Restoring, need to find absolute path

What system did you use to make the backup?

Sorry I didn't state this.

The icon is A Safe. "deja vu"

Under Folder, I seem to remember it was something like "Linux_back_up_2020_Start_0f_3rdQtr.
This is the folder that shows in /dev/sdc1

Then it asks for "Choose Folder"

Hope this helps you, Andrew.

Déjà Dup

Thanks, Bernard you correct.

Déjà Dup

I am dyslexic.

https://www.linux.com/topic/desktop/total-system-backup-and-recall-deja-dup/
Restoring your backup is easy, too! In the Overview pane, you click on the Restore… button. Once you click it, the Déjà Dup wizard opens for restoring a backup. You won’t need to select your backup here, Déjà Dup automatically selects the folder that you last backed up to.
However, as you go through the Restore Wizard, you’ll need to select a date to restore from as well as where you want to restore to. Déjà Dup automatically selects your original file locations for this.
Finally, you’ll need to add your encryption password, press “Restore” and Déjà Dup will begin, well, restoring your system.
https://www.techjunkie.com/how-to-backup-and-restore-your-linux-distribution-with-deja-dup/

Sorry for some errors here are the corrections... I am dyslexic.

Thank you Bernard for your help. Sorry for the delay in my replies I have been in the hospital for 2 days & now recovering.

Just to let you know I am using Home built PC 8GB Ram 480SSD 2 x 2TB HD’s running Ubuntu 20.04.LTS.

Have just completed a clean install on 14th Jan I did a full backup before clean install and wish to do a full restore.

As this is a clean install and no backup has been performed on this new clean install how will the system know where to look?

I have a copy of the full backup on one of my 2TB HD's.

I seem to remember it was in a folder on HD /dev/sdc1 Back up Linux in folder "Linux_back_up_2020_Start_of_3rdQtr"

So if I am correct, how do I go about restoring from this situation.

Is the disk /dev/sd connected to the computer?
Is the partition /dev/sdc1 mounted to the directory tree?

If yes, them look there whether you find the parent directory for your backup files.

Do you remember the settings in deja dup that were in place when creating the backup(s)?

Is the disk /dev/sd connected to the computer? Yes
Is the partition /dev/sdc1 mounted to the directory tree? I think so, how do check this?

If yes, them look there whether you find the parent directory for your backup files. How to do this, please?

Do you remember the settings in deja dup that were in place when creating the backup(s)? Not for certain.

What is the output of the commands

uname -a
lsb_release -crid
mount | grep '/sd'

richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$ uname -a
Linux richard-H81M-S2H 5.4.0-62-generic #70-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 12 12:45:47 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$ lsb_release -crid
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$ mount | grep '/sd'
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$

I have been able to restore from 13/08/20 but only files dated up to July 2020 seem to be available ! ?

As the system auto backs up very Thursday I have not knowingly changed for months, so do not understand why I lost all the files from July 2020

Have you ever looked into the directory with the backup files to check whether new files haven been created over the course of time?
Or, have you seen log files confirming successful execution of the regular backup jobs in the past months?

Have you ever looked into the directory with the backup files to check whether new files have been created over the course of time? NO
Or, have you seen log files confirming the successful execution of the regular backup jobs in the past months? NO

Please advise how to go about these.

If you did not execute any kind of verification for half a year, how can you be sure that the backup processes did really run?

if you do a "ls -l" command in the directory with the backup files, what are the files with the newest creation date?

One possible explanation for the situation that the program cannot restore anything later than July or August might be, that no backup jobs were successfully running since then.

Thank you, Manfred,

Well, we live and learn.

There aren't too many files that are important and think I will be able to reconstruct the spreadsheet I use for fuel oil use.

I did as I said backup every Thursday this was encrypted and verified by Déjà Dup regularly.

I would usually do this backup to one internal HD and one external HD, this I have not done for many months, unfortunately.

