doing a backup of a whole notebook - procedures, commands for the terminal?

[dhubs]

ood morning hello dear community,


well - i am working on the setup of a notebook - (erasing the old ubuntu ) and installing a new OS.

therefore i need to copy all the data.

how to proceed: how to copy (all!) the data from one notebook to a external drive
how to copy the data from one notebook to a external drive -

note: i want to move the whole data - i want to do a complete frehs install - therefore i need to save all /(!) the data:
how to achive that - how to get really each byte!?
a. with the bookmarks of the browser
b. the hidden data.
c.

are there some certain commands that ensure that i really get all the stuff!?

look forward to hear from you

Update some additional thoughts:

how do you find this idea: what if i just create a new folder in my /home called ‘Alltogther’ .
what if i do it like so: i firt copy / paste all the pre-existing folders into “Alltogehter”.

hmm - it would be great if i know a good command for the terminal

and subsequently:

well that said . i could then finally copy the so called " Alltogether-folder" into my backup location.
what do you say - i think that this solution is very interesting.


question: how would you do the job of coping all the data!?

look forward to hear from you

greetings

 

[tpkusr]

The best way to guarantee you copy all the data, including hidden files and browser bookmarks, is to use a disk imaging utility. This utility treats your hard drive as one massive file and copies it block-by-block to the external drive.
Recommended Tool: Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a free, open-source, and extremely reliable tool designed for disk imaging and cloning.
1. Preparation
* External Drive: Ensure your external drive has enough free space to hold the entire used capacity of your Ubuntu hard drive.
* Download Clonezilla: Download the Clonezilla Live ISO file.
* Create a Bootable USB: Use a tool like Rufus or Etcher to create a bootable USB drive using the Clonezilla ISO.
2. Execution
* Boot the Notebook: Plug in the Clonezilla USB and your external drive. Boot the notebook and select the Clonezilla USB as the boot device (you might need to press a key like F2, F10, or F12 during startup to access the boot menu).
* Start Clonezilla: Follow the on-screen prompts to start Clonezilla Live.
* Select Disk-to-Image: Choose the option to save the local disk as an image.
* Select Source and Destination:
* Source: Select your notebook's internal Ubuntu hard drive (e.g., /dev/sda or a similar name).
* Destination: Select your external drive as the location to save the image file.
* Run the Process: Confirm the settings and let Clonezilla run. This will create one large image file (e.g., 2025-11-15-img) on your external drive containing everything.

 

[Condobloke]

What would we do without AI answers ? ^^^^

 

[f33dm3bits]

The best way to guarantee you copy all the data, including hidden files and browser bookmarks, is to use a disk imaging utility. This utility treats your hard drive as one massive file and copies it block-by-block to the external drive.
Recommended Tool: Clonezilla

If you're going to use AI to answer a topic at least mention that you used AI to answer to the question because AI is not always right. Thanks!

 

[dhubs]

good day dear @tpkusr and @Condobloke

first of all - i am very short of time at the moment. i ll have to catch the train in a few minutes. But i will
try to answer more thouroghly later the day…

many thanks - this is just awesome. I am very glad to hear from you: thanks for the replies and for sharing your thoughts.
I am not a strong guy on the command line - so i need help here.

especially in such cases. ..

but now i have to leave the house - and catch the train

i ll be back later the day.

greetings.

 

[f33dm3bits]

What backup goal do you have in mind. Do you want to have a backup of your files, do you want to restore to a point in time if something breaks and if the latter do you care about the backup being on external storage or is it fine to be on the same storage?

 

[tpkusr]

So I have to mention ( Ai edited), right?

 

[Condobloke]

Better still, answer questions based on your own knowledge.

If you mention that your answer is AI generated, there is a level of distrust involved, which means that the members here will not trust your answers.

You answer earlier today in another topic mentioned grub-customizer.
That app is still a contentious topic. Some people trust it, a great many do not (myself included, in addition to the Head Admin who commented there.)

More research into the answers you give is advised.

 

[f33dm3bits]

So I have to mention ( Ai edited), right?

Yes that way the topic starter will know the answer is from AI. I also remember @KGIII having said it in a topic somewhere that when using AI to answer a question here it would be preferred to have it clearly stated. I can't find the topic since since that was a while ago. So I'll wait for his response here and might also be a good idea to create a sticky topic about this so that it's easy to find and link to for future topics?

