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Cloning drive to bigger SSD using timeshift (self.linuxquestions)

submitted 4 weeks ago by WeebLife to c/[email protected]

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I'm wanting to move my current Linux mint install to a bigger drive that's NVME. I tried clone zilla and did the drive to drive oprion. But I'm unable to boot to the new drive. I read up on it and it seems like I didn't do the clone correctly. I was wondering, can I back up my current system with timeshift, then just do a normal install of Linux mint on the new drive, then use timeshift to restore my backed up system to the new SSD? Or should do I need to stay with clone zilla?

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[–] rtxn 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

It's probably much easier to just do a clean install, then manually install your applications. The only directory you should copy over is your home directory.

Don't use Timeshift for cloning. It's specifically meant to back up your system files and excludes several directories by default.

[–] WeebLife 1 points 4 weeks ago

Thanks for the reply. I figured timeshift wouldn't work that way but I thought I'd ask anyway.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Timeshift isn't really the right tool for the job, and i've had beef with clonezilla myself.

Using dd in a live environment is one of the most raw and powerful methods. Though, it doesn't have any of the fool-proofs of cloning tools, so it's not really recommended if you're not comfortable with the terminal.

dd (or dcfldd for better dd, or ddrescue for damaged disks) is how I personally do my clones and full disk backups. Few tools beat the speed and control.