I just installed Puppy 4.3 and would like to use Pbackup to be able to recover important files. I boot from a CD and have one 8GB USB jump drive to save my session data.
Do I need to backup the following files on my 8GB USB jump drive ?
pup-430.sfs (79MB)
pupsave.2fs (1 GB)
zp430305.sfs (23MB)
Should I also save the directory ./my-documents which is where I have all of my critical data files? Not sure, but It might be wise to save critical files as stand alone files that are not stored inside the pupsave file?
I am planning to purchase another jump drive that's dedicated to storing backup data.
Finally, does Pbackup run automatically in the background on some schedule?
Thanks in advance for your help.
What directories and/or files should I back up?
Based on your response, I assume that:
pup-430.sys and zp430305.sys must be copies of files on the boot CD so they do not have to be saved as backup files. I don't understand what these files do and why they are on the jump drive.
If, for some reason, the pupsave.2fs file becomes corrupt and unreadable, then I will lose all my personal data.
If I backup files in the ./my-documents directory as discrete files (not inside the pupsave file), then I will be able to partially recover.
Not sure what you were referring to when you mentioned Pburn?
pup-430.sys and zp430305.sys must be copies of files on the boot CD so they do not have to be saved as backup files. I don't understand what these files do and why they are on the jump drive.
If, for some reason, the pupsave.2fs file becomes corrupt and unreadable, then I will lose all my personal data.
If I backup files in the ./my-documents directory as discrete files (not inside the pupsave file), then I will be able to partially recover.
Not sure what you were referring to when you mentioned Pburn?
Sorry, I meant Pbackup, I'm not sure about it running automatically in the background. Yes, those files are on the live CD, Puppy does need them to boot, but since your booting from the CD there shouldn't be a need to back them up to anywhere else. As far as I'm aware those files don't change.
Backing up you pup_save.file will save everything; settings, applications, bash history, all your folders, everything, because you have a frugal setup. There shouldn't be any need to backup your ./my-documents, because backing up your pup_save will do that for you. If you want to be extra safe, have a couple of backups of your pup_save.file.
To do this, boot with pfix=ram from the CD, that will boot Puppy without loading your pup_save.file. You can then simply copy and paste it to anywhere you want. You can also do this from another OS, the only thing that isn't advisable to do, is to copy the pup_save.file while it is in use.
A frugal Puppy works in layers, that's what those .sfs files are for. Basically the pup_430.sfs is one layer and has all of Puppy's core files, your pup_save.file is another layer and that has all of your files in it, anything and everything you've added or changed about Puppy will be stored here. That's why if something were to go wrong with your Puppy install, you could simply delete your pup_save.file to start again afresh, even if you've deleted something important like the package manager, deleting your pup_save.file will give you a fresh install, so you can start again. You get to see the layers all as one, from a bird's eye perspective, so you won't be able to distinguish the layers apart from one another.
Here's a link that explains them a lot better than I have; http://www.puppylinux.com/development/h ... works.html
Backing up you pup_save.file will save everything; settings, applications, bash history, all your folders, everything, because you have a frugal setup. There shouldn't be any need to backup your ./my-documents, because backing up your pup_save will do that for you. If you want to be extra safe, have a couple of backups of your pup_save.file.
To do this, boot with pfix=ram from the CD, that will boot Puppy without loading your pup_save.file. You can then simply copy and paste it to anywhere you want. You can also do this from another OS, the only thing that isn't advisable to do, is to copy the pup_save.file while it is in use.
A frugal Puppy works in layers, that's what those .sfs files are for. Basically the pup_430.sfs is one layer and has all of Puppy's core files, your pup_save.file is another layer and that has all of your files in it, anything and everything you've added or changed about Puppy will be stored here. That's why if something were to go wrong with your Puppy install, you could simply delete your pup_save.file to start again afresh, even if you've deleted something important like the package manager, deleting your pup_save.file will give you a fresh install, so you can start again. You get to see the layers all as one, from a bird's eye perspective, so you won't be able to distinguish the layers apart from one another.
