After system didaster how to prepare / save most important data ?

[Catalin David]

SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux wrote:
> Hi Paul
> Thanks for your efforts and feedback !
>
> On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 14:53 +1000, Paul Dwerryhouse wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 11:27:17AM +0800, SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux wrote:
>>     
>>> 1st: Save /home completely to a USB stick or external USB HDD !
>>>       
>
> Just tried "Cut and Paste" of /home to a USB stick and failed with an
> error message ;-(
>
>
>   
There is a program out there (just tested it myself, unluckily) dd_rhelp 
(just google it) (IN CASE YOU HAVE ERRORS ON YOUR HDD -- and, 
apparently, you do). Basically, you copy the archive of the program on 
the disk, extract it somewhere, and then do ./dd_rhelp input_file/folder 
output_file/folder -- i'm not very sure about the order of the 
parameters. You can set the output to be an .img file which you will 
burn to a dvd or so or just another file -- haven't tried the iso, but I 
read it works...
>>> 2nd: additionally Backup Evolution to a separate USB stick !!
>>> 3rd - Thunderbird offers an import feature: How do I get Thunderbird's
>>> data exported ???
>>>       
>
> How to get TB's data exported or saved is quite important !
>
>   
Get the folder .mozilla-thunderbird in your home. If you don't see it 
from Nautilus, then Ctrl+H (to show hidden folders) and then copy it to 
a disc.
>
> No, data size is already OVER 4GB and therefor I didn't consider nor
> mention DVD !
> Available are these already mentioned USB sticks (8GB) and an external
> USB or TCP/IP HDD drive with 200GB !
>   
You can backup your data to the HDD -- again, I don't know if it works 
for network hard-drives, but, you can try. I have just tried with an USB 
stick that was corrupted.

Hope this helps,
Catalin

P.S.: If there are many errors, on the HDD, as I've read on the website, 
it could take some time (they said that about 2 weeks for a really 
damaged 60GB drive).