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I've been using Ubuntu for quite a while now, but so far I've never really had the need for backup tools like Deja Dup, since I've been using my PC mainly for doing some university work (writing papers, glossaries and whatnot). However, my career as a freelancer will take a big turn in the near future, in that I'm going to get a VAT number and all this good stuff (wish me luck c: ) and this means that I'm going to keep a lot of important information on my computer, like Translation Memories, Glossaries, and so on. These files simply can't be lost if something goes awry: it takes years to get a proper glossary up and running and data lost is simply unacceptable, in this case. Thus, I'm going to build a new PC soon which will sport quite a big hard drive (I was thinking about a 1 TB drive, possibly split in a small partition just for the OS and a bigger one for data storage). I already have an older 80 gb SATA I drive from an old PC I had used until its motherboard fried and was thinking about using that as a backup device. Problem is, what will happen if the size of the backup exceeds the total space of the backup drive? Will Deja Dup just refuse to backup my system?

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    Not sure what you are asking. Can you clarify the question, and separate it from you personal achievements (congrats) into its own paragraph, if possible. Deja Dup will do something like that, and the minimum size will depend on the amount of data. Oct 16, 2014 at 6:40

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First of all: Do not use the old hdd as a backup medium.

Reasoning

  • Mainboard fried -> HDD possibly not 100% OK (depends on the reason the mainboard gave up)
  • HDD already has some hours on the counter and is likely to fail sooner than later
  • 1TB of data will not even fit once on a 80GiB HDD, let alone multiple generations of backups or incrementals

Other (important) information

In a case where backup is this important, meaning that your income depends on it, you need to do at least 2 things:

  • Get some off-machine backup. Backing up to a HDD in the same computer is not a good idea. If lightning strikes then both disks are likely to take damage and you would be unable to recover. Backup to a dedicated backup PC that is only active when the backup actually runs. Protect both machines with a surge protector or UPS.
  • Get some off-site backup. Backing up to a medium that's kept in your house is a bad idea. In case of a fire, your backup will burn together with the main data. You would be unable to recover. Google "offsite backup" to find solutions.
  • Setup a backup solution in a way that it runs fully automated. Manual backup runs tend to not be made ("I'll do it tomorrow syndrome").

Sidenotes

  • To find a backup solution that suits your needs, you also need to consider the time it takes to recover to a fully working system after a crash. If you need very fast restore, solutions that create images are likely to be better suited for you, but they have the downside that image backups are very large and space-inefficient.

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