How can i Back up my system?

[Hadi]

@everyone
Thanks for your posts and suggestions!
I'm sure googlers and other people who also seek to back up their system will consider this  thread useful.
What I did for backing up my own system was using rsync, I  synced my directory into my external hard drive. the command is like this:
sudo rsync -azvhP /home /backup
This will sync all the directories and files in my home to /backup.
Then I copied /backup to my external hard drive.
Now apperrently if I want to  sync back my back up, It would be like this:
sudo rsync -azvhP /backup/home  /home
I have not destroyed my system yet, So I never restored like this, but it  should work.

Thanks guys.

Hadi,
In looking for new additions to this thread, I discovered in reading your post on July 10th that you are blind. Are you using Sonar Linux, the distribution focused on assistive technology? If so, we would be interested in hearing how Sonar is working for you because there is now Sonar Linux 2014.1 Beta1, a new Manjaro Linux based distribution. If you didn't know about Sonar Linux 2014.1 Beta1, I hope its development is exciting news.
For those who may be unaware,
Sonar Linux includes:

• a screen reader for blind and low vision people called Orca.
• a magnification program to help magnify the screen for low vision people.
• an on-screen keyboard for people who have low motor skills and have difficulty using a keyboard. (The on-screen keyboard can be used with a mouse or trackball to navigate the keyboard on the screen.
• a font for people with dyslexia.

Sonar Linux  is focused on being the most accessible operating system available using Free assistive technology.
Sonar Linux 2014.1 Beta1 is online now!
http://manjaro.org/2014/06/29/sonar-linux-2014-1-beta1-is-online-now/
If you ever wanted greater involvement with the operating system and assistive technology you currently use, Sonar is for you. Join the mailing list and get involved. You can ask for feature request and also help to make Sonar better. Sonar is sponsored by the Accessible Computing Foundation. Come and join the community and take back control of your computing and assistive technology.
http://sonargnulinux.com/

Hello,
I indeed use sonar Linux, and It is awesome. the guys behind this project chose the right  OS to work on, because it always have the latest packages, and it is actively maintained,  and it's cool!
I wish Sonar Linux had a forum room in the community edition branch, So our community could stop using MailingLists for support.. We are too much quiet on the public.

Also, thanks for mentioning sonar and  suggesting it!

[Stefano Franzato]

Mint Backup:
yaourt -S mintbackup

Hello everybody!
 I tried to download and install mintbackup but, unfortunately, it doesn't manage to do this operation. What shall we do?

[gicoan]

I like deja-dup. i use it every week with an external 2 TB hd

[AJSlye]

sudo pacman -S base-devel
yaourt -S mintbackup

[Asta1986]

+1 on the clonezilla idea. I found it daunting at first but the step by step guides on the website are very easy to follow:

http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image

I have a dedicated pen drive for clonezilla. The first time I used it my old hard drive was giving up so I just cloned it onto a new one. The second time I used it I ran out of space so I cloned everything to a bigger hard drive. Its very handy.
Every year or so I use it to save an image onto an external hard drive just in case a tree falls on the house or something!

I use clonezilla too, if I remember correctly when you select beginner mode the whole process consists in pressing five times the return key (selecting drive-image mode, partition/drive to store/recover the image and selecting partition/drive to backup/restore).
A clean installation of Manjaro 0.8.10 I backed up which includes virtualbox, libreoffice, ms office, steam and wine installed only weights 5.8 GB or so, and restoring it takes about 10 minutes.

[c00ter]

Clonezilla backup/restore is a no-brainer. Just follow the prompts. I keep backups of several updated distros on an external HDD so that I can distrohop when the urge gets overwhelming.

A typical 8 GB backup takes about 15 minutes; restoring it takes about 10 minutes. I always run Bleachbit prior to doing a backup.  

[Stefano Franzato]

sudo pacman -S base-devel
yaourt -S mintbackup

Thank you very much. I will try it.

