Restoring the computer to an earlier date

[vaidyanath]

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Is it possible like in MS Windows to restore the computer to an earlier date by which all the changes including the installed applications can be removed?

[oz]

So far as I know, restore points like found in Windows has not been implemented in Linux.

I usually do drive or system images when I get a system just the way I want it. Then, that image is easily restored when and if needed. I personally use FSArchiver for that purpose, but Clonezilla works well, too, Several other options for backup and recovery can be found here.

[Irithori]

Some additional points:

1) The package managers (both rpm and deb based) do provide consistent installs and removals of software.
No left overs in filesystem, apart from perhaps config files. And these are clearly marked.
So in linux, you dont need to have restoreoints just to get back to a previous state of a aplication/software

2) A fresh install of a linux box -in my experience- takes way less time than windows.
Basically save your $HOME somehwere else, install, update, copy the $HOME back.
I dare say, this can be done in ca 1h for my size of $HOME and my desktop systems.


So, the urge to have something like restore points is not that high, imho.

Although yes: Restorepoints are nice, and I would like to see such a feature implemented.

[sgosnell]

Not me. Restore points take up a LOT of disk space, and I don't have it available. If I need a restore point, I can make a backup of my system to an external drive. Everyone should do that regularly anyway. It's not that hard to set up a cron job to make a backup of your system regularly and put it either on an external drive or on the same internal drive. Windows restore points are just backups on the same HDD, without telling you. Linux doesn't hide it, it just makes you do it on your own. Most of us prefer it that way.

[legnoduro]

I also agree about the recursive absurdity of a restore backup stored on a hard drive that you would want to recover in the case of a crash. Clonzilla is very easy to use and works beautifully. I use it to clone a copy of my hdd onto an external drive. I have also used it to recover after my hard drive was trashed. It copied perfectly to a new hard drive and I was up and running without any problems.

[arunb]

How is Deja Dup Backup tool ??

[spg666]

You could install unionfs or aufs then all the changes made in the user partition could be deleted restoring your machine to the state in the system partition.

It effectively give you a single restore point.

[mrli]

If you are using btrfs or zfs filesystems you can try and use their snapshots feature. Check this article on subject.

(Somewhy Linux Forums does not let me post links)

blog . rot13 . org / 2010 / 02 / using_btrfs_snapshots_for_incremental_backup . html

[clarkem]

I also agree about the recursive absurdity of a restore backup stored on a hard drive that you would want to recover in the case of a crash.

Restore points are useful in windows - I've used them to recover from installation of NVidia drivers, many of which have proven unstable, and similar. Start the machine in command line safe mode and run the restore function. I also erased a particularly nasty bit of malware by restoring - the malware blocked all cleaning tools.

If a Linux box refused to boot after driver installation, then I'd guess that you would have to boot to a command line prompt then remove the driver.

[sgosnell]

Yes, there are cases where a restore from a backup on the same drive is useful. It's also convenient, because you don't have to connect another drive. However, it's not nearly as reliable as having the backup on a different drive. Personally, I prefer having the backup on another drive, since reliability is more important to me than convenience.