# Same files synched from two different OS

**URL:** <https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889>\
**Category:** General Topics\
**Created:** [May 11, 2026, 7:42am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889 "2026-05-11T07:42:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![droot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@droot](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/droot)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 7:42am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889/1 "2026-05-11T07:42:13Z")

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I’m right now doing some switch to Linux.

I have quite a big repository with backups made on WIndows machine (so i.e. “Backups” folder is D:\Backups).  
I would like to mount the same hard disk and continue doing backups/snapshots from new OS, but right now the path will be /mnt/d/Backups.

I know [kopia.io](http://kopia.io) will manage deduplication of files, but how to approach this properly?  
Paths in snapshot will not be the same.

It’s not crucial but I’d like to keep the history of repository. If not possible I might switch/remake the repo, but would like to know the best approach in case I’ll leave dual-boot on my machine.

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**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889/2 "2026-05-13T12:55:35Z")

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So, you’re about to attach a Windows NTFS volume to a Linux system? If yes, there had been a discussion about using ntfs3g on Linux, you might want to dig that up in the search.

Otherwise, Kopia doesn’t care about the source path, as long as the path are not the same… You’d end up with two snapshot sources.

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**Author:** ![droot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@droot](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/droot)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 8:16pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889/3 "2026-05-17T20:16:12Z")

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Well I’ve tried to do the snapshot from new OS and it went quite smooth.

Only ‘bytes uploaded’ were (probably) metadata.

Now I just wonder how to (and when) get rid of old snapshot/repository on old user.  
I assume files will stay when I delete it.

Thanks for the answer.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2026, 9:41am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/same-files-synched-from-two-different-os/8889/4 "2026-05-18T09:41:28Z")

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You can simply delete the snapshots of the old user. After deleting the last snapshot the target will vanish from KopiaUI. The files in use by the new folder will stay in the repo and the files, not belonging to the new folder will get evicted over time - depending on your retention policy/policies.