when I tried to copy /home to hdc5
cp -R /home /mnt/hdc5
it response :
invalid argument + operation not permitted

I want to dir /etc page by page to see config file

Actually, you should probably be trying to copy your user's home directory, i.e. /home/username (obviously where username is the username you use). What was the exact error message?

Which config files are you most likely to need?

cp-R /home/hammam /mnt/hdc5
the exact error message it replies :
cannot create symbolic link + invalid argument + operation not permitted

my coniguration of my username=hammam
I want to dir /etc page by page to see config file

by the way after I took the backup, how to reinstall, is by put the cd no.1 in cd rom and restart ?

why are u copying all of the /home directory. if you have more than one user whose home dir needs to be backed up by all means do so but be the root user first by login in as root. then try
cp -rf /home /mnt/hdc5
which will copy whole of your /home to /mnt/hdc5.

Are you trying this as root? Is the partition you want to use (presumably /dev/hdc5) mounted on /mnt/hdc5? Doesn't it tell you what the invalid argument is? Do those plus signs really appear in the output??

Don't know about scrolling with the ouput of ls (or dir). Maybe the mouse wheel just works.

Yeah, you just put in CD 1 and boot from it. It's the same thing you probably did when you installed in the first place.

Edit: when you do reinstall, make sure not to format the partition you're using to back up your data on! If you do, all that data will be lost. This should be common sense though, really.

yes hammam12 you should know we are trying to help you get out of your trouble, but we can never hold your hands forever and tell you what to do. you will have to learn something's for yourself, for keeps. however much we may try you must understand we too have our own lives to live. so build your confidence and start digging.

I would like to know what error I did when I was did format to the partition hdc7 and cause me to reinstall, I was lake in spaces so I did that format to have more spaces to move /usr to it to get more spaces.

Here are the steps I did :
Format a partition

1 - umount /dev/hdc7
then format
2 - mke2fs /dev/hdc7 ========= ext2
3 - tune2fs -j /dev/hdc7 ========= ext3
4 - mount /dev/hdc7 /usr
5 - mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt
6 - cp -advf /usr/ /mnt/
7 - vi /etc/fstab
change the line to /dev/hdc7 /usr ext3 defaults 1 1
8 - reboot the computer

Could you pls review it and correct anything you see it is wrong.

... thanx
Mohammed Hammam

If you really did this then you should have had problems. Firstly if you mounted /dev/hdc7 to /usr you shouldn't have been able to mount it again to /mnt (you should have had an error message like "/dev/hdc7 is already mounted", though perhaps not with the same wording). Secondly, if you did manage to mount /dev/hdc7 on /usr and then on /mnt, the copying step wouldn't have had anything to copy, since /dev/hdc7 was newly formatted.

Here is the steps after correction :

Format a partition

1 - umount /dev/hdc7
then format
2 - mke2fs /dev/hdc7 ========= ext2
3 - tune2fs -j /dev/hdc7 ========= ext3
4 - mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt
5 - cp -advf /usr/ /mnt
6 - vi /etc/fstab
change the line to /dev/hdc7 /usr ext3 defaults 1 1
7 - reboot the computer

pls review it

Thank you prozac and Nylex
the issue has been resolved
Mohammed Hammam