[PLUG] HELP! Disk is screwed up!

[John Jordan]

On 13 Feb 2006, at 9:00, Carla Schroder wrote:

> > The point I want to make is that most everything available for
> > Windows is available in Linux, and in a GUI that equals the
> > Windows equivalent, sometimes even exceeding it -- except a
> > simple user-friendly backup utility. In Linux there is just nothing
> > that a dummy can use to back up a standalone computer to an external
> > hard disk on an as-needed basis. Simple Backup is a nice start, but
> > it has a long way to go.

> Have you even looked? A google search for "Linux graphical backup"
> returns a lot of useful information. Like this page:
> http://www.linux.org/apps/all/Administration/Backup.html

Of course I have looked. I have already tried half a dozen and found them all 
wanting in one way or another. And one of them was dump, so obviously I am not 
averse to using the command line, as long as it can be done by a beginner.

> While I sympathize with your frustration, I lose patience with PC
> users who refuse to learn things, or rant about the quality of free
> help they are getting. Perhaps hiring some help is the best option.
> Have you bought any books? There are lots of good ones. Have you tried
> the manuals for your Linux distribution? The Internet is cram-full of
> great Linux howtos- and you never have to leave your chair. It doesn't
> get any easier.

First, my Linux distrbution did not come with any manuals. And yes, I have been 
to Powell's and have several books on my shelf. The problem, which you Linux 
gurus fail to grasp, is that I can't UNDERSTAND the books. I don't have the 
vocabulary. 

> You've forgotten how many years you have invested in learning your way
> around Windows. Windows is not easy- look at all the thousands of
> Windows howto books. Macs aren't instantly perfect either- 'Mac OS X:
> The Missing Manual, Tiger Ed, and 'Switching to the Mac: The Missing
> Manual, Tiger Edition' have been in the O'Reilly top 25 for months.

Not at all. I never said Windows was easier for a beginner to use than Linux. What 
I said was that *backup utilities* for beginners are better on Windows than on 
Linux. In fact, I said that was the only lack. 

As to the link you provided, here are my observations:

----------
AFBackup-Manager - a Webmin module for easy administration of backup 
tasks. Licence: Commercial
Obviously not suitable for a n00bier with one standalone computer to back up.
 
afio - A cpio-compatible archive/backup program. Licence: LGPL 
Ditto
 
AMANDA - Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver Licence: 
free to use but restricted 
Ditto
 
Arkeia - Enterprise-class network backup for Linux and Unix networks. 
Licence: Free for Arkeia Light or Commercial 
Ditto
 
backupd - Small client/server backup solution for mixed networks 	Licence: 
freely distributable 	
Ditto

Bacula - Bacula - a free client/server backup solution for Linux, Unix and 
Windows Licence: GPL 
Ditto. In fact, I even tried it before discovering that it was for network admins
 
BAR - Backup and Restore for Mainframe Linux, Solaris, Intel and AIX  
Licence: Free Trial License 
Ditto
 
BRU - A backup solution for Linux and UNIX. Licence: proprietary
Ditto
 
BRU - Professional level network backup program Licence: proprietary
Ditto
 
Burt - Burt - Backup and Recovery Tool 	Licence: freely distributable
Ditto

cdbackup - cd-r(w) backup utility Licence: BSD type 
Might be a possibility for some users, but can back up only to CD, not external 
disks.
 
cddump - A CD-R and CD-RW backup utility similar to dump/ufsdump. 
Licence: GPL 
Also, just to CD, not to disk.
 
CDTARchive or CDTAR - Graphical Backup program for linux Licence: GPL  
That it uses TAR is daunting to a beginner, but I could consider it, if only there 
was a debian package for my distribution. Not listed in Synaptic. Several times 
I have tried to install things from tarballs because they were not listed in 
Synaptic, and I have yet to be successful.

confstore - confstore is a configuration backup and restoration utility Licence: 
GPL  
Only backs up config files.
 
