how to backup

[John Sowden]

On 08/12/2014 07:23 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:49:32 -0700 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
>> 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.
> You can install tar and create tar files on the fat32 file systems:
>
> tar cpzvf /media/usbstick/home.tgz -C /home .
>
> The tar file will retain the original file permissions.
>
> It is possible to reformat usb sticks (or USB drives in general), esp. if the
> drives will only be used under Linux.
>
>> tia,
>> John
>>
thanks, I'll give it a go.

John