Hi, there's a lot of possibilities within the repository of Ubuntu with opensource software packages which can handle your request.
What I did: I bought an USB hard disk, started the computer with a GNU/Live linux cd (Knoppix)made partitions as on my system on the extarnal hd and used the dd command to copy the partitions as a whole to the external hd partitions.
For example dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc1
You have to check how your system is setup.
About a week ago I did the test to put back my system and it worked very well.
If you want to use a good backup system from within your runnin' system try these:
Open your package manager and search for backup, for example.
I give you a small overview:
:-)
> powerful disaster recovery suite
> Mondo is reliable. It backs up your Debian GNU/Linux server or workstation to
> tape, CD-R, CD-RW, NFS or hard disk partition. In the event of catastrophic
> data loss, you will be able to restore all of your data [or as much as you
> want], from bare metal if necessary. Mondo is in use by numerous blue-chip
> enterprises and large organizations, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of
> thousands of users.
>
> Mondo is comprehensive. Mondo supports LVM, RAID, ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS,
> ReiserFS, VFAT, and can support additional file systems easily. It supports
> adjustments in disk geometry, including migration from non-RAID to RAID. Mondo
> runs on all major Linux distributions and is getting better all the time. You
> may even use it to backup non-Linux partitions, such as NTFS.
>
> Homepage: http://www.mondorescue.org
:-)
> Client-Server Backup System (Server side)
> This is a client-server backup system offering several workstations a
> centralized backup to a special backup server. Backing up only one
> computer is easily possible, too. Any streaming device can be used
> for writing the data to it, usually this will be a tape
> device. Writing backups is normally done sequentially: The next
> writing to tape goes to the end of the previous write no matter where
> you have restored from in the meantime.
>
> Features:
> - Authentication of the client is performed before it can take over control
> - Access restriction for the streamer device -> security
> - Client-side per-file compression -> reliability
> - Data stream is written to tape in pieces -> fast finding of files
> - Tape position logging for each file
> - Tape capacity is fully used
> - Full / incremental backups
> - Raw partitions can be backed up
> - Client and Server buffering for maximal throughput is done
>
> Note: Tk is required if you want to use the graphical configuration
> tool instead of the text configuration tool.
:-)
> Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver (Server)
> Amanda is a backup system designed to archive many computers on a
> network to a single large-capacity tape drive. This package is
> suitable for large amounts of data to backup. For smaller solutions
> take a look at afbackup, tob, taper, ...
>
> Features:
> * will back up multiple machines in parallel to a holding disk, blasting
> finished dumps one by one to tape as fast as we can write files to
> tape. For example, a ~2 Gb 8mm tape on a ~240K/s interface to a host
> with a large holding disk can be filled by Amanda in under 4 hours.
> * built on top of standard backup software: Unix dump/restore, and
> later GNU Tar and others.
> * does simple tape management: will not overwrite the wrong tape.
> * supports tape changers via a generic interface. Easily customizable
> to any type of tape carousel, robot, or stacker that can be controlled
> via the unix command line.
> * for a restore, tells you what tapes you need, and finds the proper
> backup image on the tape for you.
> * recovers gracefully from errors, including down or hung machines.
> * reports results, including all errors in detail, in email to operators.
> * will dynamically adjust backup schedule to keep within constraints:
> no more juggling by hand when adding disks and computers to network.
> * includes a pre-run checker program, that conducts sanity checks on both
> the tape server host and all the client hosts (in parallel), and will
> send an e-mail report of any problems that could cause the backups to
> fail.
> * can compress dumps before sending or after sending over the net, with
> either compress or gzip.
> * can optionally synchronize with external backups, for those large
> timesharing computers where you want to do full dumps when the system
> is down in single-user mode (since BSD dump is not reliable on active
> filesystems): Amanda will still do your daily dumps.
> * lots of other options; Amanda is very configurable.
>
> For important notes, see /usr/share/doc/amanda-server/README.Debian.
