Quick backup quick recovery
 

I am coming from the Mac side after using Macs since 1988. On the Mac side I use cloning software that allows me to clone my drive nightly to an external USB drive. Set it and forget it. There doesn't seem to be anything on the Linux side that offers this kind of ease of use. Therefore, I am asking the community to give me viable alternatives that are drop dead easy to use. I have some friends who are thinking of switching to Linux. I have to make it so that they will be able to backup their computers and restore them quickly in a simple straight forward manner that even my Mom could do.

Any ideas? I would love my friends to have a positive initial experience with Linux and I know that this is one of the issues they have if they are to switch over. If disaster strikes, they want a quick and easy way to get back up and running.

Probably nothing that is going to be as Automatic, as you are used to. :cry:

some folk use DD from within a script file, to automate that process, a bit.
otherwise, it's somewhat a manual thing:- Gparted can clone a drive or a partition.

LuckyBackup will not clone anything But can backup, say your /data partition.

APTonCD will backup your programs, inasmuch that your don't have to D/L them again.

there are other ways, as well, But - which 'nix are you looking @ using??

I just found something that really is easy. It's called Redo backup. Boot from the CD or USB stick, click on backup, choose source/destination. That's it. A Cloned image of your drive. Very easy!!!

this works for me:you could wrap it up in a tcl/tk or zenity gui but i think this is simple enough to copy-paste into a terminal.

Have a look at Clonezilla http://clonezilla.org/

I used Clonezilla a while back but was looking for something simpler. Then, today, I downloaded and burned a copy of the latest Parted Magic CD which I think every Linux user should keep on hand. I tried Clonezilla again and all is well. It's not actually all that bad. Worked well.

Friend of mine recommended the following but not exactly sure of its abilities or whether they match exactly what you want:

http://www.r1soft.com/tools/linux-hot-copy/

Also, it is propriety :(

I like well-behaved SW http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/propriety :)