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I have just re-installed 10.04 from scratch, and am now rebuilding my system from backup. So far I have restored my Home folder, so that my Desktop looks familiar, but some application shortcuts are incomplete.

Can you please tell me which other folders to restore, as well as which to avoid, in order to put my system back as it was?

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  • Hello :) This question is very narrowed, to your situation, and is very hard for anyone answer because no one but you knows how your desktop was before reinstall. If you were able to provide alot more information about your previous desktop, then some help could be provided.
    – loklaan
    Aug 28, 2012 at 10:52
  • Sorry, I tried to make the question as broad as I can, as I'm having trouble finding anything that is definitive. When I first restored I overwrote everything from / When I rebooted, I had to use the rescue disk, so reinstalled & rebuilt my home dir. I want to avoid doing this again, hence asking what folders in / are/not to be restored. If I can understand this, then I will probably be able to proceed. Aug 28, 2012 at 13:10

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The hidden files and folders in your home directory stores all your personal configurations and settings. In Nautilus you can reveal all the hidden folders and files by pressing Ctrl+H. If you have restored whole of your home folder, then these should be already restored.

The system wide configuration files are in /etc (etc stands for editable text configuration). If you decide to restore the whole of /etc from your previous installation, you may want to backup the current one first, in case something in the old configuration files break something in the new install.

It is easier to re-install applications rather than restore them from backups. One way to keep track of which applications you have in which computer is by using Ubuntu One.

Alternately you can save a list of installed application from the terminal and back it up. To do this, in a terminal type:

sudo dpkg --get-selections > apps.txt

To restore the applications on the list:

sudo dpkg --set-selections < apps.txt

sudo dselect update

sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade show

Hope this helps

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