>
> Explanation of suggested programs:
> - perl is needed for some non essential server utilities
> - gnuplot is needed for plotting statistics of backups
> - to backup the tape server, you need to install the client too
:-)
> low-maintenance backup/restore tool for mountable media
> backup2l [backup-too-l] is a tool for autonomously generating, maintaining
> and restoring backups on a mountable file system (e. g. hard disk). In a
> default installation, backups are created regularly by a cron script.
>
> The main design goals are low maintenance effort, efficiency, transparency
> and robustness. All control files are stored together with the archives on
> the backup device, and their contents are mostly self-explaining. Hence, a
> user can - if necessary - browse the files and extract archives manually.
>
> backup2l features differential backups at multiple hierarchical levels.
> This allows to generate small incremental backups at short intervals while
> at the same time, the total number of archives only increases
> logarithmically with the number of backups since the last full backup.
>
> An open driver architecture allows to use virtually any archiving
> program as a backend. Built-in drivers support .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, or .afioz
> files. Further user-defined drivers can be added.
>
> An integrated split-and-collect function allows to comfortably transfer all
> or selected archives to a set of CDs or other removable media.
:-)
> high-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up PCs
> BackupPC is disk based and not tape based. This particularity allows
> features not found in any other backup solution:
> * Clever pooling scheme minimizes disk storage and disk I/O.
> Identical files across multiple backups of the same or different PC are
> stored only once (using hard links), resulting in substantial savings
> in disk storage and disk writes.
> * Optional compression provides additional reductions in storage.
> CPU impact of compression is low since only new files (those not already
> in the pool) need to be compressed.
> * A powerful http/cgi user interface allows administrators to view log files,
> configuration, current status and allows users to initiate and cancel
> backups and browse and restore files from backups very quickly.
> * No client-side software is needed. On WinXX the smb protocol is used.
> On linux or unix clients, rsync or tar (over ssh/rsh/nfs) can be used
> * Flexible restore options. Single files can be downloaded from any backup
> directly from the CGI interface. Zip or Tar archives for selected files
> or directories can also be downloaded from the CGI interface.
> * BackupPC supports mobile environments where laptops are only intermittently
> connected to the network and have dynamic IP addresses (DHCP).
> * Flexible configuration parameters allow multiple backups to be performed
> in parallel.
> * and more to discover in the manual...
:-)
> Network backup, recovery and verification (Meta-package)
> Bacula is a set of computer programs that permit you (or the system
> administrator) to manage backup, recovery and verification of computer data
> across a network of computer of different kinds.
>
> Bacula is relatively easy to use and efficient, while offering many advanced
> storage management features that make it easy to find and recover lost or
> damaged files. Due to its modular design, Bacula is scalable from small single
> computer systems to systems consisting of hundreds of computers located over
> a large network.
>
> This meta-package provides the entire suite of bacula applications:
> job scheduling, storage control, node connector, and administrative console.
:-)
> a mirroring utility for backing up your files
> Backup Copy is basically a smart copy program that allows a user to
> copy mass files from one place to another. When coping over a
> previous copy, the key features will allow coping only of new or non
> existing files in the backup. This results in saving time and less
> load on the drive. Built into the same feature of copying new files
> only, is a file removal procedure. If a file is removed from the
> source path, the same file will be removed when the next backup is
> performed. This provides a backup that is exactly the same as the
> source without filling up the drive. As an added option, all files
> that will be overwritten or deleted when doing a copy over a previous
> backup, have the opportunity to be stored in a trash bin. You can
> leave this trash bin to grow and grow just in case you need a backup
> of your backup. When you start running out of disk space you will
> need to remove or clean up the trash bin.
:-)
> Disk ARchive: Backup directory tree and files
> Full featured archiver with support for differential backups, slices,
> compression, ATTR/ACL support. DAR also supports Pipes for remote
> operations, including with ssh.
:-)
> encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup
> Duplicity backs directories by producing encrypted tar-format volumes
> and uploading them to a remote or local file server. Because duplicity
> uses librsync, the incremental archives are space efficient and only
> record the parts of files that have changed since the last backup.
> Because duplicity uses GnuPG to encrypt and/or sign these archives, they
> will be safe from spying and/or modification by the server.
