The common snapshot is usually the latest snapshot of a Btrfs subvolume.

To take an incremental backup, you will need a common snapshot of both the source and the destination (external drive) Btrfs filesystems. Now, we are ready to take an incremental backup. To create a Btrfs filesystem on the sdb1 partition and give it the filesystem label data, run the following command: I will use the sdb2 partition for backing up the snapshots of the Btrfs filesystem created on the sdb1 partition. I will use the sdb1 partition for storing the data and Btrfs snapshots. I will format both the sdb1 and sdb2 partitions as Btrfs.

You may use a USB thumb drive or an external hard drive, as well just be sure to format it with the Btrfs filesystem.įor assistance with installing the Btrfs filesystem in Ubuntu, check out my article Install and Use Btrfs on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.įor assistance with installing the Btrfs filesystem in Fedora, check out my article Install and Use Btrfs on Fedora 33. The Btrfs filesystem created on the sdb2 partition will act as the external drive. The snapshots created on the Btrfs filesystem ( sdb1) will be backed up to the Btrfs filesystem created on the sdb2 partition. I will create Btrfs filesystems on the sdb1 and the sdb2 partitions. So, be sure to replace these names with yours from now on.

Note: Your hard disk or SSD will have a different name than mine, and so will the partitions.

Drive snapshot restore