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[SOLVED] any equivalent of Windows' System Restore?

wombat140

Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:50:47 pm

Is there any equivalent of Windows' System Restore on orin 9? Zorirn's bugging me to uodate Firefox, but I'm reluctan t odo that unless I know I can revert it if necessary in case it has animations that make it unusuable for e, a problem I've sometimes had in the past with new versin!
Thankks,
W

mdiemer

Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:06:33 pm

I'm pretty sure there is not. However, a system image will do what you need. I use Clonezilla, but it's a bit hard to figure out at first, as it has no GUI (all text). But it does all operating systems, so once you know how to use it, it will work for Linux, Windows or OSX. Redo is an easier alternative, but I'm not sure it is an ongoing project. If you don't want to do that, just save everything on another drive, or your home drive if you have one, and reinstall if you have to.

Swarfendor437

Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:35:32 pm

wombat140

Thu Nov 23, 2017 8:49:48 pm

Good-oh! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I thought I'd got the e-mail notifications working and I hadn't so I've been looking at the lack of e-mail and wondering impatiently why nobody replied.

Mdiemer I've done disk images before on Windows (with Drive Image XML) but never actually had to restore from them. On that, you apparently couldn't use DriveImage XML to restore to the hard disk that your OS was running on, while it was running on it. You had to connect the hard disk to another computer, run DriveImage XML on that other computer, and use that to put your hard disk back together.
Would that still be the case here? If so, would it have to be a computer running Linux since the image was made by a Linux-based program?
(Would it help that I've got a dual-boot so in a manner of speaking I have another hard disk that runs Windows? Could I boot my computer in Windows, use a - presumably Windows-based - disk imager to clone my Linux partition, and then if anything went wrong start up in Windows again and use the imager to restore my Linux partition?)

Swarfendor, do those backup programs do images -I can't see the word image anywhere - or do they just back up your own files and folders? If so, no doubt good programs but the opposite of what I'm after. What I need is something that can put my PROGRAMS, and OS, back how they were should they get messed up!

zorinantwerp

Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:41:13 pm

more suggestions :)
Code:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DriveImaging


personally I make a daily backup with 'Timeshift' piece of cake.

mdiemer

Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:01:10 pm

When saving a system image, you always want to save it on a different drive, which can be an internal or external one. When restoring, you are copying it from the storage drive to your "C" drive. You can also work with partitions, which are drives you create within a single drive, which then function as if they were a separate drive. For example, many people who have Windows install Linux using the "alongside Windows" option. This process creates a separate partition on your C drive, and puts Linux on it. So, if you wanted to image just Linux, you would clone onlty that partition, and then if need be, restore the copy to that partition. Windows would not be touched. You can also have two or more Linux sytems on a drive, without windows. The limit is 4 partitions, at least with the equipment I work with (not EFI). In the begining, the simplest thing to do is to buy another hard drive and put Linux on that, so you only have to work with drives, not partitions. Then put your image on an external hard drive. Then, when you know more, you can start fooling around with partitions. On my computer I have 3 Linux systems plus windows. I have two partitions on each hard drive. I have had as many as four.

I have successfully restored Linux systems with Clonezilla, but I had problems using it for Windows. It may be because I had renamed the copies, and Clonezilla couldn't find them. This also happened with my Linux clones, but I was able to rename them and Clonezilla then found them. I now use windows own imaging tool, or Macrium free, for Windows clones, but I'm going to try again with Clonezilla and Windows, because I don't trust the Windows tool. Plus, it's just simpler to use one tool for everything.

If system restore is a must, you might want to look at Linux Lite. It has it, although I've never used it. I have LL on my original drive, which I don't keep in the computer as it has problems. It also has Windows, and if something happens to the Windows and I can't get in, I can access files from Linux lite partition.

wombat140

Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:40:18 pm

Timeshift sounds perfect! Thank you very much!

Bit puzzled because one page I founf on a search says it backs up documents etc. as well as system files and one says it doesn't, but that's not important. If I need to restore from the backup I can copy my own files before I do it - I'm not planning on doing anything that could actually blow up the system any time soon, to the extent that I couldn't get my files out, all I currentlywant to do is install/update a couple of programs that I wasn't confident I'd be able to uproot successfully if I don't like them. If I'm feeling well enough to fancy playing wih systezm stuff, I'll be feeling well enough to learn what all that stuff in the page you mentioned on drive imaging actually means. (,Er, yes. One ratherf important thing I forgot to mention, I've only been using Linux a few months and ignoring the technical details for most of that time - I installed my first new program literally two weeks ago! And was rather relieved at how easy it was - I kept hearing nasty-sounding things about "pacages" and wasn't sure if I'd have to guddle about in the commandd line.)

