Ubuntu
deja-dup package

Move backup to a larger drive

Asked by Bob H

I am using deja dup to backup /home and /data files.
I am running out of space and need to transfer to a larger disk
Can I simply copy the original backup files to the new larger drive successfully?
Is it possible to copy the files then just change the pointers in deja dup to the new location?

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Ubuntu deja-dup Edit question
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Michael Terry
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Copy the oldest one and do a test restore to a new folder, if it works then great.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

https://askubuntu.com/questions/914606/change-deja-dup-storage-location-from-local-folder-to-external-drive

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Bob H (bobbicat) said (last edit ): 		#3

Thanks Andrew,
The larger drive is ordered but I am waiting for it to arrive.

I will use
dd if=/dev/hdx of=/dev/hdy
to transfer the backup files across.

 I tried this out as a practice run with the backup on a laptop. Simply pointing deja-dup at the new location was easy and I encountered no problems.

The actual task I have involves transferring data from a 4Tb drive to an 8Tb. I am optimistic, though the transfer will no doubt take some time.

I should have it done in a few days and will report the action I have taken and the hopefully successful result.

I appreciate the guidance you have offered. It was very welcome.
I have a number of years experience with Ubuntu but no formal training -- I am more bumbler than boffin.

again, thank you
Bob

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Why? Surely just copying over one of the backup files will do. You can then verify this works and configure the backup system to use the new location

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Best Michael Terry (mterry) said : 		#5

It should work fine yeah. If there is an issue with it, please let us know because that would be a bug.

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Bob H (bobbicat) said : 		#6

Backups using deja-dup were paused.

I copied my backup partition using

sudo dd if=/dev/sddx of=sdey

where

sddx waas a partition on drive /dev/sdd in the PC.
sdey was a partition on /dev/sde an externally mounted drive.

The transfer took many hours but was an exact bit for bit copy of about 2 TiB of data.

The external drive was installed in the place of the PC drive.

The status of deja-dup appeared to be exactly as it was before the drive swap.
A manual backup ran successfully, restore looked complete and ready to run.

Automatic updates were enabled, returning to working as before.

Thanks for the advice, It gave me confidence to perform this task.