Monday, August 22, 2011

How to Backup your Linux Computer


Ever wondered what will you do in case of a disk or system failure. No? Even Linux can't protect you from disk or system failure! But in order to get around this problem, it provides an option to make a compressed backup of all your data. Cloud storage is a good option to back up all your files but for many of us, it's not enough. Here's how to back up your data using Simple Backup Suite that's preinstalled in your Linux distribution (Note: I am using Ubuntu, so the details may slightly differ if you are using a different distribution):

1. From the search bar, just type "backup" to bring up preinstalled options. I'll be using Simple Backup Suite.
2. From the first tab "General", configure Linux how often you want to perform a complete back up and what format, if any, to use for compression.
3. To add files and directories for backup select the "Include" tab. The default is pretty good for most users, but you may have some important files that deserve to be backed up, so be thorough! You only have to do this once.
4. Select the Exclude tab if you want to keep some files or subfolders from being archived. There's no special reason to do this unless you're trying to save space.
5. Make sure to select the Destination tab to pick your storage location. As with any other backup, you'll want it to be as secure as possible. A network location is probably best, though your needs may vary.
6. Schedule tab lets you set a schedule to do incremental backups of files that have changed since the last backup. This happens in the background and shouldn't interrupt your day-to-day work.
7. Click the disk icon at the top to save your settings, then click the drive icon to back up your files. The first backup process will take a while.

Once you're done with it, the only reason you'd need to revisit the tool is to change the frequency, location, or contents of your backups.

No comments:

Post a Comment