I should say a few more words about how to restore. Bob Proulx wrote: > * Restore whatever of ... When I said "restore" I would probably use the 'rsync' tool. You said you had the files available. I would use rsync to copy those files from the backup area to the live area. After doing the small system install I would then install rsync and use it to restore the files from the backup. For example if /mnt/backup contains files that are available from the old system then I would use a command like this one to restore files from it. # rsync -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ # rsync -n --delete -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ # rsync --delete -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ It is important that the trailing slashes be included in both parameters. That will map those two directories to each other exactly. A common error is to say: # rsync -av /mnt/backup/etc /etc That would find that the target is a directory and so would copy the source into a directory on the target and you would get /etc/etc instead of what you wanted. Alternatively always specify the parent directory on the right hand side as the target. This is also correct and will match the backup directory with the target. Either way. These next two commands are equivalent. # rsync -av /mnt/backup/etc / # rsync -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ And when deleting I always like to review what would be deleted before I do so. The answer may be surprising and inform me that I need to react and do something different. Therefore I always examine what would be deleted without actually doing it with the -n (not really) option first. Then if it seems reasonable only then do I proceed with the actual deletion. # rsync -n --delete -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ # rsync --delete -av /mnt/backup/etc/ /etc/ When restoring and syncing directories removing extra files is just as important as copying the exiting files. Because you may have actively removed files as part of the previous configuration. Only by doing the -n --delete operation as well will you truly know if the restored copy is identical to the backup. Because a pristine installation may install extra files that you have removed. Or you may find that you had previously broken something. Then instead of removing a file you might decide that you should learn from this information and fix it. Always a good thing to catch previous problems and fix them. :-) Bob
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