:-)
> backup tool using MiniDV camcorders
> Dvbackup hides the data it receives on standard input in a perfectly
> legal DV (digital video) stream. This allows you to use your DV camcorder
> and your DV cardridges as a potent mass storage system. Obviously, your
> system and your camcorder have to be connected via IEEE1394 (aka Firewire,
> iLink).
>
> Current digital camcorders can save approximately 13 GB of data on those
> tiny DV cartridges at a speed of 3.6 MB/sec. That's faster than most
> DAT streamers which only work at 1 MB/sec or less. dvbackup can not use all of
> the data, but 10 GB should be good enough for everyone.
>
> To bring the data on tape, you have to use an additional utility, called
> dvconnect, which is included in libdv-bin.
>
> This packages also contains rsbep, an implementation of a special version of
> the Reed-Solomon FEC (forward error correction) algorithm. rsbep also
> spreads the bytes of the resulting blocks out to give some protection
> against burst errors (e.g from tape-recordings). It should be used in a
> pipe together with dvbackup (before dvbackup while encoding and after
> it while decoding). rsbep should be sufficient to make the LP mode of
> your camcorder usable. This mode, which puts about 50% more data
> on the cardridge would otherwise be too error-prone. rsbep is the
> fast implementation in i386 assembler, rsbepC uses pure C and is
> significantly slower (about ten times).
>
> Website: /dvbackup.sourceforge.net/> and
> /www.s.netic.de/gfiala/rsbep.html>.
:-)
> Faubackup Backup System using a Filesystem for Storage
> This Program uses a filesystem on a hard drive for incremental
> and full backups.
> All Backups can easily be accessed by standard filesystem tools
> (ls, find, grep, cp, ...)
>
> Later Backups to the same filesystem will automatically be
> incremental, as unchanged files are only hard-linked with
> the existing version of the file.
:-)
> Flexible backup tool for small to medium sized installations
> Flexbackup is a flexible backup tool that works well for small to medium
> sized tasks for which solutions like amanda are overkill.
>
> It features:
> * Easy configuration
> * Uses afio, dump, GNU tar, cpio, star, pax, lha, or zip archivers
> * Full and numbered levels of incremental backup (similar to "dump")
> * Compression and buffering options for all backup types
> * Handles remote filesystems with ssh/rsh; no special services required
> * Writes to tapes, on-disk archive files, or on-disk directory trees
> * Keeps a table of contents so you know what archives are on each tape
> * Extensive logging options
:-)
> is the GNU data recovery tool Ddrescue
> it copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, cdrom, etc)
> to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
>
> gddrescue does not truncate the output file if not asked to.
> So, every time you run it on the same output file,
> it tries to fill in the gaps.
>
> The basic operation of ddrescue is fully automatic.
> That is, you don't have to wait for an error, stop the program,
> read the log, run it in reverse mode, etc.
> If you use the logfile feature of ddrescue, the data is rescued
> very efficiently (only the needed blocks are read).
> Also you can interrupt the rescue at any time and resume it later
> at the same point.
>
> Automatic merging of backups: If you have two or more damaged
> copies of a file, cdrom, etc, and run ddrescue on all of them,
> one at a time, with the same output file, you will probably obtain
> a complete and error-free file. This is so because the probability
> of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files
> is very low. Using the logfile, only the needed blocks are read from
> the second and successive copies.
>
> The logfile is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you
> can resume the rescue with little recopying. Also, the same logfile
> can be used for multiple commands that copy different areas of the
> file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
>
> gddrescue aligns its I/O buffer to the sector size so that it can be
> used to read from raw devices. For efficiency reasons, also aligns it
> to the memory page size if page size is a multiple of sector size.
:-)
> Concise and easy to use backup application for the desktop user
> HUBackup is short for Home User Backup System. As the
> name implies, this is a very simple, concise and easy to use backup
> application that uses the renowned and proven dar (Disk ARchive) to do
> the actual archiving. Emphasis has been on providing true and reliable progress
> indication throughout all operations, as well as the ability to cancel any
> operation at any given point. HUBackup mainly concerns with backing up your
> home folder data, allowing you to restore it in case of data loss.
