Backing up your important folders in easy steps

The latest release of Ubuntu, 11.10, includes a very simple yet powerful backup tool, Deja Dup, to backup your important stuff like Documents, Pictures , Music and Videos. It is a good practice to back up your daily work to avoid any mishaps. Although there is a 0.01% chance of virus infection on Ubuntu but you cannot rule out hard drive crash or an accidental deletion of folders. Backed up data comes in handy then.
Here is a quick graphical tour on how to setup the backup. Go to the system settings from the power menu situated at the top right hand corner of your screen.

Select Backup from the System Settings window.

System Settings

Select the folders you want to back up. Remember, by default the user’s home folder is backed up. If you have multiple users, use the “+” sign in the “Folders to backup” section to add other users.
If you do no want to backup every folder , like a lot of hidden folders, and the Downloads and the Wastebasket used the “Folders to ignore” section to add. 

You can view the hidden files by pressing Ctrl+H on your keyboard or by selecting “Show Hidden Files” by right clicking.

You can select the location where the backup will be made. You can use an external hard drive or another partition of your computer. 

Choose the frequency of backups. Ideally it should be a daily backup if you are doing important stuff on your machine every day.

Click Backup Now to start backup or schedule an automatic backup
Overview Screen showing Backup and Restore options
Restoring backup files is as easy as setting up the backup. Click Restore from the overview screen (shown above). 
If you have backed up regularly or weekly you will be presented with the list of available dates when the backup was done. As you can see in the screenshot below, weekly backups going back one month is available for restore. Select the best suited date  and click forward.
Select the location of the folder from where the backup will be made. 
You can restore the file to its original location or you can restore it to a specific folder.

Review your settings in the summary screen and click Restore to start the restoration process.

Alternatives

Cloud sync: Ubuntu One cloud sync, which comes free with the OS. If you have less than 5 GB of data, it is an ideal contender.
Dropbox: Another cloud sync service. Max storage capactity 2GB + 8GB (on referrals).

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