Howto: Backup and restore your system!

[atery]

To xyz:
I encounter a stranger problem, that is I can't exclude any folders from the command line! ...not only the media one... so strange...

[xyz]

To xyz:
I encounter a stranger problem, that is I can't exclude any folders from the command line! ...not only the media one... so strange...

Hi atery,
You did do this exactly with the / at the end of the line?

sudo su
cd /
 tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/media --exclude=/sys /

At worst you could exclude nothing...except for /media and see if it works or try another HowTo backingup method!
Let me know...

[ArsGeek]

Funny, I'm writing a howto on this right now

Ubuntu seems to be using GNU tar, which works a bit differently.

You need to construct your phrase like this:

sudo tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude="/proc/*" --exclude="/lost+found/*" --exclude="/backup.tgz" /

Rember to put your source ("/") at the end of your phrase.

Arsgeek
http://www.arsgeek.com

[ebutton]

The listed tar command has a glaring error. The --exclude=xx entries must come before the target directory ("/" in this case). In other words, the / must be at the end of the command line, not before the exclude expressions.

I didn't read all 8 pages, so someone else may have pointed out this error before now.

Hopefully, no one else will waste two hours trying to figure out what was wrong!

Otherwise, this post was very helpful to me!

Regards,
EdB

[maddbaron]

this is all like chinese to me....i dont speak chinese lol...

all i'd like to do is backup my system to a blank dvd. i have windows xp on another partition.

i dont understand the unmounting of windows...?

this is complicated...

[xyz]

The listed tar command has a glaring error. The --exclude=xx entries must come before the target directory ("/" in this case). In other words, the / must be at the end of the command line, not before the exclude expressions.

I didn't read all 8 pages, so someone else may have pointed out this error before now.

Hopefully, no one else will waste two hours trying to figure out what was wrong!

Otherwise, this post was very helpful to me!

Regards,
EdB

I'm not sure what you're talking about but the command line worked "as is" for me!

maddbaron...would this one seem less Chinese to you:
http://www.whiprush.org/2006/10/ahhh_backups.html

[hihihi]

hello, first i want to thanks for this text as it helped me to make my first backup under linux, ubuntu.
but some weeks ago i installed ubuntu from the scratch. everything is running 1a. exeption is the backup with tar of system because it will not read --exclude command.
what is wrong? is it tar, the system, is it me?
thanks a lot,

[hihihi]

its me again:
problem solved after reading upper threads:
tar backup.tgz --exclude=/blabla /
the directory to be backupped is written after exclude commands.
ciao

[xyz]

its me again:
problem solved after reading upper threads:
tar backup.tgz --exclude=/blabla /
the directory to be backupped is written after exclude commands.
ciao

And once you restore, you won't forget to recreate the excluded files!
mkdir proc.....for instance.

[Numenory]

A very helpful article