:-)
> backup system for KDE
> Keep is an automatic backup program that allows users to set the parameters of
> the backup, including the frequency and the number of backups.
>
> Homepage: http://jr.falleri.free.fr/keep
:-)
> KDE system tray application that performs periodic backups
> Konserve is a small backup application for the KDE environment.
> It lives in the system tray and is able to create backups of
> several directories or files periodically.
>
> Konserve uses standard KDE network transparency to upload your
> backups to wherever you want (for example a ftp server). It is
> also possible to restore an incidently deleted file or
> directory from a backup file with just one mouse click.
>
> It supports drag and drop and provides a wizard that helps you
> with the first steps in using Konserve.
>
> Homepage: http://konserve.sourceforge.net/
:-)
> duplicate a directory by making a minimal set of changes
> mirrordir changes the mirror directory to be an exact replica of the
> control directory tree in every possible detail suitable for purposes
> of timed backup, locally or over FTP, or over a secure tcp
> connection. Files whose modification times or sizes differ are
> copied. File permissions, ownerships, modification times, access
> times, and sticky bits are duplicated. Devices, pipes, and symbolic
> and hard links are duplicated. Files or directories that exist in
> the mirror directory that don't exist in the control directory are
> deleted. It naturally descends into subdirectories to all their
> depths. mirrordir tries to be as efficient as possible by making the
> minimal set of changes necessary to mirror the directory.
:-)
> Simple Backup Suite for desktop use
> Simple Backup Suite is a set of backend backup daemon and Gnome
> GUI frontends that provide a simple yet powerful backup
> solution for common desktop users.
>
> Backups can be written to local directory or remote servers using
> Gnome VFS technology. A fine control is possible regarding what
> folders and files to backup. Files can be excluded even with a set
> of regular expressions. Regular backups can be scheduled.
>
> This tool has been written with Google sponsorship during Summer
> of Code 2005 with mentoring help from Ubuntu.
:-)
kwantum
7 Posts
0
October 10th, 2007 07:00
What I did: I bought an USB hard disk, started the computer with a GNU/Live linux cd (Knoppix)made partitions as on my system on the extarnal hd and used the dd command to copy the partitions as a whole to the external hd partitions.
For example dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc1
You have to check how your system is setup.
About a week ago I did the test to put back my system and it worked very well.
If you want to use a good backup system from within your runnin' system try these:
Open your package manager and search for backup, for example.
I give you a small overview:
:-)
> powerful disaster recovery suite
> Mondo is reliable. It backs up your Debian GNU/Linux server or workstation to
> tape, CD-R, CD-RW, NFS or hard disk partition. In the event of catastrophic
> data loss, you will be able to restore all of your data [or as much as you
> want], from bare metal if necessary. Mondo is in use by numerous blue-chip
> enterprises and large organizations, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of
> thousands of users.
>
> Mondo is comprehensive. Mondo supports LVM, RAID, ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS,
> ReiserFS, VFAT, and can support additional file systems easily. It supports
> adjustments in disk geometry, including migration from non-RAID to RAID. Mondo
> runs on all major Linux distributions and is getting better all the time. You
> may even use it to backup non-Linux partitions, such as NTFS.
>
> Homepage: http://www.mondorescue.org
:-)
> Client-Server Backup System (Server side)
> This is a client-server backup system offering several workstations a
> centralized backup to a special backup server. Backing up only one
> computer is easily possible, too. Any streaming device can be used
> for writing the data to it, usually this will be a tape
> device. Writing backups is normally done sequentially: The next
> writing to tape goes to the end of the previous write no matter where
> you have restored from in the meantime.
>
> Features:
> - Authentication of the client is performed before it can take over control
> - Access restriction for the streamer device -> security
> - Client-side per-file compression -> reliability
> - Data stream is written to tape in pieces -> fast finding of files
> - Tape position logging for each file
> - Tape capacity is fully used
> - Full / incremental backups
> - Raw partitions can be backed up
> - Client and Server buffering for maximal throughput is done
>
> Note: Tk is required if you want to use the graphical configuration
> tool instead of the text configuration tool.
