For the moment, I have Timeshift (Mint Cinnamon) going to a 64 GB USB drive. I get the sense that's not complete backup protection, plus I wonder if that's enough space just for Timeshift. I'll likely buy an external HDD for Linux only backups. Should I direct Timeshift to that drive, or is it OK where it is? (It feels really odd not having Macrium available to this OS; I've used it for more than a decade in a Windows environment.)

Well, Timeshift as backup isn't helpful if the storage device itself stops working. A backup should always be located at a different storage device.

Timeshift will backup whatever you select. Timeshift uses rsync snapshots as you have it configured which basically creates one complete backup and then only those files that are new or changed. You also select how often you backup and how many backups you want to keep which determines how much space you use. I am not a fan of using flash drives as backup and prefer using an external SSD or HDD.

Ditto. It's not obvious from this post that you are using a flash "key", but your other problems creating partitions on it make it likely.

It's good you're taking backups to an external device, but last I looked timeshift only backed up the system by default. Not your user files. It can be setup to include them, and it will allow selective restores. As for space usage, after a while it settles down and doesn't continually increase as it only keeps a set number of backups. Here is the section from the install guide - plenty of guides online to show how to add your /home. 64G should be plenty for a default setup, but get a real device.

I see Mint has taken over development of timeshift, so it's likely it will become a more general backup tool over time.

Please bear in mind, when you read my reply, that I have not used timeshift so don't know much about it.

If, more likely when, the internal drive dies (as it will one day) you'll only be able to recover whatever is on the 64GB usb, so I suggest as a matter of urgency you back EVERYTHING you want to keep onto an external drive.

So do I.

I'd back up EVERYTHING, irrespective of OS to an external drive.

The external drive should be at least as large as the internal drive(s).

When creating the external drive I suggest using the copy command. and expect it to take numerous hours.

Once the external drive has everything on it, then to keep it current I suggest using the rsync command Learning something new often feels odd, but stick with linux. You'll get the hang of it one day...... even if that day is, currently, decades away.

By the way if you format the external drive to NTFS windows should acknowledge it's presence...... Windows ignores most drives with a linux format.

I really appreciate this discussion. I'm a long-time believer in backups to external hard drives, too. The flash key is only temporary, for Timeshift to stay happy. I'm also retired and on a fixed income. The next discretionary expenditure will be for a minimum 1 TB external HDD. The recent experience formatting the flash key made me think I'd have to do something similar with the external drive. With Windows systems you buy it, plug it in, and back up. I figured I'd have to do something different with Linux. (I have a Toshiba Canvio drive I'm using on this Win10 machine. Just for chuckles I thought I'd plug it into the Linux PC next to it and see what, if anything, it reads. I have yard work to do first, before it hits 90 outside.) Quickbreakfast: you mentioned formatting to NTFS. I know Windows could read it, but does Linux? Also, do you dislike backup software run with the GUI?

linux can read/write to NTFS filesystems but in the case of Timeshift I would still use a native file system like ext4 since it uses hard links. Typically external drives are already formatted as NTFS so you will need to reformat to ext4.

You could split the Canvio drive into separate partitions, the first for Windows and the second for linux depending on size and how much space you need for backups.

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Yes.

As noted by the above post/moderator, Linux can read and write to NTFS.

When ever I obtain a HDD the first thing I do is format it, cause I didn't know it came formatted.

I have no problems using the GUI for doing backups. It's just that I find updating using the command line/terminal is what I find easier, and slightly quicker.

I spent most of my professional life backing up to tape. If you back up to disk, make sure that you can address or move that disk off site so that if something takes out your computer it cannot take out your backup in the same event.

Now: before we go on we need to talk about purpose. IF you do not have a clear purpose for the backup you cannot possibly engineer it to accomplish your purpose. Possible goals for backups: Disaster Recovery (requires a plan to restore to new iron), data security (you must identify the data and determine what level of loss you are willing to accept), others depending upon your specific operation and needs.
What data do you need to back up and why?
If a restore is needed, how close to "current point in time" must you restore to consider it success?

You must also consider resources. I have extra hardware and can load a BURP server and back up all my machines over network. I do not own a suitable tape drive, so using a backup server with backups (images) of the backup server storage to media that I can transport off-site makes sense. A portable external USB drive with enough capacity can serve, but you need multiples to do generational backups and cover the case for a backup drive failure or destruction during backup.
What resources do you have for this?
If it is justified, and you afford additional backup media?

It was too hot, and I'm to old to stay out and work as long as I wanted to. I did try my Toshiba external drive (used for Win backups) yesterday on the Linux PC. So I discovered NTFS is applicable to both systems. Then I copied some .mp3 files to a flash drive formatted exFAT, and was able to transfer to the Linux PC. I don't think I want to mix Windows backups with Linux backups on the same drive; I never underestimate my ability to screw things up. To wpeckham: Wow! I am constantly reminded how little experience I have outside my own little sphere. I remember the days of tape, although mine were with little QIC80 drives for my small business, and no networking. My primary concern is to prevent data loss. Thankfully external HDD's are not too expensive. I am of limited means, but learned early that you do not scrimp on backing up data. I wouldn't trust a flash drive as a long-term solution either.

The last tapes I used were, I believe, LD something 124TB tapes that were rated 248T with compression. We did not get quite that much compression. I remember those small (? 80G, 40G ?) tape drives. Man, those would be terribly inadequate now, but they were GREAT when hard drives at 2G were MASSIVE! ;-)

I forgot one item: testing. Until you test that you can restore from that backup onto a different machine you have no reason to believe it will work. You need not test every backup, but test every month or two to make sure your backup system has not gone wonky on you.

If you only need to protect data, not the system, then make sure that you are only backing up the data folders. That will save space and extend the life of your backup media. Make sure you have OS images and can reinstall the Os and applications (keep a record somewhere, with one copy with your offsite backups) and recover becomes easier.

Keeping things simple and well documented will help avoid panic in case of a failure. Disasters you have planned for by backing up cause less damage than mistakes due to panic when things go out of control. And things ALWAYS go out of control: it is a question of when, not if. Nothing is so well designed that it will not fail, but having a plan for when that happens makes everything less painful.

You are on the right track.

Depending upon what you are backing up NTFS may not be the best choice. Linux file system ownership and permissions have not been retained in ntfs for the most part, so a simple backup and restore may not have the effect expected from a backup with the file system differences.

I always recommend that one use the same file system as is being backed up for the backup storage, especially if using a copy format and not doing any additional manipulation of the data such as zip, tar, or similar.