What is your "backup" plan?

[oz]

I feel pretty sure that the majority of Linux users don't bother to make backups of their systems, but a poll might help to give us some idea how many do, and how many don't.

So, how about you... do you make full system backups, or incremental backups, and if so, how often do you make them?

Describing your backup plan and the software that you use for that purpose might help others to get started with their own backup plan.

[rokytnji]

I'll bite a little here Ozar. On my Gnome Desktop I use yourgnome - Project Hosting on Google Code to back up Gnome.

For AntiX I have a backup button in Control Center that backs up most everything into a tar.gz in /home.

Anything Else I think that is important I will just back up into a external IDE Hardrive I have individually.

[aperla]

I'm not smart enough to back up anything as far as systems go....I do backup docs and such....

[Lazydog]

I backup my system nightly.

[Cabhan]

I have something of a homebrew backup job. I basically wrote a script that takes a list of directories / files that I specify and rsyncs them to my external hard drive. I run this as a nightly cron job.

The main flaw with this is that it only provides a single, most-recent backup, so I can't revert any changes to files. However, I don't have rsync delete anything when it syncs, so deleted files still remain on my external.

I like this because it allows me fine control over what gets backed up. I basically only backup my documents, program source code that I've written, and very important config files (my vimrc, for instance).

[MikeTbob]

I backup all my Media files, all things that are important, but I'm a terrible slacker when it comes to system backups. I'd rather do a new install than perform a backup. It's more fun to me.

[elija]

I use software called Back in Time. I have a snapshot taken every hour. That sounds expensive in disk space but if a file hasn't changed then a hard link is created to the last time it did.

It's quick too as it's a front end to rsync

[bigtomrodney]

I backup my personal documents about once a month, photos and such are kept pretty much up to date all of the time. I backup all music regularly aside from also having it on my iPod and I keep what I consider to be "critical" video. It's all on an external 500GB drive but it's a bit tight as my main system is 1x74GB and 2x1TB. I might take a look at Back-In-Time.

[teenytinylinuxgrl]

I just keep copies of the important stuff (documents, pictures, music mostly) on a few CDs, and make new backups of the data only if it changes. And I keep my installation disk handy in case of a meltdown. Installation is so easy anyway, and I've read that a fresh install has some advantages anyway.

Amy

[M-88]

My linux machines I do a cp -rf * to a network share.
My windows machines I run norton ghost backup every week
My data is backed up to the external hard drive using a simple program.

And they are always stored in a different building or my car.