Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Back In Time, a Free and Simple Backup Software for Linux

Posted: 17 Nov 2010 05:38 AM PST

Back In Time, a Free and Simple Backup Software for Linux: I've already tried and tested a good number of backup software for Linux, but I know there are still plenty of excellent backup tools that I missed so I always take time to search for more. Hence, I bumped into Back In Time, a simple backup utility for Linux that is inspired by Flyback and Timevault. One of the main goals of the project is to get and combine the best features of Flyback and Timevault and put them all on Back In Time.

In order to take snapshots and backups of specified folders, Back In Time serves as a framework for rsync, diff, and cron. It has graphical user interface (GUI) available for GNOME and KDE 4. When using GNOME, installing the package 'nautilus-actions' will integrate Back In Time with Nautilus file manager to provide context-menu options.

I installed Back In Time in Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) using the Software Center. Once installed, you can access it under 'System Tools' from the main menu.

The first time you run Back In Time, the 'Settings' window will be shown and you will have to set your backup configurations. You are given an option to select directories to back up, interval at which automatic backups are taken, filename patterns to exclude, and where the snapshots should be stored. There is also a very handy 'Auto-remove' setting that you can use to automatically erase older backup files or delete backup files if the free space is smaller than a specified size. It is advisable to save your main backup on a secondary hard drive or on external storage device if you are protecting your essential files against hardware malfunction.

After taking care of the settings, you can immediately start the backup process by clicking on the "Take snapshot" button at the top left corner of the window. The time it takes to finish the backup process depends on the size of the file or files defined for the backup. When the backup process is finished, the snapshot record will be seen on the left portion of the window. You can view the backed up files on the right corner by highlighting a specific snapshot entry. If you want to restore your backup, right-click on the backed up files and select 'Restore'.

Back In Time is indeed a simple and easy-to-use backup tool that is as good as some of those that we have featured here so far. If you are looking for a resource-efficient and hassle-free data backup software for Linux, I highly-recommend you give Back In Time a try.