:-)
> Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver (Server)
> Amanda is a backup system designed to archive many computers on a
> network to a single large-capacity tape drive. This package is
> suitable for large amounts of data to backup. For smaller solutions
> take a look at afbackup, tob, taper, ...
>
> Features:
> * will back up multiple machines in parallel to a holding disk, blasting
> finished dumps one by one to tape as fast as we can write files to
> tape. For example, a ~2 Gb 8mm tape on a ~240K/s interface to a host
> with a large holding disk can be filled by Amanda in under 4 hours.
> * built on top of standard backup software: Unix dump/restore, and
> later GNU Tar and others.
> * does simple tape management: will not overwrite the wrong tape.
> * supports tape changers via a generic interface. Easily customizable
> to any type of tape carousel, robot, or stacker that can be controlled
> via the unix command line.
> * for a restore, tells you what tapes you need, and finds the proper
> backup image on the tape for you.
> * recovers gracefully from errors, including down or hung machines.
> * reports results, including all errors in detail, in email to operators.
> * will dynamically adjust backup schedule to keep within constraints:
> no more juggling by hand when adding disks and computers to network.
> * includes a pre-run checker program, that conducts sanity checks on both
> the tape server host and all the client hosts (in parallel), and will
> send an e-mail report of any problems that could cause the backups to
> fail.
> * can compress dumps before sending or after sending over the net, with
> either compress or gzip.
> * can optionally synchronize with external backups, for those large
> timesharing computers where you want to do full dumps when the system
> is down in single-user mode (since BSD dump is not reliable on active
> filesystems): Amanda will still do your daily dumps.
> * lots of other options; Amanda is very configurable.
>
> For important notes, see /usr/share/doc/amanda-server/README.Debian.
>
> Explanation of suggested programs:
> - perl is needed for some non essential server utilities
> - gnuplot is needed for plotting statistics of backups
> - to backup the tape server, you need to install the client too
:-)
> low-maintenance backup/restore tool for mountable media
> backup2l [backup-too-l] is a tool for autonomously generating, maintaining
> and restoring backups on a mountable file system (e. g. hard disk). In a
> default installation, backups are created regularly by a cron script.
>
> The main design goals are low maintenance effort, efficiency, transparency
> and robustness. All control files are stored together with the archives on
> the backup device, and their contents are mostly self-explaining. Hence, a
> user can - if necessary - browse the files and extract archives manually.
>
> backup2l features differential backups at multiple hierarchical levels.
> This allows to generate small incremental backups at short intervals while
> at the same time, the total number of archives only increases
> logarithmically with the number of backups since the last full backup.
>
> An open driver architecture allows to use virtually any archiving
> program as a backend. Built-in drivers support .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, or .afioz
> files. Further user-defined drivers can be added.
>
> An integrated split-and-collect function allows to comfortably transfer all
> or selected archives to a set of CDs or other removable media.
:-)
> high-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up PCs
> BackupPC is disk based and not tape based. This particularity allows
> features not found in any other backup solution:
> * Clever pooling scheme minimizes disk storage and disk I/O.
> Identical files across multiple backups of the same or different PC are
> stored only once (using hard links), resulting in substantial savings
> in disk storage and disk writes.
> * Optional compression provides additional reductions in storage.
> CPU impact of compression is low since only new files (those not already
> in the pool) need to be compressed.
> * A powerful http/cgi user interface allows administrators to view log files,
> configuration, current status and allows users to initiate and cancel
> backups and browse and restore files from backups very quickly.
> * No client-side software is needed. On WinXX the smb protocol is used.
> On linux or unix clients, rsync or tar (over ssh/rsh/nfs) can be used
> * Flexible restore options. Single files can be downloaded from any backup
> directly from the CGI interface. Zip or Tar archives for selected files
> or directories can also be downloaded from the CGI interface.
> * BackupPC supports mobile environments where laptops are only intermittently
> connected to the network and have dynamic IP addresses (DHCP).
