A. How to use same configs across different OS or when reinstalling OS ?
I use multiple disks(for multiple OS) on the same PC, and I want to backup data from same PC to same external disk from different.
Weird question - Everything I need except the configuration is in the repo ? If I loose access to current PC and just remember the password I will be able to restore ?
B. cross-OS usage
Should I create a symlink ?
C. Set up like this -
Forever full backups/DeDuplication - Option Delete changes older than x, Where only fullbackup is taken once then incrementals are merged. I have heard terms like, snapshot and CBT but understand it.
how to Save a “Ghost” for excluded data i.e. only Filename, Metadata and Folder-Structure.
“File Change Tracker” to see summary of what files are moved/deleted/renamed between to backups.
“File History” to see previous version of files.
D. How to check Backups
E. Is it worth learning CLI ?
Is Kopia Good enough ? What can I get extra after learning CLI, how much it would take ?
wierd question 2 - Is Kopia considered enterprise level ?
Yes. Only what you need to access your repo is its password.
No sure what you mean here.
Depends what you expect.
Full access to kopia features. GUI is a bit limited - but enough for 99% of people. How long it takes depends only on your capabilities. Some people grasp it after few minutes and others maybe never.
Could you explain what enterprise level is for you?
I exclude data from internet but I want to know that data is excluded when I restore so I want to save/restore filenames, directory structure, and metadata like file created , last edited.
I want to have 1 repo for 1 disk, snapshoting without any changes took 23min and estimate took 11min, how to backup selective parts of the disk without it creating another repo inside the current repo ?
When setting up repo - what does it mean when it says to replace username and computer name when restoring ?
When I backup from another OS will Kopia be able to handle has each OS has different directory scheme and different username and computer-name.
It is not possible:) You use some made up terminology making quite hard to understand what your real issue is. If you want to only backup subset of some data use exclusions - in other words you can tell kopia to skip some files and/or folders either specifying them explicitly or using patterns.
Snapshots are created with “username/computer name” as a marker to help you to remember what is what. You can use one repository to backup data from multiple sources. It can be always changed and is used for clarity only.
Yes. Kopia works perfectly fine with Windows/Linux/macOS.
If you have to restore multiple directories use kopia mount or CLI:
by “backup selective parts” i meant I don’t want to spend 23m waiting for it to snapshot the whole disk with no changes, so is there a way to have Kopia tell “look here I made changes backup those” and in doing so I should consider the part-backup part of the whole disk backup so to not create a create “another backup inside the same repo with duplicate data”
@kapitainsky Thanks alot for answer my questions, I was really confused about backup and still am a little.
1. How to have multi profile using .kopiaignore in kopia ?
Example I want to create “another profile” which backups “super important” to cloud with stronger password. Can I create .kopiaignore2 or .kopiaignorecloud.
2. “only include” what is selected by e.g. .kopiainclude ?
You can use whatever files’ names you want. .kopiaignore is default one but you can specify something different or multiple files.
When using GUI in policies:
Are you backing up mechanical disks? It would explain why it is rather slow. When new data is backed up it has to scanned by kopia - meaning that everything has to be read, chunked, hashed and checked against data already in the repository.
Subsequent backups should be much faster though as only new/changed files will be fully read.
