how to backup

[John R. Sowden]

I currently have ubuntu 13.10 and 14.10, but when I installed 14.10, it 
didn't replace 13.10 and it doesn't work.  I am using 13.10.

Now I want to install a vm and ubuntu 14.10 from bar metal.

My question is how do I backup my data.  I have usb hard drives, and 
sticks that are big enough, but they are formatted in FAT32.. I assume 
that I will loose my permissions, and possible other things if I copy 
the ext4 files to fat32.

tia,
John