How to Backup and Restore Ubuntu 13.10.

A few weeks ago the hard drive on my computer went bad on me. I could not even boot the computer to try to copy anything to a flash drive. The good news is none of this mattered to me. I had a complete back up of everything I needed and did not have to worry about a thing. I just simply put a new hard drive in and restored everything that I needed. I was up and going in less than 2 hours. Could you imagine how long I would have been trying to get back going if I didn’t have a good backup in place? I might have spent days working on a bad drive trying to get a few extra files off of it.

Whether you like it or not having a good backup system in place is a must. You do not want to lose your hard work or those invaluable pictures of your family. This tutorial will show you how to get started with backing up and restoring your Ubuntu 13.10 computer using tools that are provided by default in Ubuntu 13.10.

The first thing you need to do is to open the backup tool. To do this just go to the Dash and search for “backup” and launch the backup utility as shown below.

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When the Backup Utility opens up you will be able to select Backup and then you will be given the option to turn on Automatic Backups. I highly recommend turning on Automatic Backups so that you can set it and forget it. You do not want to worry about having to remember to backup every day or week. You will also see what is going to be backed up and where to. Your can also run an immediate back up by clicking “Back Up Now” This will all be shown on the “Overview” tab.

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On the Storage tab you will be able to set your backup location. The Backup Utility has many options to choose from as shown in the screenshot below.

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On the Folders tab you will be able to select the folders that you are wanting to backup. You can also select the folders that you are wanting to ignore. An Example of this is to back up my home folder but to ignore the files that are in the Trash. The Image below shows the Folders tab.

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The last tab is the Schedule tab. This tab allows you to pick how often you want to back up your files and folders and for how long to keep the backup.

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If you are wanting to restore your computer from a backup then you can go back to the Overview tab and click on “Restore”. A popup windows will then ask you where the backup is that you want to restore. Again there are many options to choose from.

If you have any questions about backing up or restoring Ubuntu 13.10 feel free to leave a comment below. Also, if you know anyone using Ubuntu 13.10 that you feel could benefit from this article please share this article with them.