Can you suggest a REAL simple way to backup?
 

I was just reading about the 'backup of the year.' (I'm totally new at Linux.) It's great stuff but I think WAY more than I need. I'm a writer. I use a few text editors, epub editors, text-to-speech editor, photo image editor, that sort of stuff. My way of thinking is all I need to save (I'm running Xubnutu 13.10) is my home folder. I tried to do that and failed and learned about doing a tar.gz file and tried that too but that failed as well. I checked out software that backs up and the only thing that seemed simple (not that I researched everything) was fwbackups.

I figure if my computer totally craps out if I have my home directory (with the books I've written and the covers I've designed) I can just re-install 13.10 and then I'll be okay. Yes, it will be a pain losing "favorites" and re-downloading software but it won't be catastrophic.

Am I thinking clearly about this? Is fwbackups a good way to go? Is there a simple way to back up my home folder on my own? A better way? Thanks!

Well, if you have an external hard drive or high capacity usb drive, you could just copy your home directory onto that. Alternately you could use a cloud storage service like dropbox or ubuntu one.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ba...pleBackupSuite for some gui ways.


To backup /home you simply copy it to some place. Cut and paste sort of deal.

Thanks redd. Hadn't thought of the cloud stuff. I might as well backup to the usb drive and the cloud. But the thing is, like I was saying, the computer wouldn't do a copy and paste on the home folder. It just flashed a message "Permission Denied." Then someone suggested doing a tar.gz file and that didn't work either (see screenshot).

So the question is: how do I copy the home folder so I can paste it to a usb drive? (I've heard I can use

sudo thunar

but I don't know if that's good advice or how to go about implementing it.)

Thanks Jefro but if you would, see my post to redd.

Tar get's a little wonky if the result is > 4GB. Although I don't know why, tar stands for tape archive and tapes could be quite lengthy.

You can clone your existing system with rsync, and do so in such a way that the clone is bootable. You would only need to do a full clone after updates and after the install of new software. And do regular updates of your /home folder of course.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...kup_with_rsync

Just bear in mind that you should be running another linux while doing the backup so you can backup a filesystem that's not changing on you while backing it up. Be it a live disc or usb linux or whatever works. The rsync from the link is also useful for migrating your existing install to other HDDs or making a bootable usb stick version. Just change /etc/fstab and the bootloader to know it's new home.

Dear Gregg Bell,

With reference to your posted screenshot (from it assuming you know linux command line), usually as a normal user Permission is denied to create a file in root folder /.
So when you do tar czf BackupSpecial.tar.gz home, you are trying to create a file in root directory i.e. /BackupSpecial.tar.gz for which the permission is usually denied. Try to create that file in some pen drive. Let your pen drive is mounted as /mnt/pendrive with your write access to it, then do
tar czf /mnt/pendrive/BackupSpecial.tar.gz /home

For doing regular backups I recommend using an external pen drive or hard drive if possible like following:
Let you have mounted your external drive to /mnt/drive, then do
Second time when you issue the above command only changes from /home will be transferred to your external drive hence saving time for backups. Hence you can regularly take backups of your work.

I'd think permission denied means you have other users in /home or simply that /home doesn't allow a common user to access.

Sudo is the normal way to force super user. Many distro's offer a file manager too that can be opened in super or root mode to move stuff.

/home might contain a user and that /subdirectory is really your home.

Thank you very much, everyone. I am going to have to go slowly and carefully (I may have some more questions about how to implement what you told me) over what you said to make sure I have a handle on it before proceeding. Thanks again.

If you want a simple GUI program for backups, try Luckybackup. (Essentially it's a GUI that uses rsync.) It's available through Software Center, Synaptic, or you can install it using terminal:
Do backups to either another HDD, partition, or a USB stick (if big enough to hold your data). Can use program to make an initial backup of /home/gregory; then use it to periodically update that backup by having it sync between your installed Xubuntu /home/gregory and the backup copy. The sync function will just copy over things that are new or changed, rather than copying everything all over again.

Assuming your Xubuntu filesystem is Ext4, example of doing initial backup would be something like this:

* Spare USB with large partition formatted as Ext4 and labeled "BACKUPS"
* Open luckybackup and choose "Backup" function
* "Source" = /home/gregory
* "Destination" = /media/gregory/BACKUPS (might be under /media/BACKUPS)
* Check box to not create new directories (it will just do exact copy of source)


After initial backup, either make a new task for syncing, or modify the backup task to turn it into a syncing task instead. Then use that periodically to update the backed-up /home/gregory.

P.s. Use GParted to partition, format and label the USB.

P.s.s. Don't know why you're having permission problems with copy attempts. Make sure you are copying "/home/gregory", not "/home". If you have been trying "/home/gregory", then maybe you accidentally created root owned files there that are causing the problem.

Thanks gold_finger. But I just gotta say, "You're a Newbie?" LOL You need to have that upgraded because if you're a newbie I havne't been born yet. No, I'm in many removed past lives. Anyway, I will definitley check out luckybackup. It does seem complicated but everything seems complicated in Linux but then after a while it doesn't seem so complicated somehow. And I have heard good things about rsync. And yes, I was trying to save just "home." I will investigate that as well when I get home. (I experiment on my home computer in case I wreck it.) One question maybe. Some people espouse copying the home folder just as it is. Someone else said you have to copy it as a tar.gz file otherwise the date will not transfer properly when you restore it. Have an opinion on this? Thanks.

The newbie designation is only in reference to LQ.

luckybackup looks good, might try it but it is worth testing any backup with a restore. I suggest you do that on a system your not bothered about!

Fred.

Hi. Your hardware could be useful to future results... I just (when I feel necessary) add any important data and config files to Blu-ray or DVD, reinstalls are easy (not that I've (link which your distros based upon ;) not to imply that Debian is "easier" than *buntus) needed to for sometime.) Best wishes and have fun. :D

Bootable backup with rsync seems a bit complicated and piecemeal. And rsync takes hours. But, if you do a full backup with rsync and then do a full restore, the file system won't have fragmentation.