Here's a link that explains them a lot better than I have; http://www.puppylinux.com/development/h ... works.html
mm that misses the gentleman's point somewhat ... yes, if the pupsave file is backed up, all well and good. if not , and you only have the one or maybe if you have a backup but that is unreadable for whatever reason (say it was backed up to a cd that got damaged), then there is a potential problem.
Once Puppy is running, you can copy files to and from it, and you don;t have to notice or think about the complexities of the layered file system; so if you were indeed storing important docs in ~/my-documents, yes you could back those up elsewhere individually. Where you store files (in or out of Puppy) is up to you of course.
So, lets say your pupsave was irredeemably corrupt and you didn't have it backed up, but you'd copied your docs to another disk as a backup; you could boot puppy, creating a new pupsave, and copy the files back in from wherever you'd put them.
the trouble is that if you have installed apps then files relating to those will be scattered about the ddirectory tree; so it's much harder to give an answer about what you should back up if you're worried about tha, for instance.
As for me, I never back anything up; I've made a decision that if "it" is of sufficient importance to worry about, then I keep "it" on a piece of paper in a folder ... I choose to have nothing I have on my computers that is indispensible. I've foiund it rather liberating !
Once Puppy is running, you can copy files to and from it, and you don;t have to notice or think about the complexities of the layered file system; so if you were indeed storing important docs in ~/my-documents, yes you could back those up elsewhere individually. Where you store files (in or out of Puppy) is up to you of course.
So, lets say your pupsave was irredeemably corrupt and you didn't have it backed up, but you'd copied your docs to another disk as a backup; you could boot puppy, creating a new pupsave, and copy the files back in from wherever you'd put them.
the trouble is that if you have installed apps then files relating to those will be scattered about the ddirectory tree; so it's much harder to give an answer about what you should back up if you're worried about tha, for instance.
As for me, I never back anything up; I've made a decision that if "it" is of sufficient importance to worry about, then I keep "it" on a piece of paper in a folder ... I choose to have nothing I have on my computers that is indispensible. I've foiund it rather liberating !
I only went into the whole layered filesystem because the OP didn't understand what the pup_430.sfs or the zp430305.sfs are, or what they do, so I explained (badly, maybe). That is roughly what they do, isn't it? I thought I'd try to shed some light on the matter, make it a little clearer why it is that you don't need to back those files up (I guess the light I cast was not so bright and more like the lighting you'd get at a seedy pool hall). I don't think that I've missed any point at all, because my point is that you don't need to backup ~/my-documents if you have your pup_save.2fs file already backed-up, true? It would also be better to backup your pup_save.2fs file for the reasons you've stated which would be;
I'm not 'having a go' or trying to be shirty, I just don't think you've read the whole post. The OP wanted to know what files to backup and I explained that you wouldn't need to backup the pup_430.sfs nor the zp430305.sfs because they are files that remain unchanged and are on the CD (which is the media being used to boot Puppy). So all you really need to backup (if you want to backup everything) would be the pup_save.2fs. If the CD were to become corrupt, then booting Puppy wouldn't be possible without a new disk anyway, but at least with the pup_save.2fs backed-up you only need a new disk with Puppy on it. Whereas backing-up that one folder would still require you to setup everything all over again, and of course like you say, files are scattered around the filesystem so you'd need to fill in the gaps, make sure symlinks are in their places etc etc. Surely this would be more hassle than it's worth? Would it not be easier to backup that one pup_save.2fs file? Plus you can upgrade your pup_save.2fs file and have all your settings retained without having to setup everything again, when the time comes to upgrade. Also you can have as many backups of your pup_save.2fs as you like, even on the same drive, just as long as they're named differently, this means you can test changes to see if they work, before committing yourself to them and (possibly) borking your whole system. If size is an issue (which wasn't mentioned) then compressing the pup_save.2fs file would save a little space.
