Translations by Leon Miklosik

Verify your backup was successful.

Check your backup

After you have backed up your files, you should make sure that the backup was successful. If it didn't work properly, you could lose important data since some files could be missing from the backup.

When you use the file manager to copy or move files, the computer checks to make sure that all of the data transferred correctly. However, if you are transferring data that is very important to you, you may want to perform additional checks to confirm that your data has been transferred properly.

You can do an extra check by looking through the copied files and folders on the destination media. By checking to make sure that the files and folders you transferred are actually there in the backup, you can have extra confidence that the process was successful.

If you find that you do regular backups of large amounts of data, you may find it easier to use a dedicated backup program, such as <app>Déjà Dup</app>. Such a program is more powerful and more reliable than just copying and pasting files.

Learn how often you should backup your important files to make sure that they're safe.

Frequency of backups

How often you make backups will depend on the type of data to be backed up. For example, if you are running a network environment with critical data stored on your servers, then even nightly backups may not be enough.

On the other hand, if you are backing up the data on your home computer then hourly backups would likely be unnecessary. You may find it helpful to consider the following points when planning your backup schedule:

The amount of time you spend on the computer.

How often and by how much the data on the computer changes.

If the data you want to back up is lower priority, or subject to few changes, like music, e-mails and family photos, then weekly or even monthly backups may suffice. However, if you happen to be in the middle of a tax audit, more frequent backups may be necessary.

As a general rule, the amount of time in between backups should be no more than the amount of time you are willing to spend re-doing any lost work. For example, if spending a week re-writing lost documents is too long for you, you should back up at least once per week.

Use Déjà Dup (or some other backup application) to make copies of your valuable files and settings to protect against loss.

How to back up

The help for your chosen backup application will walk you through setting your preferences for the backup, as well as how to restore your data.

An alternative option is to <link xref="files-copy">copy your files</link> to a safe location, such as an external hard drive, another computer on the network, or a USB drive. Your <link xref="backup-thinkabout">personal files</link> and settings are usually in your Home folder, so you can copy them from there.

The amount of data you can back up is limited by the size of the storage device. If you have the room on your backup device, it is best to back up the entire Home folder with the following exceptions:

Files that are already backed up somewhere else, such as to a CD, DVD, or other removable media.

Files that you can recreate easily. For example, if you are a programmer, you don't have to back up the files that get produced when you compile your programs. Instead, just make sure that you back up the original source files.

Any files in the Trash folder. Your Trash folder can be found in <file>~/.local/share/Trash</file>.

Retrieve your files from a backup.

Restore a backup

If you lost or deleted some of your files, but you have a backup of them, you can restore them from the backup:

If you created your backup using a backup application such as <app>Déjà Dup</app>, it is recommended that you use the same application to restore your backup. Review the application help for your backup program: it will provide specific instructions on how to restore your files.

A list of folders where you can find documents, files and settings that you may want to back up.

Where can I find the files I want to back up?

Personal files (documents, music, photos and videos)

If your backup medium has sufficient space (if it's an external hard disk, for example), consider backing up the entire Home folder. You can find out how much disk space your Home folder takes up by using the <app>Disk Usage Analyzer</app>.

Any file or folder name that starts with a period (.) is hidden by default. To view hidden files, click <guiseq><gui>View</gui><gui>Show Hidden Files</gui></guiseq> or press <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq>. You can copy these to a backup location like any other file.

Personal settings (desktop preferences, themes, and software settings)

Most applications store their settings in hidden folders inside your Home folder (see above for information on hidden files).

System-wide settings

Settings for important parts of the system aren't stored in your Home folder. There are a number of locations that they could be stored, but most are stored in the <file>/etc</file> folder. In general, you won't need to back up these files on a home computer. If you are running a server, however, you should back up the files for the services that it is running.

Back up anything that you can't bear to lose if something goes wrong.

What to back up

Your priority should be to back up your <link xref="backup-thinkabout">most important files</link> as well as those that are difficult to recreate. For example, ranked from most important to least important:

This may include documents, spreadsheets, email, calendar appointments, financial data, family photos, or any other personal files that you would consider irreplaceable.

Your personal settings

This includes changes you may have made to colors, backgrounds, screen resolution and mouse settings on your desktop. This also includes application preferences, such as settings for <app>LibreOffice</app>, your music player, and your email program. These are replaceable, but may take a while to recreate.

Most people never change the system settings that are created during installation. If you do customize your system settings for some reason, or if you use your computer as a server, then you may wish to back up these settings.

The software you use can normally be restored quite quickly after a serious computer problem by reinstalling it.

In general, you will want to back up files that are irreplaceable and files that require a great time investment to replace without a backup. If things are easy to replace, on the other hand, you may not want to use up disk space by having backups of them.

Advice on where to store your backups and what type of storage device to use.

Where to store your backup

You should store backup copies of your files somewhere separate from your computer - on an external hard disk, for example. That way, if the computer breaks, the backup will still be intact. For maximum security, you shouldn't keep the backup in the same building as your computer. If there is a fire or theft, both copies of the data could be lost if they are kept together.

Local and remote storage options

USB memory key (low capacity)

Writable CDs or DVDs (low/medium capacity)