What is MintBackup supposed to backup? Should I be using it?

[lduperval]

Hi,

I'm considering moving from 9 to 10. I did the first step (backing up) but the process hanged. After letting it run overnight, I came back and found it stuck, saying it processed 110,000 of 175,000 files. So I checked which files were backed up and which weren't. I couldn't figure out what the rules were. Some were obvious (e.g. the .cache folder wasn't backed up) but others weren't (some eclipse plugin directories, some directories in a development directory I have, a bin directory in my home directory containing a whole bunch of small scripts, etc.)

So before I go on with this approach, I have a few questions:

• What does mintBackup *not* backup?
• What about the mail spool (/var/mail) and the crontab spool (/var/spool/crons I think)?
• I installed a lot of stuff in /usr/local, do I have to back that up manually?
• I have many users defined on my system, not just my user, am I supposed to back up each user separately? Or just backup /home?
• What about /var/www (which contains Web applications such as Drupal or SugarCRM) and /var/lib/mysql (or whatever directory used for storing database data)? What's the approach for those?

Should I consider simply upgrading using the apt approach? Or a different way?

Thanks,

L

[germanix]

Mint backup will backup all of those files that you want to backup and leave out all of those that you do not want. It is for you to decide. The GUI allows you to add directories and/or files of your choosing which you do not want backed up. If you are going to do a new install (or upgrade) it is off course safer to make a backup but if you have a lot of files this could take some time.
If you have a separate home partition it makes it a lot easier every time you do a new install.
I would not recommend an upgrade, things could go wrong. A new install is better.

[lduperval]

Well... that's not the behaviour I'm seeing. I asked MB to backup everything in my home directory but it skipped a lot(!) of files, for no apparent reason. In another thread in this forum, I read that MB specifically did not backup config directories. So I assume there are some rules that it adheres to, I just can't figure them out just by analyzing wht was backed up and what was ignored.

L

[dhm]

I've been trying to use Mint Backup for a few days now and as far as I can tell it doesn't do anything.

I tried to backup my files to CDs but there is no listing for that. I tried selecting /media/cdrom but it just copied the files to that folder, not to the CD. Clem's tutorial is completely opaque as to where he was backing up files when he had "B250199F50196AFD". What is that???????

The list of software I supposedly installed is almost all software installed from the original disc. As an experiment I installed one game with 20 MB of dependencies. I created a folder and ran Mint Backup and directed it to back up to there. All it did was create a list of files to be reinstalled.

2 out of 3 of the internet providers in the United States have agreed to redefine "unlimited" to mean 300 MB a month. They figured that as the median used by Americans. The 3rd provider, Brighthouse, has not advertised that they will do anything different so they will soon go along. After that they charge $50 per 100 MB. So if you got the free game 0ad which is 300 MB you will probably find that the "backup" (actually a reinstall) of that game after an upgrade will put a $150 charge on your credit card.

[741cc]

I tried to backup my files to CDs but there is no listing for that. I tried selecting /media/cdrom but it just copied the files to that folder, not to the CD. Clem's tutorial is completely opaque as to where he was backing up files when he had "B250199F50196AFD". What is that???????

Not used the Mint Tool in years, though I do recall it not making much sense when I did. Might have just been incompetence on my part as a new user at the time though.

Have you tried burning the folder you made to disc(s)?

"B250199F50196AFD" looks like apartition label.
You might try grsync for backing up.
"man rsync" in a terminal will show instructions, the "g" in grsync is the front end, or GUI, for rsync

[Orbmiser]

Yep gave mintbackup a go found confusing. So settled on just taking a snapshot of partition which does a byte-byte mirror copy.
Using Redo Backup. http://redobackup.org/ does mirror copy of partitions. Uses same under the hood engine as Clonezilla but easier and simpler to use.

Backed up my win7,winxp & 3 of my Mint / /home & swap. Also make monthly snapshot of just / & /home to restore.
Makes it easy for me to install other distro's in those partitions. Set those up and usable for me and then back those up also.

That way have ongoing distro's I can switch too on the fly. Have Mint 14 Cinnamon,Ubuntu 12.10,Voyager 12.10,Fuduntu so far.
And can switch to any of them in 20 mins.

Disadvantages is no restore individual files and need to maintain the partition sizes and no changing the partitions around. Big plus is if Hardrive crashes can put in a new drive and restore Winxp,Win 7 & Mint and be back in business in 30-40 mins.
.

[Dyfi]

In my experience, imaging is the very best backup available. Clonezilla and Redobackup excellent.
FSarchiver also excellent, this will restore your OS to a different size partition (even smaller), ie USB Device.