linux back up

[donecweb]

Would there be a good tutorial on backing up Linux distros or a good program that will backup a partition and allow it to be restored to an new hard drive?

[SensoVision]

Sorry for missing this thread Don. Are you interested specially in some program with inerface? As from what I know it could be done by copying partition by standart Linux tools, if you interested I can tell more. Also Linux isn't stored on single partition usually so it wouldn't be wise to backup each partition, I believe that it would be good to backup only configuration and home folder in order to restore system later. Let me know if I misunderstood what you trying to achieve as maybe I'm wrong at my judgements and backing up partition would be best thing in your case.

[donecweb]

Since most of my experience is with Windows and I still don't understand where Linux puts everything I am thinking I need to backup every thing. This is the guiding motivation for my request since as it stands now if something happen to my computer I would have to reinstall the system, unzip all my backed data and re-setup all my system and software preferences to have my computer back as it was.

What I want to do is....
1) Copy my OS and data so it can be placed on another hard drive and use it in the same manner as I had on the original hard drive.
2) If the hard drive or computer crashes then once the computer is fixed I can restore my OS and data without having to reinstall the system.

I would prefer a method that uses a GUI instead of a terminal interface but free is important.

Hope this clears up this thread.

[SensoVision]

Hope this clears up this thread.

thanks, now I understand what you're looking for.

I would prefer a method that uses a GUI instead of a terminal interface but free is important.

I failed to find any real GUI utility, maybe some commercial products, but I know about PartImage which use ncurses(text style menus). It let you backup and restore whole partitions.

1) Copy my OS and data so it can be placed on another hard drive and use it in the same manner as I had on the original hard drive.
2) If the hard drive or computer crashes then once the computer is fixed I can restore my OS and data without having to reinstall the system.

actually you can restore your OS without making images like you have to do it in Windows, let me tell about two directories which are important in order to have your distro working after crash.

/etc - contain all configuration files. You can copy old configuration of files to this directory and your programs would be configured.
/home - contain user preferences and it's files

Generally if you have backup of these two directories and you don't save files in other locations like /opt the only thing you need after system crash is:
1. Install new system with programs you're going to use.
2. Create your user account with same name it had in old system setup
3. Copy home directory from backup
4. go to /etc directory and copy files for programs you wish to pre-configure(I don't propose to copy whole directory as it have some files which could cause you few bugs).
Personally I copied these files and directories to configure programs:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf - file to configure X Server
/etc/apt/sources.list - would configure Debian repositories I'm using
/etc/ppp/ - could contain files which let you use your ISP(of course it depend from your configuration, it would be empty if you don't use modem or VPN).
/etc/chatscripts/ - same as above.
/etc/cups/ - I copied it in order to save time configuring my printers to be available on the network
/etc/init.d/myscripts - this file I'm using to start my own scripts e.g. firewall and routing scheme
/etc/network/interfaces - to configure my network cards
/etc/samba/ - preferences of Samba so I can share files with Windows XP notebook.
/etc/environment - contain some environment variables which I've altered, so maybe it's not important to restore it if it wasn't modified.
/etc/fstab - tells about mountpoints so be sure not to overwrite it if you had different partition setup than on old system, I only use this file for reference myself in order Russian letters would be displayed correctly.
/etc/hosts - it could contain names for several hosts in local network as in my case and network name of your PC
/etc/hostname - name of your PC.


That's all files which are essential for configuration of your system IMHO, they could differ a bit because you're using different distro. I also not advice overwriting of files in /etc catalog, but rather using old ones as a reference in setting up your new configuration of course when it's possible.

I'll still try to look for a GUI program which let you restore fully system to previous state but not sure if it's exists...

Let me know if you have more questions.