I would like to distro hop to EndeavourOS, and it has been suggested that I use rclone to copy my home folder to an external SSD. Unfortunately, I don’t have an external SSD at the moment, but I do have a phone that has plenty of free space. Is it a good idea to back up my computer files to an Android phone? My gut says it’s not a very good idea, but I’m not sure why.
Doesn’t have to be a USB drive. You can also backup your data to a network storage if you have any.
Good choice with EndeavourOS btw., using it since over a year now and I am very happy.
yeah i do this quite often. tar gz the home folder and pushed it to the phone with rsync/termux
Short answer: No.
Long answer: absu-f-ing NO. Whatever you put on a smart phone should be considered compromised.
Buy an external harddisk (Not! an SSD) for that.
Why not an SSD?
Not the original commenter, but possibly because SSDs are eventually volatile.
SSDs store data by trapping electrons in cells to represent your ones and zeroes, and when the disk is unpowered those electrons can eventually escape, causing data loss.
This may take years to happen though, so if you use the disk frequently you are unlikely to experience it.
That said, the time to unpowered data loss gets worse the more cumulative data you have written to the disk over its life. SSDs that are extremely badly worn out could lose data in months, not years.
Traditional spinning disks don’t have this issue as the magnetic storage doesn’t depend on power to stay magnetised, so it’s a better choice for archival storage.
Because SSDs (and other flash-based drives) are bad backup media. If not powered for longer time, they can lose data.
Op is distro hopping. I don’t think their data is going to disappear in the week they’re fucking around with their computer.
It’s still the safer option.
IIrc, because unpowered SSDs loose data on the long term. Yet, simply for backing up and restoring some days or weeks later, they should be fine.
Follow your gut instinct…
Modern phones are fragile eggs anymore, you might as well be putting all your eggs in one eggshell…
hey that’s a new one
at the moment
Get the proper tools to do the job right. There’s no gun to your head making you distrohop, so this isn’t an emergency. Just wait to get a real SSD first.
that’s probably a good idea
I used to back up important files into my phone for a while. Its an okay move for things you want to have all the time on you, but you should get a proper ssd/hdd with a backup tool (like deja dup/timeshift) sooner than later.
Is your /home on a separate partition? If so, no need to copy anything.
If you really need to backup, I’d get a proper external disk, or failing that, backup to backblaze (or similar) and restore later.
At a pinch, you could tar it all up and copy it to a usb stick, if you have a big enough one to hand, but it’ll be slower.
/home is not on a separate partition, no. Yeah an external disk will probably be better
Next time make a partition ;)
Indeed that seems to be a good idea. When I do reinstall to “distro-hop”, I’ll try to do that then. How big should the “system”/non-home partition be?
How long is a piece of string?
Really depends on what you install.
‘du -hs /usr /var’ to get a rough idea.
There’s usually a lot of private data in the home folder. I feel compromise or loss of my phone is a greater risk than loss of my home folder. I’d use an SD card before I’d use a phone.