> * Flexible configuration parameters allow multiple backups to be performed
> in parallel.
> * and more to discover in the manual...
:-)
> Network backup, recovery and verification (Meta-package)
> Bacula is a set of computer programs that permit you (or the system
> administrator) to manage backup, recovery and verification of computer data
> across a network of computer of different kinds.
>
> Bacula is relatively easy to use and efficient, while offering many advanced
> storage management features that make it easy to find and recover lost or
> damaged files. Due to its modular design, Bacula is scalable from small single
> computer systems to systems consisting of hundreds of computers located over
> a large network.
>
> This meta-package provides the entire suite of bacula applications:
> job scheduling, storage control, node connector, and administrative console.
:-)
> a mirroring utility for backing up your files
> Backup Copy is basically a smart copy program that allows a user to
> copy mass files from one place to another. When coping over a
> previous copy, the key features will allow coping only of new or non
> existing files in the backup. This results in saving time and less
> load on the drive. Built into the same feature of copying new files
> only, is a file removal procedure. If a file is removed from the
> source path, the same file will be removed when the next backup is
> performed. This provides a backup that is exactly the same as the
> source without filling up the drive. As an added option, all files
> that will be overwritten or deleted when doing a copy over a previous
> backup, have the opportunity to be stored in a trash bin. You can
> leave this trash bin to grow and grow just in case you need a backup
> of your backup. When you start running out of disk space you will
> need to remove or clean up the trash bin.
:-)
> Disk ARchive: Backup directory tree and files
> Full featured archiver with support for differential backups, slices,
> compression, ATTR/ACL support. DAR also supports Pipes for remote
> operations, including with ssh.
:-)
> encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup
> Duplicity backs directories by producing encrypted tar-format volumes
> and uploading them to a remote or local file server. Because duplicity
> uses librsync, the incremental archives are space efficient and only
> record the parts of files that have changed since the last backup.
> Because duplicity uses GnuPG to encrypt and/or sign these archives, they
> will be safe from spying and/or modification by the server.
:-)
> backup tool using MiniDV camcorders
> Dvbackup hides the data it receives on standard input in a perfectly
> legal DV (digital video) stream. This allows you to use your DV camcorder
> and your DV cardridges as a potent mass storage system. Obviously, your
> system and your camcorder have to be connected via IEEE1394 (aka Firewire,
> iLink).
>
> Current digital camcorders can save approximately 13 GB of data on those
> tiny DV cartridges at a speed of 3.6 MB/sec. That's faster than most
> DAT streamers which only work at 1 MB/sec or less. dvbackup can not use all of
> the data, but 10 GB should be good enough for everyone.
>
> To bring the data on tape, you have to use an additional utility, called
> dvconnect, which is included in libdv-bin.
>
> This packages also contains rsbep, an implementation of a special version of
> the Reed-Solomon FEC (forward error correction) algorithm. rsbep also
> spreads the bytes of the resulting blocks out to give some protection
> against burst errors (e.g from tape-recordings). It should be used in a
> pipe together with dvbackup (before dvbackup while encoding and after
> it while decoding). rsbep should be sufficient to make the LP mode of
> your camcorder usable. This mode, which puts about 50% more data
> on the cardridge would otherwise be too error-prone. rsbep is the
> fast implementation in i386 assembler, rsbepC uses pure C and is
> significantly slower (about ten times).
>
> Website: /dvbackup.sourceforge.net/> and
> /www.s.netic.de/gfiala/rsbep.html>.
:-)
> Faubackup Backup System using a Filesystem for Storage
> This Program uses a filesystem on a hard drive for incremental
> and full backups.
> All Backups can easily be accessed by standard filesystem tools
> (ls, find, grep, cp, ...)
>
> Later Backups to the same filesystem will automatically be
> incremental, as unchanged files are only hard-linked with
> the existing version of the file.
:-)
> Flexible backup tool for small to medium sized installations
> Flexbackup is a flexible backup tool that works well for small to medium
> sized tasks for which solutions like amanda are overkill.