 

[theLegionWithin]

I'd recommend the disk image route too - in a previous job we had a real flaky connection to our imaging server (as it was in a different part of the country) and it would seemingly always fail when I needed it most so, since we had standardized hardware (as many businesses do) I created base win7 iso images for each of the various desktop/laptop models in use (to account for hardware/driver variance) - used a different tool, but imaging is the way to go to get a "perfect" copy.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

So I have to mention ( Ai edited), right?

AI can suggest very bad fixes that either don't work or make damage to system hard to diagnose later on.

I always check what AI suggests to make sure I don't do something stupid, however transferring AI response to forums or blogs is just bad taste even if the answer is right, and it's easy recognize even if (often poorly) edited.

 

[tpkusr]

What if you know the answer just take help of AI to write down the content then check whether it's ok or not, if needed edit here and there. What about this approach?

But the main concern should be whether I am helping or not. If there's something wrong (by AI or by human) , there are so many people who can correct this. But main intention is to help each other, isn't it?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

if you know the answer

If you know the answer just write it yourself, why would you make your own knowledge look like AI response?

But the main concern should be whether I am helping or not. If there's something wrong (by AI or by human) , there are so many people who can correct this. But main intention is to help each other, isn't it?

Anyone can use AI to try fix their problem without forum help, computer forums are to get help from human, a human who hopefully knows exactly what the problem is.

I think the only time when posting AI to forums is OK is when nobody responded to a thread at all for at least 3 days, but even then you should state that your reply is AI generated.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

note: i want to move the whole data - i want to do a complete frehs install - therefore i need to save all /(!) the data:
how to achive that - how to get really each byte!?
a. with the bookmarks of the browser
b. the hidden data.
c.

For fresh install the only data you want is your own data, like pictures, bookmarks, game saves etc.

Everything else will be installed from zero.
If you want to backup system configuration, the method I use is to have noted down all my configurations (steps to configure) which then upon fresh system install I simply reconfigure it manually.

Benefit of this is to avoid restoring junk and possible issues present on previous install.

 

[tpkusr]

AI is ok for basic problem or give a guideline to start, but AI isn't ready yet to handle complex problem, that's where forum play's a big role.
I still double check or triple check whether code provided by AI is right or wrong.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

@tpkusr
What you don't seem to understand is that good portion of people doesn't want AI help.

I'd certainly not want my problem on forums to be replied with AI response because I'm few clicks away from visiting AI web page and deal with AI myself instantly, why would I wait for hours someone on forums to give me AI response?

Also you'll become known for sharing AI output, and then even your perfect edits won't save you from ignore.

Do as you please, I'm just telling you because you don't seem to understand why AI response is bad taste.

 

[deb_user]

One needs to understand that there is an almost universal distrust of AI, and of anything that even seems to be generated by AI. Whether that distrust is warranted or not is immaterial - it exists, and will continue to exist.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Everyone please get back on topic of the question of the original topic instead of talking continuing to talk about AI in the topic here. I'm discussing the AI thing with the other mods and admins so that we can all get some clarity about replying on the forums here when it comes to AI generated answers/replies.

 

[Rob]

Hey there - just updated the site-wide Terms and rules page with:

AI-generated posts and replies MUST be clearly disclosed. If AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) were used to write any portion of your post, include a note such as 'AI-assisted' or 'Generated with AI' in your message.

AI-generated content (to me) makes you look like a potential spammer building up content to get past the various checks the forum software has in order to post links and what not.. I usually just ban them when I see it.. I missed this one lol.

 

[deb_user]

Back on topic...
You can use dd or clonezilla or similar, but I think a simple rsync will do the job. The easiest way is probably using timeshift, which is designed to make backups of the system which can be restored. It uses rsync as the back-end. By default timeshift does not back up the /home directory, but can be set to include it easily enough. Just install timeshift, configure it to back up to an attached drive, and create the backup. It will include hidden files, essentially everything on the system. You can exclude any files or directories you don't want to include. No need for using a terminal, it uses a GUI interface which is easy to navigate. I use it for daily, weekly, and monthly automated backups, and I can say from experience that it restores everything if a restore is needed.