[CyberWolf2k14]

As you can tell from my sig, I am dual boot with Win XP as well as Manjaro.
I go to Win XP and am using the program Paragon Backup and Recovery 2014 Free.
Use it to back up my Manjaro install by backing up the / partition (which is simple for me as I only have root partition and swap partition. Anyway, with highest compression for backup it backs up to 2 DVD's (total in Manjaro is approx. 10Gb installed). Shrinks down to about 6 or 8 Gb.

Works like a champ for me. And yes, Paragon can handle EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 partitions quite well.

Just my 2cents worth. 

[CyberWolf2k14]

As you can tell from my sig, I am dual boot with Win XP as well as Manjaro.
I go to Win XP and am using the program Paragon Backup and Recovery 2014 Free.
Use it to back up my Manjaro install by backing up the / partition (which is simple for me as I only have root partition and swap partition. Anyway, with highest compression for backup it backs up to 2 DVD's (total in Manjaro is approx. 10Gb installed). Shrinks down to about 6 or 8 Gb.

Works like a champ for me. And yes, Paragon can handle EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 partitions quite well.

Just my 2cents worth. 

Forgot to mention, yes it will alow you to create a linux based boot recovery media. Good thing I made that a while back.
Unfortunately as can be seen by some of my other posts here (this forum) I should maybe have started backing up a wee bit sooner. 

[syafrizal]

Thank you for all the recommendation. I'm still newbie in using Manjaro and need to learn more how to use Manjaro.

[mxx]

Manjaro is a quickly developing rolling-release distro, so in my opinion it doesn't make sense to make perfect copies of it for backup and keep them around for long.

It is enough to just copy the home directory. This is a nobrainer done with rsync or any file manager.

Add a file with the list of packages to the backed-up home directory

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pacman -Qq > ~/packages.listTo restore the system:

1. reinstall the latest release
2. combine it with the backed-up home directory
3. apply the missing packages from the list

Obviously, if you tweaked some system files, then you need to tweak them again. Keep backups of those too.
Edit: keeping a copy of etc directory covers modified system files in my case.

[Lukimya]

i use LuckyBackup. great QT app

[Quaoar]

You should write app like MineBackup

[binary]

Hey here is another +1 for backintime. You can install it via aur (e.g. yaourt backintime)

backintime automates your backup processes. it can create full and incremental backups.

1: my files which are in /home/hadi/

for backintime: just add this directory to the included folders, then you will have included directories like .mozilla too (see 3.)
if you don't want to store the hidden folders, put them to the exclude list or just put your sub directories in /home/hadi to the include list

2: My applications that I installed, and it's settings.

(for example I have three mails connected to my thunderbird now, I want to  have my thunderbird settings also saved, and firefox +it's addons,  and some more apps)
e.g. firefox and thunderbird store their settings in your home folder (.mozilla and .thunderbird)
to show all installed packages use

Code: [Select]

pacman -Q

3: apps that I installed from yaourt, BTSync, for example.

Code: [Select]

pacman -Q (all packages)

4: I disabled some services to boot, and added some,, btsync and openvpn. I want this also to be backed up.

Code: [Select]

systemctl shows all services which are loaded

Code: [Select]

systemctl > services.txt writes the list into a file named services.txt (current directory)

5: My gnome settings, extentions and themes.

puh ... don't know. I'm using kde.
but I think these files should be in your home folder too (.gnome, .gnome2, .local)


I hope this gives you some additional hints.

Greetz

[sbaragnaus]

I use Clonezilla for cloning hard disk to an external usb HHD. I also use Back in Time a very useful software inspired to Apple Time Machine. Interface and documentation are not very clear, but once you get familiar with Back in Time you'll know how powerful is!

If you want to backup to an external hdd and (at the same time) to cloud, I'd suggest you Crashplan. It has a friendly interface, it's well documented, it's cheap and cloud has unlimited space. On the other side the gui is written in java and it need a lot of dedicated ram (even 512MB).