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I have been looking around but I cannot seem to find anything that will do a full system backup. Programs like deja dup let you pick which folders to backup but I want the entire Ubuntu OS and everything on it backed up onto an external hard drive. There are probably ways to do it in the terminal but I don't like to do those kind of things in the terminal and would rather have a GUI for this. Does anyone know of an application that can do FULL system backups and if so how?

spot9901
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    Just keep in mind "full backup" is not necessary and the resulting backups are large. You only need to back up user files (/home and /root) as well as any system files you edit. Personally when editing system files, I advise you make a backup (I save the original file as file.org), leave a comment as to you configuration (comments usually start with a # or a ;), and keep a copy of the file(s) in /root (such /root/etc/file). The only other exception would be servers, and in that case you would back up the server data (config files and /var/www for example). – Panther Dec 18 '13 at 17:58
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    You can also generate a list of all installed packages. See http://askubuntu.com/questions/9135/best-way-to-backup-all-settings-list-of-installed-packages-tweaks-etc – Panther Dec 18 '13 at 18:00
  • So what you are saying is if I just backup /home and /root I can get Ubuntu back to the way it is now even if something happens and Ubuntu gets messed up? – spot9901 Dec 18 '13 at 18:00
  • See the link I just gave you. I use to do a "full back up" in the way you are asking, but the resulting backup files are large and more difficult to restore, IMO. – Panther Dec 18 '13 at 18:02
  • Does root infer home if residing on the same partition? – fleamour Nov 29 '19 at 13:36

2 Answers2

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You can use Deja-dup for this. If you want to just backup all of your files, then you just have to set Deja-dup to backup your entire system. Make sure the Deja-dup does not backup your backup location or it will run into problems. If you are backing up to an external hard drive it will probably be mounted under /media/$USER.

I would recommend creating a system image because it saves all of your partitions and can be used to do a full system restore. It is common practice to do small backups of your home directory every day and then every week create a new system image. This way if your system gets breached, you can just restore a previous system configuration without worrying about your system getting screwed up.

John
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    Would you happen to know what setting in Deja-dup will do a full backup because as I am looking at it I cannot find a way to do a full backup with Deja-dup. – spot9901 Dec 18 '13 at 17:57
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    You have to go to backup folders and select the root directory. Make sure that you exclude your backup directory! If you need pictures let me know. – John Dec 18 '13 at 17:59
  • @John Is the file created by using "DD" to create a system image a true system image and not a "diff" backup? In other words, could I use it to restore my system on to a "blank" hard drive? – Robert Oschler Aug 21 '17 at 09:40
  • @RobertOschler When you use DD you are creating a raw representation of the disk as a file. So yes, all you would do is create the image file using dd, then write the image file to a device using dd. The drawback of this is that there is no compression so you need a hard drive that is at least the size of the source hard drive to do the backup. – John Aug 23 '17 at 15:49
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Use clonezilla on live CD/USB, its free and powerful. With this you'll be able to fully backup/restore disks/partitions including OS, userdata, etc..

Check : http://clonezilla.org/

Follow this to use : http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php#use

yilmi
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    Clonezilla is the best, but every time you want to do a system image you have to boot off of the live CD. It's worth it to have the extra backups though =) – John Dec 18 '13 at 17:58