Backing Up Your Files
From Knowledge76
Contents |
Overview
Sometimes, users want to backup their data. If you have a working system, you can backup all of your data without haveing to use a LiveCD or LiveUSB system.
Note: For users who cannot log in to their computers, please see Recovering Files Using Live CD.
Backup using an External Hard Drive (Recommended)
The easiest way to backup your files is to use an external hard drive. They are getting relatively cheap for large capacity discs, and they are faster and easier to use than other methods.
Step One
Insert the USB cable from your external hard drive into one of the available USB ports on your computer. Wait for the disk to be mounted and appear on your desktop. You may also get a pop-up window regarding what to do with the disc. You can safely close this.
Step Two
Now, double click on the Icon on your desktop. A File Browser should open up. Now open your home folder (Places > Home Folder) and position the two windows so that both are visible. Copy folders you want to keep from your home folder to your External Hard Drive. Once you have finished, click on the eject icon next to the Hard Drive listing.
Note for USB Flash Drives
The instructions for backing up to a USB Flash drive are identical to the ones for External Hard Drives, except that many Flash Drives have a much lower capacity than external hard drives, and you may need to copy the files off the drive to another computer to copy all of your files over.
Backup using CDs or DVDs
The other way to backup your files is using Optical discs such as CDs and DVDs.
Note: Due to their low capacity, we do not recommend using CD media to back up files. Use DVDs instead.
Step One
Insert your blank disc in your computer's DVD drive. If you get a notification window asking what to do with the media, you can safely close it now.
Step Two
Open up Ubuntu's CD/DVD burning application, Brasero. It is located under Applications > Sound and Video > Brasero Disc Burner. Click on "Data Project".
Step Three
Open up your Home Folder (Places > Home Folder) and drag files and folders from there to the Brasero window.
Step Four
When you have dragged all of the files you want to keep, or the disc is full, click burn to burn the files to the disc. If you want to copy more files, insert another disc and continue copying.
Note: Depending on how much data you want to back up, you may need to use several discs. We recommend the use of DVD-RW media because they can be used more than once.
Restoring Your Data
After you have finished anything you want to do, you can re-insert the disc with your data on it and copy file from it to your new Home Folder.
