Anyone want a simple backup/restore (to SD) tool?


skeezix

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Its somethign I've brought up on and off for a year or two, but I did some dabbling the other day.


I was thinking of a tool with the expected two simple modes..


Backup tab:


[checkbox] Include home directory <- in case you have settings or files here


[checkbox] Include startup settings <- to preserve your menu preference, startup service preferences, etc


[checkbox] include SD1 <- in case you want to backup SD1 to SD2 (this forces the target for backup) <- not sure these two options are needed, for a rudimentary backup tool .. sue Windows explorer :p


[checobpx] include SD2 <- in case you want to backup SD2 to SD1


[checkbox] .. anything else we can think of


[checkbox] Single backup set <- to use undated backup set, which copies only deltas (fast!) rather than full copy to new dir each backup


Currently homedirectory is: ___ MB/GB in size


SD card 1 has __ MB/GB free space


SD card 2: has __ MB/GB free space


Create backup set: <SD1><SD2> [[GO]] <- radio button to pick SD1 or SD2 (if both are populated) and a GO button


[----------------------------------------] <- progress bar


Restore/Manage tab:


... big list box .. lists the backup sets by date along eith their size (+ any 'single undated set') <-- pick one of the existing backups


[[iNFO]] [[RESTORE]] [[DELETE]]


- three buttons


Info -- look up and show which contents are in the backup set (reveal the checkboxes from when it was made)


Restore -- does a clobber restore (overwrites)


Delete -- yes/no and kills the backup set


----


Goals for use..


i) Before/After a reflash, you could do a backup and restore, thus doing a quick and easy update


ii) For... backup!


iii) For paranoia, in case you worry about unit death, theft, etc


For me, I don't bother doing a backup before/after reflash, takes seconds to set up and most settings are on SD or don't matter. But I know it bugs some people, so I could whip together such a tool pretty quickly.


--


Is this genuinely useful, or onmly a little bit useful to a few people? ie: Given extreme time crunch for me, is it worth doing?


jeff
 
I think to start out, it would ideally be a simple script that backs up homedir, startup settings etc to SD and restores after a flash. The idea was raised in the firmware suggestions thread, and ED expressed interest in it.


Backing up whole SD cards is a different animal. I would certainly prefer to back those up to PC than another SD, and I'd generally do that manually - but if it was being worked into a utility, the suggestion Christoph.Krn linked seems like a good direction. Much bigger project of course, would need to be multiplatform etc.
 
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I have the creation of a backup script on my todo list. Yes this sort of thing is necessary, but there's one big issue which irks me. I worry that SD can have data silently corrupt.


I'm patiently waiting for a checksumming filesystem to get a stable release for Linux. So far there's the HAMMER filesystem for DragonFly BSD, but the Linux candidates aren't release-quality yet. btrfs is supposedly production quality but hasn't been officially released.
 
There are many generic backup/sync apps for op already to do the same task, just to name few: AKGBackup and/or YADSync.. or even GRSync..
 
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Really, all we need is a simple pyQT app or something, that pops up two buttons..


[bACKUP] [RESTORE] [QUIT]


Just have no tions at all, and not even dated backups; the oal being.. run it, hit backup, reflash, run it, hit restore.


ie: Not a goal of being a robust backup solution, thats out of scope.. jsut somrthign simple for peopel to use in a pinch.


(Honestly, I think people should not store any significant data in their NAND homedir, just badly ported apps may drop files there, or maybe a few conf files and such.) Stuff like your wifi keyring and such would be nice to be preserved though.


*shrug*


jeff
 
I backup my SD cards using sync toy on a windows PC, having the option to back up an SD card on Pandora would be nice though.


Having the option to back up users settings and quickly restore them after a reflash would be a real boon IMHO, it would probably lead to more people testing new releases of the firmware as well.
 
"run it, hit backup, reflash, run it, hit restore" Sounds great when can I have it ;)


TBH the only reason I don't reflash all the beta's is because of the hassle of getting everything set up again, so this would be great for me.
 
+1 For something to backup and restore my settings after a hotfix update.
 
+1 For something to backup and restore my settings after a hotfix update.

evildragon said:
Also slaeshjags Config Tray Icon will also be


added into Beta 5 as well as a tool that allows


the user to backup and restore his home


directory (handy to keep all your custom


settings when flashing a new firmware).

I take it that one didn't get added to beta 5 then?
 
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+1 For something to backup and restore my settings after a hotfix update.

evildragon said:
Also slaeshjags Config Tray Icon will also be


added into Beta 5 as well as a tool that allows


the user to backup and restore his home


directory (handy to keep all your custom


settings when flashing a new firmware).


http://boards.openpa...eta-4-released/

I take it that one didn't get added to beta 5 then?

If it did I don't see it.
 
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