Mdiemer; I now you have to save the image to a separate drive, I have an external hard drive just for backing stuff up to wiht plenty of room. What was bothering me is, if I backed up the C direve to the external drive and then wanted to restore it back to the C drive, where would I run the program? Since, if I'm undretstandin conrrectly, you can't restore to the C drive while the C drive is actually running - i.e. the C drive can't restore to itself. I'm not sure how waht you said relates to that, but then I am still a rabbit.
(As for partitions, what I currently have is a hotchpotch left over from dual-installing Linux - one partition containing my old Windows Vista and its file structure and leftover documents and programs, one that was a Windows Vista recovery partition that the computer came with, and a new one for Zorin and my current documents and progrmas. (Allt hree are actually on the samme chunk of metal, it just thinks it's a poached egg.)
Is what you're suggesting that I should buy a new hard drive (let's calll it E) and install an operating system on THAT, run it, and use that "computer" to clone the entire C drive partitions and all and never mind which is which? That certaionly sounds simpler in a way. Could I save money by installing an operating system on my usual external backing-up drive (call it D) and putting the copy on that, assuming there's enough room (i.e. have an operating system and imaging softwware on D and use that to copy C to D and if necessary back from D to C again), or would it be essential to have the imaging software and OS on a third drive E and use E to copy C to D and if necessary back again?
Feel I should probably try and understand this if I can... of coures, it's more likely that I'm being silly tryingto learn how to do this before I've learnt what the words "partition", "mount", or "environment" mean.

mdiemer

Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:24:53 pm

Wombat, when you restore a drive/partition using Clonezilla, you boot from the Clonezilla CD you made. Clonezilla is in a sense a little operating system. You put the CD in your computer, shut it down, then start it back up. You have to access the computer's boot menu, with whatever key combination your computer uses. mine is F10. So, while my computer is turning on, I start hitting F10 a bunch of times. That gets me into the boot menu. I then choose to "boot from CD/DVD option". (You can also use a USB or thumb drive. Then, you choose to boot from the hard drive option, and choose your USB device from the list). By the way, if you don't know the right key combo, the computer tells you when it first starts displaying stuff on the monitor. You have to act fast, or just remember it for next time.

This process is the same for other cloning software. You make a CD and boot from it. With Windows, you can boot from a Windows repair disk, or the Windows installation disk that you hopefully have.

You don't have to spend any money, if you already have an external hard drive. Just save the image of your disk or partition there, and rerstore it later when needed. Keep in mind the difference between disks and partions. If you have multiple partitions, you can clone the entire disk. Or you can clone individual partitions. When restoring however, if you restore the entire disk, everything on all partitions will go back to the way it was at the time that you made the image. So, if your Zorin system needs to be restored, but your other systems are OK, it makes more sense to work with partitrions. Then, you only restore the bad one, leaving the others as they are. that way you don't lose any data on the good partitions. I make images of all systems on my computer. Then I can restore only the one I need to, and leave the others alone. That's why it makes more sense to work with partitions.

wombat140

Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:30:20 pm

That's a clever solution, I never thought of a Live CD! (and don't even need a full Live CD for Clonezilla, eviudently.) That solves that one then - don't need a disk to hold Clonezilla at all, only one to hold the clone.

Not confident it'd be a good idea for me to be attempting fiddly things with the commend line in my current state, though. (short term memory all to pot, etc. also no time to study how the command line really works enough to actually understand what I'm typing in.) Is there a disk imager for Linux that's easy? If not, better stick to Timeshift for now, I think, though I would like to sort out about a disk imager when things are easier.

Swarfendor437

Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:51:32 pm

If you just want to create an image to external drive your best solution is redobackup from here:

http://redobackup.org/

Please be aware that it does not do proportional sizing like Acronis does (but I have not had success with Acronis in respect of GNU/Linux but redobackup is simple, free, and easy to follow. ;)