So backing-up that one folder may not be good enough, whereas backing-up the pup_save.2fs file would keep everything in tact, programs, files, symlinks, etc, etc, it would be like backing-up the whole OS. Plus backing-up ~/my-documents has the same vulnerabilities that a pup_save.2fs would have, if the backup became corrupt for whatever reason (say it was backed-up to a CD that had been damaged) then recovery would still be problematic.paulh177 wrote:the trouble is that if you have installed apps then files relating to those will be scattered about the ddirectory tree; so it's much harder to give an answer about what you should back up if you're worried about tha, for instance
I'm not 'having a go' or trying to be shirty, I just don't think you've read the whole post. The OP wanted to know what files to backup and I explained that you wouldn't need to backup the pup_430.sfs nor the zp430305.sfs because they are files that remain unchanged and are on the CD (which is the media being used to boot Puppy). So all you really need to backup (if you want to backup everything) would be the pup_save.2fs. If the CD were to become corrupt, then booting Puppy wouldn't be possible without a new disk anyway, but at least with the pup_save.2fs backed-up you only need a new disk with Puppy on it. Whereas backing-up that one folder would still require you to setup everything all over again, and of course like you say, files are scattered around the filesystem so you'd need to fill in the gaps, make sure symlinks are in their places etc etc. Surely this would be more hassle than it's worth? Would it not be easier to backup that one pup_save.2fs file? Plus you can upgrade your pup_save.2fs file and have all your settings retained without having to setup everything again, when the time comes to upgrade. Also you can have as many backups of your pup_save.2fs as you like, even on the same drive, just as long as they're named differently, this means you can test changes to see if they work, before committing yourself to them and (possibly) borking your whole system. If size is an issue (which wasn't mentioned) then compressing the pup_save.2fs file would save a little space.
Thanks for all the responses to my original post.
I agree that the best way to do backup is to make a copy of the puppy_save file.
I played around with the application programs on the main menu that do backup and they are rather impressive. They are capable of running in sync mode where target directories/files are updated automatically whenever the source updates.
I would like to make a copy of the puppy_save file and store it on a different jump drive dedicated to backup storage. A good time to do this would be right after the automated system action that writes to the pup_save file.
So far, with my limited knowledge, I was unable to use the installed backup applications (main menu) to do exactly what I would like to do.
I am now thinking about writing a script to automate the process (maybe cron job using crontab) The tricky part is to copy directly from one mounted jump drive to another mounted jump drive.
Maybe my old UNIX for DUMMIES book would be a good starting point.
Thanks again for all your help.
I agree that the best way to do backup is to make a copy of the puppy_save file.
I played around with the application programs on the main menu that do backup and they are rather impressive. They are capable of running in sync mode where target directories/files are updated automatically whenever the source updates.
I would like to make a copy of the puppy_save file and store it on a different jump drive dedicated to backup storage. A good time to do this would be right after the automated system action that writes to the pup_save file.
So far, with my limited knowledge, I was unable to use the installed backup applications (main menu) to do exactly what I would like to do.
I am now thinking about writing a script to automate the process (maybe cron job using crontab) The tricky part is to copy directly from one mounted jump drive to another mounted jump drive.
Maybe my old UNIX for DUMMIES book would be a good starting point.
Thanks again for all your help.
1. Links here for installing X File Explorer [Xfe], and the needed Fox-Library.
Xfe is a GREAT file explorer with a folder hierarchy pane plus 2 file panes, that can be used to "Move to..." or "Copy to..." [e.g. from pane1 to pane2].
e.g. to make a backup copy of the folder/file contents of [for example] a partition [including the one that holds the pup_save file]...
You boot a Puppy [e.g. Puppy2] that doesn't use the pup_save file you wish to backup [lets say Puppy1 does that], and use Xfe to copy the pup_save file to somewhere handy, perhaps a sub-folder under the root folder holding the pup_save for Puppy1.
