Howto: Backup and restore your system!

[bacchus_3]

one quick question though...I would just want to change the partitioning system of my ubuntu system from the normal to LVM...would this guide be a good approach (with some little tinkering, I guess). or this shouldn't be it.

I wouldn't want to reinstall everything now that I have a working LAMP system and it takes a lot of time configuring everything.

[bionnaki]

There's a utility called split which you can use to split files to specified size.

what's it called?
I dont see it in the repos...

[geofff]

I am trying to retrieve one file (my evolution Inbox) from backup with:

tar xvpfz /media/cdrom1/backup.tgz/<file address> -C /<address of target directory>

I get "Cannot open. Not a directory".

Can anyone tell me the right code. Thanks

[beercz]

How about doing incremental backups using rsync? You can do it over secure connections too.

Here's a good guide:
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

rsync hompage:
http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

[majed]

I am trying to retrieve one file (my evolution Inbox) from backup with:

tar xvpfz /media/cdrom1/backup.tgz/<file address> -C /<address of target directory>

I get "Cannot open. Not a directory".

Can anyone tell me the right code. Thanks

The command should be like this:

tar xvpfz /media/cdrom1/backup.tgz /<address of target directory>/<file name> -C /<address of target directory>

Notice the space after your backup file

[kakashi]

another easy way is if you have knoppix you can you partimage on knoppix.
its very good and you can automatically have it split the backup into any size files.
also you can run partimage from ubuntu but can't backup / as it needs unmounted partition.

[CapnCook]

tar doesn't work here, kubuntu 5.10. tar will include all exclude directories and files. any other way, I have checked into rsync but I didn't find any info on doing local backups.

[Manu]

Why don't use KDar?

[geofff]

The command should be like this:

tar xvpfz /media/cdrom1/backup.tgz /<address of target directory>/<file name> -C /<address of target directory>

Notice the space after your backup file

Thanks majed. That did it. Cheers

[jrev]

My tips for backing up:

It's easiest to have your media (movies, music) in a separate partition. Mine is in a FAT32 partition just in case I have to venture into ******* for a few mins.
I have had problems with the method described here, especially when switching filesystems. Now I use Knoppix DVD with partimage. Very easy stuff, never proven me wrong.

And when choosing bz2 vs gzip compression, in my experience bz2 takes about 3 times as long as gzip, and only gives an extra 5-10% when compressing my ubuntu partition. But then again, if you have the extra time, then go for it.

I would appreciate to know how you are using it ...I have been on the subject for weeks now if you are interested ?