Crash Recovery Kit for Linux - A crash recovery kit for Linux. Licence: GNU 
General Public License (GPL) 
Also not listed in Synaptic. 
 
DAR - Disk ARchive - full and differential Backup over several disks, 
compression, and other features Licence: GPL  
Needs to back up to a server.
 
Datbkr - Tar based tape backup program with remote SSH support 	Licence: 
Public Domain
Not in Synaptic

dobackup.pl 	- Flexible Perl multi-server backup system. Licence: GPL 
“Multi-server” makes it a rejection for me.
 
Dump/Restore - Utilities to dump and restore an ext2 partition Licence: 
Already been there. Took me hours of lost time and had to get help to fix my 
computer yesterday morning. No way. Won’t touch it.

easy-Backup - Easy backup tool. 	Licence: GPL 	
Can’t back up to external disk.

EVault - EVault provides WAN backup and restore over IP. 	Licence: 
Standard 
For network administrators

FileBackup - FileBackup is an easy-to-use GNOME-based backup and 
restore utility Licence: Shareware 
Not listed in Synaptic

glastree - A poor man's snapshot, builds live, per-diem backups that users can 
browse directly Licence: Public domain 
Not listed in Synaptic
 
Hosting Backup - Hosting Backup is a set if PHP command line scripts that 
provides an easy way to backup hosted Web s Licence: GPL 
For network admins

KDar - Disk-based archiving and backup GUI for KDE based on libdar. 
Licence: GPL 	 
THIS ONE I HAVE INSTALLED AND AM GOING TO TRY

KDat - Tar based tape archiver Licence: GPL 
Tape only

mbackup - A modular backup client/server. Licence: GPL 
Network only

Mondo Rescue - Baremetal backup/recovery for tape, CD, NFS. Licence: 
GNU General Public License (GPL)
Can’t back up to external disk

Mondo Rescue - Generates bootable rescue CD ISOs. 	Licence: GNU 
General Public License (GPL) 
Don’t need a bootable rescue CD

NovaNET 8.5 - Tape backup for single server. Upgrade to network, plus 
stacker available. Licence: Comercial 
Network tape backup

Oracle Backup - OracleBackup is an easy-to-use backup and restore utility for 
Oracle databases Licence: Shareware
I don’t have any oracle databases

reverse - A C++-based backup suite for Linux. Licence: GPL 
Not listed in Synaptic 

scdbackup - Simplified CD backup for Linux. Licence: 	 
Not in Synaptic

SimpleBackup - A simple, flexible and very portable directory backup program 
Licence: GPL 
Already been there. Doesn’t work.

Sitback - Entry level backup Licence: GPL  
Not listed in Synaptic

star - The fastest known implementation of a tar archiver. 	Licence: GNU 
General Public License (GPL) 
Network tape only

Storix Backup Administrator for Linux - Full featured Linux backup product 
with complete and flexible system recovery  Licence: Storix
Not listed in Synaptic

UNiBACK for Linux 	- Fast, easy, reliable network backup solution for UNIX 
& Linux. Licence: Free Trial 
Not listed in Synaptic
-------------

So thanks for the link, because you did provide me with one more possibility 
that I hadn't found before. But also please note that all the backup solutions that 
you network admins think are so awesome are useless for a single user with a 
standalone computer. That's my point. Linux has been a network server OS for 
so long that there are lots of solutions for that environment. But now that people 
want to use it on a home desktop, there is stuff that still needs development. 
That's where Windows is still ahead.

So go ahead and be pissed off at me for criticizing Linux if you want to. Lose 
all the patience you want, and go ahead and assume I refuse to learn new 
things. Of course, that can't be true, or I wouldn't be using Linux at all, now 
would I? After all, I have a spare Windows 2000 license I'm not using. I could 
just as easily have installed it on my laptop as Linux.

I calls 'em the way I sees 'em, and I'm too ornery to be worried about it. :)

Now I have to get some homework done and get my obstinate ass off to 
school. When I get home tonight I will play with KDar and see how it goes. 
Thanks for helping me find it.