I typically run 3 Puppies that load from different sources [internal HDD partition, Flash Drive, optical disk with pupsave], and each can fix [or work on] the others and Windows.
2. Another GREAT way to make backups:
Use the FREE version of SyncBack->[run under WINE] to backup/restore/synchronize a "source" [partition?] to/from a "destination" [folder on a partition?][on an external USB HDD?].
You can make the original [backup] copy using Xfe, and then use SyncBack [configured for backup?] to compare the two and display any "differences".
[There should be none if they are identical as they aught to be]
3. I also use Pudd to make image backups of total partition contents.
That might include your pup_save file.
Xfe is a GREAT file explorer with a folder hierarchy pane plus 2 file panes, that can be used to "Move to..." or "Copy to..." [e.g. from pane1 to pane2].
e.g. to make a backup copy of the folder/file contents of [for example] a partition [including the one that holds the pup_save file]...
You boot a Puppy [e.g. Puppy2] that doesn't use the pup_save file you wish to backup [lets say Puppy1 does that], and use Xfe to copy the pup_save file to somewhere handy, perhaps a sub-folder under the root folder holding the pup_save for Puppy1.
I typically run 3 Puppies that load from different sources [internal HDD partition, Flash Drive, optical disk with pupsave], and each can fix [or work on] the others and Windows.
2. Another GREAT way to make backups:
Use the FREE version of SyncBack->[run under WINE] to backup/restore/synchronize a "source" [partition?] to/from a "destination" [folder on a partition?][on an external USB HDD?].
You can make the original [backup] copy using Xfe, and then use SyncBack [configured for backup?] to compare the two and display any "differences".
[There should be none if they are identical as they aught to be]
3. I also use Pudd to make image backups of total partition contents.
That might include your pup_save file.
Thanks for the suggested applications. They all seem a bit powerful and complex for the simple task at hand.
I only need to copy one file to back up all of my personal data....
I am able to manually complete the task by issuing the following command in the console window:
# cp /mnt/home/pupsave.2fs /mnt/sdd1
or cd into /mnt/home and then run the command:
# cp pupsave.2fs /mnt/sdd1
where sdd1 is the target jump drive dedicated to backup storage.
Both jump drives are mounted when the command is executed.
The next step would be to include this command in a cron job script with crontab for scheduling that only allows the copy to take place when the pupsave.2fs file is not being updated by the system. This will most likely require some advanced coding looking at running processes.
Right now, I don't know what would happen if I issued this command when the system was updating the pupsave file.
For now, I can do an occasional manual backup, just after an automated system update of pupsave, to get the needed protection.
When I ran the copy command it took several seconds to complete the copy because my pupsave file is 1.25 GB in size.
Another consideration for this Frugal setup is when you do a reboot you will be prompted for which pupsave file to load. Both files have the same name so I hope that I will be able to specify the correct file to make sure that it's the pupsave file in /mnt/home that gets loaded.
I have yet to test this process..
Thanks again fo your good suggestions.
I only need to copy one file to back up all of my personal data....
I am able to manually complete the task by issuing the following command in the console window:
# cp /mnt/home/pupsave.2fs /mnt/sdd1
or cd into /mnt/home and then run the command:
# cp pupsave.2fs /mnt/sdd1
where sdd1 is the target jump drive dedicated to backup storage.
Both jump drives are mounted when the command is executed.
The next step would be to include this command in a cron job script with crontab for scheduling that only allows the copy to take place when the pupsave.2fs file is not being updated by the system. This will most likely require some advanced coding looking at running processes.
Right now, I don't know what would happen if I issued this command when the system was updating the pupsave file.
For now, I can do an occasional manual backup, just after an automated system update of pupsave, to get the needed protection.
When I ran the copy command it took several seconds to complete the copy because my pupsave file is 1.25 GB in size.
