Backup program

[Coastie]

What is a good backup program for a newby? Easy to set up and easy to restore the backup it needed. No Terminal programs please. I guess I would use a CD or DVD or USB stick.

Backintime-Gome was the highest reviewed in the Ubuntu Software Center but one of the reviews said "While I really like the backup process, I do not like the restore process. You have to install BIT manually when using a live CD/USB stick and you have to set the correct hostname. Otherwise BIT is not able to detect its own backup." Not sure what it means but sounds difficult.

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I use Redo Backup to back up all my PCs, laptops, and netbooks onto a 1TB external HD. It will also back up to and from a network drive.

Like LL, it's a LiveCD, based on Ubuntu, that can be installed onto either a CD or a USB flash drive (it's only around 350MB or so). Redo is as easy as it gets. The LiveCD also has GPartEd for partitioning drives, and Disk Utility, which I use to mount and unmount individual drives.

It backs up the whole drive (both Windows and Linux partitions), so even if the drive fries, you can restore it to another drive, as long as the drive is the same size or larger.

If I just want to back up a single partition, I use Clonezilla for that...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[gold_finger]

Luckybackup is another easy-to-use backup program -- very easy to use actually!  Pretty much a GUI that uses rsync.  I use it for backing up data to USB's and to backup partitions.  (EDIT:  What I mean is I have extra partitions on a different drive that I send data backups to.  I don't actually backup entire partitions, but many people do.)  I haven't used it to clone drives/partitions, but it will do that as well.  Here's a page with more info:  http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/.

Can be installed through Synaptic or using terminal:

Code:

sudo apt-get install luckybackup

Tried Redo Backup once a while back to clone a partition.  Don't remember much, but think that's a pretty easy one to use as well.

Download and test out both to see which does what you want and seems easiest to use.  Can always uninstall one, or keep both if you think each is better for different tasks you have in mind.

[Coastie]

Appreciate the suggestions. They all look kinda complicated for a newby.

Looking for You Tube reviews of suggestions, I found a review for Deja Dup. It looks pretty simple. Any opinions on it?

Could I leave a USB stick or a CD in the computer waiting for the next automatic backup?

Would it be better not to use automatic backup and just put the USB or CD in when I want to do a backup?

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I tried Deja Dup before I found Redo, and I had issues with getting it to work properly. YMMV.

In any case, you may want to 'test' what you're going to use to back up with on something that isn't critical first. That way, you'll get an idea as to whether or not it's REALLY going to work as it should.

If you're going to use CDs or DVDs, you'll need a backup solution that supports backups spanning multiple CDs or DVDs.  If you use a USB stick for the backup, of course it'll have to be big enough to hold the backup (and incremental backups, if applicable). Neither of these are really practical for unattended scheduled backups.

As for Redo Backup, the CD boots right into the backup program. You click on the create backup or the restore backup icon, click to select/deselect the partitions to be backed up (the default is all of them, or the whole drive), and, lastly, select the destination drive (plus the path and filename, if applicable).

After that, it does the rest. If there's a simpler way to back a drive up than that, then tell me and I'll consider switching, as I like the easiest thing going, also.

Depending on how big the drive is, how full the drive is, and what OSs are on the drive to be backed up, Redo backups can take anywhere from 20 minutes to over 4 hours to create, but restorals are considerably faster - sometimes in as little as ten minutes for a freshly installed Linux-only system.

With that said, I hope you find a backup and restoral solution that is to your liking...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[Coastie]

At this time, I only plan on backing up my home folder which isn't very large. I have always read that it is safer just to reinstall the OS and applications in case of a crash. I will try checking to see if the back up is working.

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I guess it depends on how little (or how much) one has installed, and their particular circumstances.

In my situation, I run a dual LL/Windows 8.1 system with a LOT of added apps and data on several machines, so it's MUCH easier for me to back up periodically. It's saved my skin on a number of occasions, like when an HD died on me or an update went awry...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[Coastie]

Could I leave a USB stick or a CD in the computer waiting for the next automatic backup?

Would it be better not to use automatic backup and just put the USB or CD in when I want to do a backup?

[riser]

I suggest you look inyo Back In Time.  It is a simple to use program.

[Coastie]

I suggest you look inyo Back In Time.  It is a simple to use program.

I did but as I wrote before "Backintime-Gome was the highest reviewed in the Ubuntu Software Center but one of the reviews said "While I really like the backup process, I do not like the restore process. You have to install BIT manually when using a live CD/USB stick and you have to set the correct hostname. Otherwise BIT is not able to detect its own backup." Not sure what it means but sounds difficult."