I just started learning Linux a few weeks ago. My hard drive just happens to be the same size as a DVD disk. I have a few essentials installed and now I'm thinking about testing a number of sound mixing and composing software, which will probably take its toll on my configuration files.

What I want to do is backup my system exactly the way it is now on a DVD, and then if or when things start getting too cluttered, like in my system files, I can start all over with a fresh system and, from that point on, only use the packages that I want to use. My current usage is about 5 gigs out of 7.9, rendering additional partitions useless.

The main obstacle that I foresee is, how will I install the mirror with limited diskspace and no operating system after I delete the Linux partition? I have a Knoppix disk that I can use, but I don't think that will allow me to write anything to disk, even if I had a second disk drive to copy it from. Surely, you all already have a much better solution for this. One of these days, I will actually get around to buying a bigger hard drive.

Some of the backup packages that are already in my arsenal are listed below, even though none of them really stand out as being exactly what I am looking for, though it is all still pretty new to me.

kdar
konserve
ldvd
rdiff-backup
storeBackup
taper

I found this one called BackupPC which looks like a possibility, but I'm still not sure if I would be able to restore the backup, as is, while also deleting all of the junk added since then.

I think the word I might be looking for is system restore, though I don't know if that covers applications that have been added, as well.

Read up on ghost. I use it for precisely this purpose under Windows but have never tried the Linux version.

Dar was my previous choice but I'm going with mondo now. It was recommended by another forum member who had used it to restore a system.

Seems good, especially if you're looking to restore from bare metal. However let me point out that, short of Hard Disc failure, you may never need to scrub your system. You should be able to simply uninstall what you don't want. Will mondo allow you to restore individual files?

Since this thread started I have adopted backuppc but it is a disc hog so it is probably not suitable for your system.

Mondo Rescue can burn straight to DVD.
http://www.mondorescue.org/

According to the HOWTO pdf, there is an interactive mode which enables you to "restore a subset of the archives".

I mainly wanted the backup as an alternative to reinstalling if anything goes wrong with the OS. I've had some odd experiences after "upgrading" various components and, not being able to find a fix, I've resorted to reinstalling.

Yes. Another reason for choosing Mondo. What's more, the dvd is bootable so you use the dvd to boot then restore. In my case, the whole backup went onto one dvd; I left a mounted partition containing data files out of the backup.

There was another image which I burned onto a cd, without knowing exactly what it is. It may be a boot disk only.

I have not come across backuppc.