Backup is the activity of copying files or databases so that they will be preserved in case of equipment failure or other catastrophe. This tag covers restoring from backup as well.
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Comparison of backup tools
This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions ...
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6answers
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What's the difference between .tar.gz and .gz, or .tar.7z and .7z?
Recently, I've been backing up a lot of my data, and I noticed that I can save files as .gz or .tar.gz, or .7z and .tar.7z, etcetera. What are the differences between the normal one and the .tar.* ...
49
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9answers
13k views
Best way to backup all settings, list of installed packages, tweaks, etc?
If I want to make a backup of everything I have done since the fresh install of Ubuntu, what are the possible options? What all should I backup? I want to get all the settings that I changed, all the ...
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9answers
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How to keep “dot files” under version control?
Etckeeper is a great tool for keeping track of changes to your configuration files in /etc A few key things about it really stand out. It can be used with a wide variety of VCSs: git, mercurial, ...
21
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4answers
2k views
What can I use to automate backups of Gmail?
I'd like to automate the process of locally backing up my Gmail account, and am looking for a solution that:
can be scheduled to run in the background
does not cause messages to be marked as read
...
18
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8answers
45k views
How to make a disk image and restore from it later?
I'm a new Linux user. I've reinstalled my Wubi from scratch at least ten times the last few weeks because while getting the system up and running (drivers, resolution, etc.) I've broken something (X, ...
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3answers
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What files and directories can be excluded from a backup of the home directory?
Duplicity does already a great job of making efficient backups, but I want still to minimize the amount of files being back-upped.
What files or directories can be excluded in a home directory? ...
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4answers
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How can I backup my Repositories?
I want to backup all the repositories I added to the Ubuntu Software Center, but apparently sources.list contains only the ones which belong to Canonical.
So where do I find the other ones?
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3answers
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How can I set up hourly Deja-Dup backups?
Is there a way I get the amazing Deja-dup to make me hourly backups in addition to daily, weekly, biweekly etc? If not, is there something else that I could use instead?
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2answers
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What is safe to exclude for a full system backup?
I'm looking for a list which paths/files are safe to exclude for a full system/home backup.
Considering that I have a list of installed packages.
/home/*/.thumbnails
/home/*/.cache
...
13
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3answers
943 views
How can I backup my PPAs?
Related to this question. But my concern is that over the past year, most of my more interesting (or used) applications are from PPAs, and just backing up my sources list won't add the associated ...
13
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3answers
309 views
How can I test the integrity of a backup made with Backup (Deja Dup)?
I'm running 11.10 and did a backup with the default program titled "Backup" (Deja Dup).
How can I know that it backed up my files correctly / completely?
13
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3answers
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How do I restore Déjà Dup backups without Déjà Dup?
So I'm trying to restore my backup files with Déjà Dup, however, each time I enter in the correct password, it keeps asking for it over and over again.
This seems to be a bug, and I have found a ...
12
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4answers
682 views
What software can be used to create a restorable drive image?
Not sure what Linux software I would use for this, basically just like Acronis True Image for Windows, but for Linux. The rule is that we are keeping Windows out of the equation, I want to be able to ...
12
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2answers
655 views
How migrate my keyring (containing ssh passprases, nautilus remote filesystem, pgp passwords) and network manager connections?
I changed the disk on my laptop and installed Ubuntu on the new disk. Old disk had 12.04 upgraded to 12.10 on it. Now I want to copy my old keyring with WiFi passwords, ftp passwords for nautilus ...
11
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3answers
768 views
Where do files ending with a ~ come from?
Sometimes duplicate filenames occur while working on Ubuntu which differ only by a ~ from the original filenames.
I know kate generates backup files and calls them your_file.py.swp. Is this ...
11
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7answers
3k views
Backup whole OS
I am running Ubuntu 11.04. But now due to some or other reasons I have
to format my entire disk and reinstall the Ubuntu,
But I have Installed many softwares on Natty. And when I'll reinstall
the ...
10
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3answers
230 views
Could it be possible to make a hot copy of a system?
I'd like to backup my system without turning it off. The system clone should also able to run in an other machine.
I've tried to "dd" the entire system partition on another disk, after that I'm ...
10
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4answers
6k views
Can I backup my entire Ubuntu installation to ISO DVD?
This is the third time I have installed Ubuntu on my pc along with Windows 7, but every time I install, I have to upgrade all packages. (Almost 300 - 400 Mb). Is it possible to make a bootable DVD of ...
10
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2answers
1k views
How do I create multiple backup jobs using DejaDup backup service?
I'd like to have different backup jobs scheduled at different times and frequencies (for instance, backup my Documents folder daily, but my music folder only on weekends), or backup daily to my local ...
9
votes
2answers
8k views
Where are all my Empathy settings stored?
I would like to know where Empathy stores all my information, so as to be able to back it up and re-use on a different Ubuntu machine.
So far I have found only the conversation logs in ...
9
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3answers
2k views
How do I backup ssh keys?
I am planning to do a fresh install of ubuntu 11.10 in my system. Before that i have setuped key based ssh authentication in this machine. Is it possible to take backup of those ssh keys, so that i ...
9
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3answers
3k views
Where are GNOME keyboard shortcuts stored?
I usually load a new version for every release to keep my OS fresh while preserving the last version on another partition as backup. I also employ a lot of custom key mappings.
I've figured out how ...
9
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5answers
9k views
Easy backup/restore of installed system?
Is there any easy and open source backup/restore solution for installed (after clear install) Ubuntu system, like Acronis Home backup ?
9
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2answers
727 views
How do I backup my Banshee listening history?
I would like to use sites like last.fm, but because I'm often moving from OS to OS, and mostly listen to music on an mp3 player, most of my listening data gets lost.
