d just jump into a fresh install. All went well…until I discovered I had forgot to backup my /home files using the backup tool. Photos, Docs, Music, all gone!

But…I had a Timeshift USB stick I made a week or so before this upgrade. So my question is: Could it be possible that my /Home folder is on 19.3 Timeshift and I might be able to use it without messing anything up on my new install by restoring it on Linux 21.2 ?  I did save a couple of .doc’s on a Seagate SSD portable but that’s about it. /Home folder is empty.  This too shall pass

Thanks to all !

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Here’s a good tutorial (IMHO) about Timeshift – how it works and how to use it:

https://itsfoss.com/backup-restore-linux-timeshift/

The default setting is for Timeshift to backup system files, but not user files. In other words Timeshift is primarily intended to get your system back up and running but without the files you created (documents, pictures, etc). If you specifically told Timeshift to include certain files in a snapshot, you should be able to find those, but otherwise you might be out of luck.

Maybe one of the Linux gurus here will have an idea to help.

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601Dave

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Unless you set up timeshift to backup Home (not recommended), that directory won’t be backed up. If you’re using a Ubuntu derivative like Mint, this link might be useful:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

I’ve had some success using Testdisk, but you may want to go to your distro’s support forum for suggestions. In any case, ALWAYS do a backup copy of important files on separate media (I use two for redundancy) on a regular basis…and especially for any system major upgrades (Windows, Linux,  Mac). Things can go wrong (power outages, SSD failures, etc.)

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601Dave

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Thanks Johnf, DrBonzo !

I sorta figured that the Timeshift would have If I programmed it to. But I had already did use the Backup Tool on one of my many USB sticks, then spent way too much time using one for this and another one for that (.iso files) I think – no, I DID – wipe the one with my home folder. Oh well…

Live n Learn

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DrBonzo

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Sorry the news was not better… but FYI, you can browse the Timeshift snapshots. They’re not compressed or in any strange format… just navigate to the place where you stored the snapshots and open the folder ‘snapshots’, and inside you will find all of them by date. You can see for sure what is saved in there, and if you find something, you can just copy it anywhere you wish. Unfortunately, as the others have already noted, if you didn’t set Timeshift to include your home folder in the snapshot, it’s not going to be there.

 

 

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