On 16/09/10 08:58, Norman Silverstone wrote: > I frequently read that, before carrying out various operations, one > should first backup the home folder. Does this mean simply taking a CD > and copying the home folder to it?
This is absolutely possible although probably not totally necessary. > Assuming that this is correct does it mean that if I mess things up or > even have to re-install Ubuntu from scratch, copying this home folder > back into the new installation will restore such things as my email > address book and stored emails, for example? I keep /home on a separate partition as do many others. Although I am led to believe that a new Ubuntu install can be told to leave your home directory alone and all will be well. Backing up /home/username will store all your settings and data - that which isn't stored elsewhere of course ;-) One gotcha that you should be aware of when using a fresh operating system install is that usernames and groups in linux are actually really numbers (UID and GID) and the name is mapped to the UID in /etc/passwd. If you are the first user (the admin user) on Ubuntu your UID should be 1000 - try typing ls -n in a terminal window. When you install a new system the user you create during that install is assigned the UID and GID 1000. Clearly, if you back up your home/username directory and you are not the first user (perhaps your UID is 1002 for example) then you will need to be aware of this and change the UID/GID of your home directory's data. There are quite a few files in /home that do not really need backing up and can take up quite a bit of space - I'm instantly thinking of .thumbnails/ & .local/share/Trash FWIW, I run a small script that backs up several parts of all our computers every night. I back up: /home /etc and /var and exclude directories such as above and any temporary files, e.g files ending with ~ Hope this helps. Alan -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
