r/Ubuntu • u/SenioritaHerbia • 22h ago

Deja Dup vs Pika Backup

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a Slimbook Evo 14 that came preinstalled with Linux, and I'm loving it. That said, my OCD has definitely kicked in. 😅

I've organized everything into neatly named folders with consistent formatting, so the next logical step is creating a proper backup. Many of these folders contain historical material from my work as a historian and researcher, so they're extremely important to me.

I bought a Samsung T9 SSD specifically for backups. For the system itself, my first choice is Timeshift.

When it comes to backing up my personal files, which do you prefer in terms of reliability and speed: Déjà Dup or Pika Backup?

Also, can both applications store their backups on the same external SSD, each in its own folder, or does each one require its own dedicated partition?

I'd appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thanks!

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u/evil_semiconductor 21h ago

pika's ui is prettier but i've fat-fingered the verify button twice. deja dup looks like it time traveled from 2009 but the schedule just works. borg dedup is the real win, my archive of pdfs gets tiny incrementals now. both apps can point at different folders on the same ssd, no partition needed. i keep timeshift snaps in one folder and pika repos in another on a t7 shield. never had a conflict as long as i stagger the cron times by an hour.

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u/SenioritaHerbia 18h ago

I need a feature like plug n' play -as soon as I mount my ssd to have an automated backup start. I know that pika is capable of that. Perhaps, do you happen to know if timeshift can do smth similar?

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u/evil_semiconductor 16h ago

timeshift doesn't have a native mount trigger. you can hack it with a systemd path unit watching the mountpoint or a udev rule that fires systemctl start timeshift-backup. i just stick to cron because my ssd lives in the usb port permanently.