>
> It features:
> * Easy configuration
> * Uses afio, dump, GNU tar, cpio, star, pax, lha, or zip archivers
> * Full and numbered levels of incremental backup (similar to "dump")
> * Compression and buffering options for all backup types
> * Handles remote filesystems with ssh/rsh; no special services required
> * Writes to tapes, on-disk archive files, or on-disk directory trees
> * Keeps a table of contents so you know what archives are on each tape
> * Extensive logging options
:-)
> is the GNU data recovery tool Ddrescue
> it copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, cdrom, etc)
> to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
>
> gddrescue does not truncate the output file if not asked to.
> So, every time you run it on the same output file,
> it tries to fill in the gaps.
>
> The basic operation of ddrescue is fully automatic.
> That is, you don't have to wait for an error, stop the program,
> read the log, run it in reverse mode, etc.
> If you use the logfile feature of ddrescue, the data is rescued
> very efficiently (only the needed blocks are read).
> Also you can interrupt the rescue at any time and resume it later
> at the same point.
>
> Automatic merging of backups: If you have two or more damaged
> copies of a file, cdrom, etc, and run ddrescue on all of them,
> one at a time, with the same output file, you will probably obtain
> a complete and error-free file. This is so because the probability
> of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files
> is very low. Using the logfile, only the needed blocks are read from
> the second and successive copies.
>
> The logfile is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you
> can resume the rescue with little recopying. Also, the same logfile
> can be used for multiple commands that copy different areas of the
> file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
>
> gddrescue aligns its I/O buffer to the sector size so that it can be
> used to read from raw devices. For efficiency reasons, also aligns it
> to the memory page size if page size is a multiple of sector size.
:-)
> Concise and easy to use backup application for the desktop user
> HUBackup is short for Home User Backup System. As the
> name implies, this is a very simple, concise and easy to use backup
> application that uses the renowned and proven dar (Disk ARchive) to do
> the actual archiving. Emphasis has been on providing true and reliable progress
> indication throughout all operations, as well as the ability to cancel any
> operation at any given point. HUBackup mainly concerns with backing up your
> home folder data, allowing you to restore it in case of data loss.
:-)
> backup system for KDE
> Keep is an automatic backup program that allows users to set the parameters of
> the backup, including the frequency and the number of backups.
>
> Homepage: http://jr.falleri.free.fr/keep
:-)
> KDE system tray application that performs periodic backups
> Konserve is a small backup application for the KDE environment.
> It lives in the system tray and is able to create backups of
> several directories or files periodically.
>
> Konserve uses standard KDE network transparency to upload your
> backups to wherever you want (for example a ftp server). It is
> also possible to restore an incidently deleted file or
> directory from a backup file with just one mouse click.
>
> It supports drag and drop and provides a wizard that helps you
> with the first steps in using Konserve.
>
> Homepage: http://konserve.sourceforge.net/
:-)
> duplicate a directory by making a minimal set of changes
> mirrordir changes the mirror directory to be an exact replica of the
> control directory tree in every possible detail suitable for purposes
> of timed backup, locally or over FTP, or over a secure tcp
> connection. Files whose modification times or sizes differ are
> copied. File permissions, ownerships, modification times, access
> times, and sticky bits are duplicated. Devices, pipes, and symbolic
> and hard links are duplicated. Files or directories that exist in
> the mirror directory that don't exist in the control directory are
> deleted. It naturally descends into subdirectories to all their
> depths. mirrordir tries to be as efficient as possible by making the
> minimal set of changes necessary to mirror the directory.
:-)
> Simple Backup Suite for desktop use
> Simple Backup Suite is a set of backend backup daemon and Gnome
> GUI frontends that provide a simple yet powerful backup
> solution for common desktop users.
>
> Backups can be written to local directory or remote servers using
> Gnome VFS technology. A fine control is possible regarding what
> folders and files to backup. Files can be excluded even with a set
> of regular expressions. Regular backups can be scheduled.
>
> This tool has been written with Google sponsorship during Summer
> of Code 2005 with mentoring help from Ubuntu.
:-)