Restoring backup after upgrading Ubuntu

[Madhulika]

Hi,
I am planning to perform a Ubuntu upgrade. But before that I need to backup data just to ensure that I can restore them back after upgrade. I need some tips and suggestion for that. What are the different backup options available in Ubuntu. Then what is the process of restoration. Does if I leave the data as it is then does upgrade will clear that after installation.

[Raine]

I just updated my Xubuntu distribution to version 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon. First and foremost, I wanted to save my data safe in case of trouble. Here is a safe and simple way to create a disk image that you can restore if a problem unfortunately happened to your system. You can use afbackup which is a open source tool that can be used to backup your data. Use this before running any upgrade.

[Eric B]

There are Lots of ways to create an image backup on Linux. These included the presence of specialized utility such as Ghost for Linux or excellent Partimage. However, it is possible to create simple, and without installing anything, an archive of your system using the tar command. The benefits are quite numerous like nothing to install, you can continue working while tar works in the background. The procedure is simple: A command to create the archive, one for the restore. No need to use a live CD and no need to remove the partitions that you want to save.

[Glenny]

We must first place ourselves at the root of the disc and become root to start the backup by the command console. For this type cd / sudo su. Then execute the following command, who will create the archive - tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys / . It is simply to create a tgz archive format, which will include your entire system, except the directories specified in the exclude parameter. A few (dozen) minutes later, your backup backup.tgz sits proudly at the root of the drive. It'll just put it away for future use, eg on a CD / DVD, or on another partition.

[JonathanD]

The following command will restore your data as they were when you created the backup. Attention restoring the backup, all your current files will be replaced by those contained in the backup. tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /. By this command the entire backup file we restored back to your default directories. But take care that you must be familiar with the different command console.

[Macarenas]

Here is a more easy to taking backup before upgrading. You can use a tool called Amanda. It is a program well-suited for enterprises with a park and wishing to set up computer backups. Indeed Amanda saves data to an entire network and no matter that it is Windows or Linux / Unix. The application supports all types of backup media: tapes, disks, optical media, etc.