restore for linux?
 

Is there a way to restore Linux to the way it was just after the install? Being new at Linux and doing a whole lot of exploring I know I've made a few clicks/commands too many that have "ruined" the way some things behave* and I'd like to go back to how it used to be. Please don't tell me I need to reinstall... :(

* I can't change the default fonts anymore, dunno why, there are a few programs rpm or urpmi doesn't want to uninstall, which interfere with the overall performance, I can't seem to mount a FAT32 partition (it used to be NTFS and was automatically mounted when I installed Mandrake, but when I changed it to FAT32 with Partition Magic I can't mount it). And many more problems... ;)

Thanks for your input!

The good news.
You can definitely restore linux back to the way you installed it without re-installing the whole thing.

The Bad News.
I'd bet money that you didn't backup everything when you finished installing.

Take your most recent backup from when everything worked correctly and restore that. Typically it would be tar -xvf backup.tar

Re-install, then use either dd or tar to create a backup

Is that exactly what a :newbie: should type in the console to create a backup of a fresh install? Just dd? or is there more to it?

I'd have to look up the exact usage for dd. Tar would be [B]tar cvf backup.tar /path/*
I dont exactly know what you want to backup. If you want an image of your hard drive, you'll want to look into dd, and there is a wiki on LQ that can probably help with that .