Simple Backup problems

[Thorny]

On Sat, 16 May 2009 18:34:35 +0600, Faizan Kazi posted:

> Can TimeVault, Flyback, Backintime, rsync and other such softwares that
> copy file by file really be used to completely restore a system?
> 
> For example:
> if i completely backup my linux partition starting at "/" (excluding a
> couple folders like /dev, /proc, /sys, /tmp, ~/.openoffice, ~/.nautilus);
> then if i format my partition;
> re-install a new copy of the same version of Ubuntu I was using before on
> this partition (I suppose I need to perform this step to install working
> linux files that were not backed up); restore all the backed up files;
> then *everything* will be just as it was at the time the backup was made?
> all my programs should run fine and retain all the data from the snapshot?
> [...]

Well, just from looking at what you propose, not "everything" will be the
same. Your openoffice and nautilus would have default values because
you've made the choice to not back them up.