Howto: Backup and restore your system!

[startling]

Interesting thread. I see there's a bit of the Terminal versus GUI argument going on.

It's a simple question of whether you want Ubuntu to be more popular and used by more people. If you do - and I very much do - then fundamental things must be made simpler! Geeks and power users will always have the power to do what they want with Linux, but the vast majority of computer users are not and never will be geeks.

I've used Ubuntu for a while now and very much prefer it to Windows but there are some niggles and this is a case in point.

On my Windows Xp box, I installed Cobian Backup (a version of which is open source, by the way) and after a few clicks it was backing up my important files twice a day to an external drive. In less than 10 minutes the job was done and I don't need to think about it any more. This shows me how easy it can be.

On Ubuntu, by contrast, I have spent several hours Googling looking into ways to back up my files and I still don't have a satisfactory system in place (hence why I'm browsing this thread). There's not a single GUI program which compares to Cobian and that really surprises me. I know there's great software like grsync and rsync and cron and so on, but it looks to me as though it will take several hours to understand them properly and write and configure scripts and so on, and even then there are pitfalls such as backing up Truecrypt volumes. So until I get the time to go into this in detail I'm manually dragging and dropping files using Nautilus - which I realize is a crazy way to do backups!

I strongly believe an easy GUI backup program similar to Cobian would be a boon for Ubuntu.

[El_Belgicano]

my, what a thread! Started May 17th, 2005
would make it about as old as
El_Belgicano's "old" ASUS, wouldn't it?

Yes it does, but just like my old lappy, this method still rocks...
I only modified the excluded items, and this method is "Lucid Lynx approved"...

Interesting thread. I see there's a bit of the Terminal versus GUI argument going on.

It's a simple question of whether you want Ubuntu to be more popular and used by more people. If you do - and I very much do - then fundamental things must be made simpler! Geeks and power users will always have the power to do what they want with Linux, but the vast majority of computer users are not and never will be geeks.

I've used Ubuntu for a while now and very much prefer it to Windows but there are some niggles and this is a case in point.

On my Windows Xp box, I installed Cobian Backup (a version of which is open source, by the way) and after a few clicks it was backing up my important files twice a day to an external drive. In less than 10 minutes the job was done and I don't need to think about it any more. This shows me how easy it can be.

On Ubuntu, by contrast, I have spent several hours Googling looking into ways to back up my files and I still don't have a satisfactory system in place (hence why I'm browsing this thread). There's not a single GUI program which compares to Cobian and that really surprises me. I know there's great software like grsync and rsync and cron and so on, but it looks to me as though it will take several hours to understand them properly and write and configure scripts and so on, and even then there are pitfalls such as backing up Truecrypt volumes. So until I get the time to go into this in detail I'm manually dragging and dropping files using Nautilus - which I realize is a crazy way to do backups!

I strongly believe an easy GUI backup program similar to Cobian would be a boon for Ubuntu.

Then stick with Windows. Most people went to Ubuntu because they want change, others because they want more control over what is installed, or how it behaves and they found out GUI apps did not give them that kind of power, the terminal is the way they control a lot of things...
If you want a GUI, get one, but at the bottom, they all will make up a command for tar to use... So why wouldn't you make the command up yourself, the first post gives you one to copy-paste, easy enough for what it has to do...

[BarryM]

Then stick with Windows.

This is exactly the sort of comment most of us do not want to see, and helps to bolster the impression that you have to be an expert to use Linux in any of its incarnations. Please remember that a lot of us switched simply because we do not want to be tied to over priced operating systems and software from you know who. The security and speed of operation is an added bonus.

Roll on the day when the sort of applications startling is asking for are available.

By the way, startling, I found the easiest (but rather slow) method for backing up my data is to use Archive Manager (in Accessories). Sorry, not automatic, but quite easy to use.

