I’ve found that the easiest and most effective way to backup is with an rsync cron job. It’s super easy to setup (I had no prior experience with either rsync or cron and it took me 10 minutes) and to configure. The only drawback is that it doesn’t create differential backups, but the full task takes less than a minute every day so I don’t consider that a problem. But do note that I only backup my home folder, not the full system.
For reference, this is the full line I use: sync -rau --delete --exclude-from=‘/home/<myusername>/.rsync-exclude’ /home/<myusername> /mnt/Data/Safety/rsync-myhome
“.rsync-exclude” is a file that lists all files and directories I don’t want to backup, such as temp or cache folders.
(Edit: two stupid errors.)
Wow, there is so much misinformation in this thread… I’m not going to include references for the following statements, but just as a couple of pointers for further research:
I’m not blaming anyone here: it is very hard to keep up with new research at the moment. Many things people thought were true even one or two years ago might quickly be superseded by current findings. But please don’t just quote things from memory when trying to correct statements.
Incidentally, the first rage quit did have something to do with Pong: There is a fantastic video of Ralph Baer, the creator of the Brown Box and therefore the spiritual predecessor to Pong, rage quitting in 1969 at a demonstration he had organised himself.