How to recover with a full backup?

[Chris Green]

On Sat, Dec 09, 2017 at 03:26:29PM +0100, Volker Wysk wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm making preparations for the case when I can no longer boot my machine, 
> and I'm not able to recover with the GRUB recovery mode. 
> 
> I have a full backup, which includes the system as well as personal data.
> 
> When I can't recover, I would install the system anew, from the Kubuntu 
> installation ISO. Then I would unpack my backup, in some directory /backup. 
> Now, how to get a running system again, from that? Could I just replace 
> the top level directories with ones from the backup? Such as: 
> 
> cd /
> mv /bin bin.tmp
> bin.tmp/mv backup/bin bin
> rm -r bin.tmp
> 
I think the above would be a recipe for disaster!

Work out what you actually *need* to back up.  I.e. what areas have
personal files and what areas have customisation.

Basically this *should* mean that what you need to back up is:-

    /home - all personal files and confguration
    /etc - there may be some system-wide configuration changes here, but only a few
    /usr/local - you might have added some things here

The to restore a working system you:-

    Install the new system
    Copy the backup /home over /home (or move like you suggest above)
    restore /usr/local
    Check what files are different in /etc and copy or not as required

There may be a few other areas to backup/restore, e.g. mysql databases
and web pages in /srv if you run a web server.

-- 
Chris Green