As Cobian is open source, I wonder if the source code is published? If so, has anyone tried compiling it in a Linux environment? Might be worth a try by one of the geeks amongst us!

[El_Belgicano]

This is exactly the sort of comment most of us do not want to see, and helps to bolster the impression that you have to be an expert to use Linux in any of its incarnations. Please remember that a lot of us switched simply because we do not want to be tied to over priced operating systems and software from you know who. The security and speed of operation is an added bonus.

Sorry for that one misunderstanding, it wasn't meant to be that presumptuous...

[startling]

Then stick with Windows. Most people went to Ubuntu because they want change, others because they want more control over what is installed,

And this is just a couple of reasons why, as I stated earlier, that I prefer Ubuntu! And although I think Ubuntu is a lot better than Windows, I believe there are things that could be improved and make Ubuntu more popular with more people.

Thank you for your posts El Belgicano, they are very much appreciated, but I prefer not to tar or zip my backups because essentially I use them as another drive. The way that Cobian makes a copy the files on another disk makes things much simpler and faster for me.

By the way, startling, I found the easiest (but rather slow) method for backing up my data is to use Archive Manager (in Accessories). Sorry, not automatic, but quite easy to use.

Thanks BarryM, I'll take a look.

As Cobian is open source, I wonder if the source code is published? If so, has anyone tried compiling it in a Linux environment? Might be worth a try by one of the geeks amongst us!

The source is published:
http://delphi.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=.../cobianbackup/

[psusi]

I was reading

http://www.debianadmin.com/backup-ba...of-backup.html

and came across the phrase:



relative to dump... it gave me pause to think.

If this is true then I might not be able to restore to a different disk.

This article is wrong. Pretty much everything it says about dump is incorrect. It does not copy a raw image of the disk, it does not need the same kind of disk to restore to, and it can restore individual files. The description it gives for dump is appropriate for dd, but not for dump.

Interesting thread. I see there's a bit of the Terminal versus GUI argument going on.

It's a simple question of whether you want Ubuntu to be more popular and used by more people. If you do - and I very much do - then fundamental things must be made simpler! Geeks and power users will always have the power to do what they want with Linux, but the vast majority of computer users are not and never will be geeks.

Non technical users should just tick the box to synchronize their documents folder on Ubuntu One. Those who want to do a proper system backup will need to understand what they are doing, and use the command line.

[jal]

just tick the box to synchronize their documents folder on Ubuntu One. Those who want to do a proper system backup will need to understand what they are doing, and use the command line.

It is, as British say, horses for courses. I found this thread while hunting for best practise, knowing about tar, dump, rsync, mirroring in general but thinking there might be a magic pill. Nope.

Looking at my requirements I've come to believe that I'll need to set up a couple of different schemes. I'm thinking of breaking it down like:

* boot/system/etc + tinkering : partition dump
* "life drive", the photos, e-mail, diary, accounts : mirrored? or rsync
* database : data dump to the life drive
* coding, cmp, structured document tree : subversion (and dump off repos?)
* day to day drivel : rsync or tar or unimportant

and I'll put the rsync in cron.daily!... ok maybe not a gui solution.

{and P.S. there is no way in Hal I'm putting my personal data into the "cloud", Ubuntu One, or gmail or. who wants their private data shipped through foreign states to norway or mongolia or where ever who knows?}

[Vaidaskz]

But what about if system gets corrupted due to new files are added (wrong drivers/modules or something)? I'm new to linux, but I guess it is possible situation. Then restoration from tar won't help, right?

[psusi]

But what about if system gets corrupted due to new files are added (wrong drivers/modules or something)? I'm new to linux, but I guess it is possible situation. Then restoration from tar won't help, right?

Why wouldn't it?

[El_Belgicano]

But what about if system gets corrupted due to new files are added (wrong drivers/modules or something)? I'm new to linux, but I guess it is possible situation. Then restoration from tar won't help, right?

First, do a fresh minimal install, then untar your backup...