I am a newbie!
I use a dual boot system, Windows Vista + Ubuntu 10.10 on a pc. I use Ubuntu about 95% of the time and hope to convert completely to Ubuntu. I use Deja Dup to backup my data files.
However, I recently needed to renew my HDD. I was able to recover Vista with my Recovery Disk but of course, all the updates and patches needed to be downloaded and installed. I was able to re-install Ubuntu with Wubi and then I was able to restore my data with Deja Dup. The whole process took me several days. I had to try to remember all the preferences and all the little display settings I had become used too!
Is there a program (open source) I could use to backup and restore my entire system to the way it is (ie. not factory settings and without all my preferences)?

Hi johnkelly.110,

the most simple method would be to create an image of you Linuxpartitions with Clonezilla. You'll have to take at least two images, one of your / partition and one of your /home directory's partition.

I'd suggest to create such images directly after installing Linux and when you've done all the settings you need.
Afterwards you may do regularly backups with your backupprogram.

Then in case you'll have to completely restore the system, you can restore the partition with your image and afterwards restore the data with the backupprogram.

Markus