Backing up and restoring your system using Systemback
Snapshot
© Lead Image © scyther5, 123RF.com
At the push of a button, Systemback backs up or clones the complete current system and can restore it as required.
Windows provides extremely useful recovery points. At the push of a button, the operating system backs up the whole system in its current state. You can restore this backup later and thus return to the old state. This feature is particularly useful if newly installed software goes haywire or if you accidentally trash the configuration. Until now, such a function has been missing in Linux. To back up the system, you either had to use a backup program or had to back up the whole partition with a Live system, such as Clonezilla [1], which is fairly awkward.
The tool Systemback brings this recovery feature to Linux. Systemback backs up the current system and restore it as needed (see the "Warning" box). Systemback also offers the possibility of copying the current system, or one of the backups, to another data storage device; this is particularly useful if you want to migrate the system to a new computer.
As a bonus, Systemback creates a Live system on the computer that can be written to a USB flash drive or a DVD. Finally, the tool also handles updates and will try to repair a faulty system. Systemback has one small drawback, however: Currently it only runs on Debian "Jessie" and on Ubuntu and its derivatives, such as Linux Mint 17.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Debian Unleashes Debian Libre Live
Debian Libre Live keeps your machine free of proprietary software.
-
Valve Announces Pending Release of Steam Machine
Shout it to the heavens: Steam Machine, powered by Linux, is set to arrive in 2026.
-
Happy Birthday, ADMIN Magazine!
ADMIN is celebrating its 15th anniversary with issue #90.
-
Another Linux Malware Discovered
Russian hackers use Hyper-V to hide malware within Linux virtual machines.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces a New InfinityBook
TUXEDO Computers is at it again with a new InfinityBook that will meet your professional and gaming needs.
-
SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
-
Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.