Is there any way I can backup ...
8
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11answers
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How to back up a system?
If I want to make a backup of my entire OS (including but not just my home directory), how do I go about this?
Is it as simple as backing up everything in / and then when if I suffer a crash, just ...
8
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6answers
3k views
How to make and restore incremental snapshots of hard disk
I use Virtual Box a lot for distro / applications testing purposes.
One of the features I simply love about it is virtual machines snapshots, its saves a state of a virtual machine and is able to ...
8
votes
2answers
10k views
Backup files with rsync: error 23
I'm trying to make a backup of my /home to transfer all data from one computer to another. I wanted to save the backup on the same computer and than transfere it to another one. For safety reasons, ...
8
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1answer
175 views
Is there any way to take my current setup and put it on a live disk, then install it to another machine?
A tutorial or specific directions would be great.
8
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2answers
896 views
Clonezilla like app for the desktop?
What I am looking for is a way to clone hard drives (mainly windows partitions) while staying inside of the Ubuntu OS. I do not want to create a partition on the hard drive to boot off of and I am ...
8
votes
1answer
3k views
how do I stop automysqlbackup throwing LOCK TABLES error?
How to stop automysqlbackup's cron.daily script -- as installed and configured from apt-get install automysqlbackup -- throwing the following error:
mysqldump: Got error: 1142: SELECT,LOCK TABL ...
8
votes
3answers
10k views
Copy skype chat history to text files?
I'd like to convert my Skype chat history to a collection of text files for archival purposes. Ideally, I'd like to have a command (e.g. script or app) so that I could do this on a regular basis.
...
8
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1answer
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btrfs snapshot management
1) Is there a gui or curses tool that allows you to view/manage btrfs subvols/snapshots?
2) Is there a utility or already made script that would automatically create and delete snapshots ...
7
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8answers
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How to Synchronize Folders?
I want to do one way synchronization.
I am having Folder A on my computer which is constantly updated with content.
Another Folder B is used for backup purpose which is on external HDD.
Now what I ...
7
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3answers
938 views
Is there such a thing as a restore point in Ubuntu?
Windows has this. Basically what I want is to record the state of the system either manually or periodically and then restore to that point if required. For example, before upgrading the distribution, ...
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2answers
1k views
Is there an application that is like “Time Machine” on the Mac OSX?
If there is an application, does it work like "Time Machine" where it save backups of your computer and if wanted, go back to an earlier time on the computer for example where an virus was not there?
...
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3answers
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How to make a btrfs snapshot?
My /home partition consists of an entire physical disk. It is formatted as btrfs. I want to snapshot it. I'm confused regarding subvolume naming, in particular.
I am aware that there are similar ...
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3answers
1k views
How to completely backup entire ubuntu? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to backup a system?
Currently I'm using ubuntu Maverick and Windows 7, and I decided to switch completely on Linux.
There are a lot of space used by windows ...
7
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2answers
867 views
Why does Déjà Dup say there is no space left?
I'm trying to backup my home directory (excluding a few folders). The backup is saved on a ~300 GB partition (called backups) of an internal drive, but not the same drive as the home directory. When I ...
7
votes
1answer
549 views
Windows 7 style backup?
With Windows 7 I can easily set up a scheduled backup, which will incrementally backup directories I have selected, as well as create a disk image, all whilst I am still using my PC.
Is there ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
What happens if rsnapshot / rdiff-backup gets interrupted in the middle of a transfer?
Question says it all:
What happens if rsnapshot or rdiff-backup gets interrupted in the middle of a transfer?
I know that rsnapshot tries to make a complete snapshot of your system in rotating ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
Why do Back In Time snapshots appear to be so large?
I just backed up the contents of my home partition onto my external hard drive using Back In Time. I browsed to the backed up contents in the external drive and under properties it showed me the size ...
7
votes
2answers
542 views
Clone Ubuntu Machine
I have an install of Ubuntu Maverick on slicehost, that I'd like to replicate on a different machine (a kvm VM install).
Is there a simple way of mirroring all it? I mainly care about installed ...
7
votes
1answer
248 views
Recover encrypted data after reinstall
I couldn't remember the password that I've used for so many weeks, and changed it in recovery mode but for many reasons I decided to reinstall Ubuntu 12.10 with my seperate /home folder intact and ...
7
votes
2answers
3k views
Automatically sync a folder to a USB when USB is plugged in?
Is there a way to sync a folder to an USB drive when the drive is plugged in? I'd like it to sync, or copy over changes, both ways. I've seen the Back In Time and Unison-GTK applications, but I'd like ...
7
votes
1answer
160 views
Déjà Dup over SSH - where to enter my login credentials?
I'm trying to make a backup of my folder in my ubuntu 12.10.
I'm using BackUp in system setting using ssh, it can go through preparation file to backup.
but then failed. cannot have permission to ...
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3answers
2k views
Anyway to make a liveCD from my current installation?
Remastersys is no longer maintained and UCK as well as Live-Magic aren't exactly what I'm looking for as they remaster a livecd. What I'm aiming for is something like PCLOS's makelivecd so I can have ...
6
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4answers
1k views
Check the correctness of copied files
After I copy say 50+ GB(30,000 files including different formats) of files from an internal hard drive to an external drive is there any way to find out if everything has been copied correctly? Also ...
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2answers
3k views
Why can't I copy a 5G file?
I'm trying to backup my VirtualBox, but when I try to copy the .VirtualBox directory to my external hard drive I get an "File too large" error:
[130 amanda@luna ~]$ cp -r .VirtualBox ...
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6answers
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Which tool to backup an ext4 partition?
I'm searching for a tool to backup a whole ext4 partition to an image. I tried the latest version of mondo, which is not working. What are good alternatives?