Another consideration for this Frugal setup is when you do a reboot you will be prompted for which pupsave file to load. Both files have the same name so I hope that I will be able to specify the correct file to make sure that it's the pupsave file in /mnt/home that gets loaded.
I have yet to test this process..
Thanks again fo your good suggestions.
1. "I only need to copy one file to back up all of my personal data"
Xfe will easily [and without any doubt or risk of failure] copy or move anything ranging from a single file to the contents of a whole partition.
Don't you ever need to be able to easily do big jobs too?
2. "They all seem a bit powerful and complex for the simple task at hand"
I regularly [need to, and do] copy/delete/restore the contents of whole partitions.
By-the-way, restoring partition contents by copying, deleting the originals, and restoring, makes the partition folder/file contents PERFECTLY DEFRAGMENTED.
3. "Right now, I don't know what would happen if I issued this command when the system was updating the pupsave file"
I would normally copy the pupsave file when it's not in use by doing the copy using a 2nd Puppy that doesn't use the pupsave file.
e.g. Muppy-008.4c booted with no pupsave [perhaps using puppy pfix=ram command] includes Xfe.
Xfe will easily [and without any doubt or risk of failure] copy or move anything ranging from a single file to the contents of a whole partition.
Don't you ever need to be able to easily do big jobs too?
2. "They all seem a bit powerful and complex for the simple task at hand"
I regularly [need to, and do] copy/delete/restore the contents of whole partitions.
By-the-way, restoring partition contents by copying, deleting the originals, and restoring, makes the partition folder/file contents PERFECTLY DEFRAGMENTED.
3. "Right now, I don't know what would happen if I issued this command when the system was updating the pupsave file"
I would normally copy the pupsave file when it's not in use by doing the copy using a 2nd Puppy that doesn't use the pupsave file.
e.g. Muppy-008.4c booted with no pupsave [perhaps using puppy pfix=ram command] includes Xfe.
Xfe sounds like a great tool especially for users who need to move large numbers of files or total partitions.
If I every need this advanced capability, I will download and try the application.
I use Puppy to surf the web and check email. My personal data, stored in ~/my-documents is limited to a few small files. My interest in backup is primarily for wireless access settings, email settings, email addresses and browser bookmarks.
When I do a backup (using the simple copy command), I do it just after one of those automated "Saving To RAM" messages to avoid doing a copy when the pupsave file is being accessed.
For now, this simple method of doing a manual backup from time to time satisfies my needs.
Thanks again for all your help.
If I every need this advanced capability, I will download and try the application.
I use Puppy to surf the web and check email. My personal data, stored in ~/my-documents is limited to a few small files. My interest in backup is primarily for wireless access settings, email settings, email addresses and browser bookmarks.
When I do a backup (using the simple copy command), I do it just after one of those automated "Saving To RAM" messages to avoid doing a copy when the pupsave file is being accessed.
For now, this simple method of doing a manual backup from time to time satisfies my needs.
Thanks again for all your help.
backing up
No one has mentioned, maybe because it's so obvious, that a copy of your Puppy CD would be a good idea, too.
If you're using NTFS file system on the jump drive, you can copy the pupsave in XP to your hard drive, for example. I'm pretty sure the pupsave isn't available to copy when it's being used.
You can drag and drop between windows in ROX.
Hope this helps.
If you're using NTFS file system on the jump drive, you can copy the pupsave in XP to your hard drive, for example. I'm pretty sure the pupsave isn't available to copy when it's being used.
You can drag and drop between windows in ROX.
Hope this helps.
1. "You can drag and drop between windows in ROX"
I installed ROXSET [links here], which opens twin ROX panes, that can be tiled.
Haven't done anything with it yet, because Xfe seems to do everything I need.
I installed ROXSET [links here], which opens twin ROX panes, that can be tiled.
Haven't done anything with it yet, because Xfe seems to do everything I need.