Rich.b

Good Morning Manfred,

Please detail what check I should do to confirm that a successful backup has been done.

I will of course do a second backup to an external HD following the main backup.

Could you recommend a better alternative backup software if any?

regards,

Rich.b

I am finding it difficult to get the correct absolute path to the HD's particularly the external HD and where the enter this information in the backup pane.

I hope you can help with this.

regards,

Rich.b

If you want to do a backup to an external medium, you have to mount that medium as the first step, otherwise that external medium cannot be accessed. For a manual backup or restore you can either mount manually, or do an automatic mount (by clicking on the icon in the left half of he file explorer program).

The absolute path of the directory will very much depend on your local settings and your hardware. It is not possible for me to tell. What happens if you start deja-dup and use the "Restore ..." button, and then the 'Storage location' dialogue?

And how to check whether the backup process went ok?
The only complete check is a periodic test restore of files, but can easily get an indication if you look at log file (if they are created at all), or by checking the directory that you do the backup to.
If there are new files created with a date in their file name, then this is an indicator that a backup job has done something on that day.

Q 1/ "The only complete check is a periodic test restore of files" How is this done, please?

Q 2/ "but can easily get an indication if you look at log file (if they are created at all), or by checking the directory that you do the backup to.
If there are new files created with a date in their file name, then this is an indicator that a backup job has done something on that day."

Is this correct to look at the log files use "ls -l" ?

Q 3/ "If you want to do a backup to an external medium, you have to mount that medium as the first step, otherwise that external medium cannot be accessed. For a manual backup or restore you can either mount manually or do an automatic mount (by clicking on the icon in the left half of the file explorer program)." Please, can you explain this in move detail?

Q 4/ If I have mounted an external HD can I find out it's the absolute path of its directory?

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

No Answer to the above?

Also when I had completed the restore I got this message. There were 134 pages but I have only shown a few.

home/richard/.config/pulse/9444f27fac8644bcbe0339b2a19310c8-runtime
/home/richard/.kde/cache-Richard-Blair
/home/richard/.kde/cache-richard-H81M-S2H
/home/richard/.kde/socket-Richard-Blair
/home/richard/.kde/socket-richard-H81M-S2H
/home/richard/.kde/tmp-Richard-Blair
/home/richard/.kde/tmp-richard-H81M-S2H
/home/richard/.local/share/data/qBittorrent/nova3/helpers.py
/home/richard/.local/share/data/qBittorrent/nova3/nova2.py
/home/richard/.local/share/data/qBittorrent/nova3/nova2dl.py
/home/richard/.local/share/data/qBittorrent/nova3/novaprinter.py

/home/richard/perl/lib/Unicode/Collate/Locale/sk.pl
/home/richard/perl/lib/Unicode/Collate/Locale/sl.pl
/home/richard/perl/lib/Unicode/Collate/Locale/sq.pl
/home/richard/perl/lib/Unicode/Collate/Locale/sr.pl

/home/richard/perl/lib/auto/Class/Load/XS/XS.so
/home/richard/perl/lib/auto/Clone/Clone.so
/home/richard/perl/lib/auto/Clone/autosplit.ix
/home/richard/perl/lib/auto/Compress/Raw/Bzip2/Bzip2.so
/home/richard/perl/lib/auto/Compress/Raw/Zlib/Zlib.so

Q 1/ "The only complete check is a periodic test restore of files" How is this done, please?

Since I do not know how often the backup job is running on your system (daily, weekly, ...?), I try to give an example that you may have to modify to fit to your backup processes:
If a backup job is due on Saturday, the you can create a test file (e.g. in your home directory) on Friday, wait for the backup job to run on Saturday, and on Sunday delete the test file. Then try restoring the test file from the backup. If you can restore it, fine. If not, then something is wrong with your backup processes.

Q 2/ If there are new files created with a date in their file name, then this is an indicator that a backup job has done something on that day." Is this correct to look at the log files use "ls -l" ?

You can use the terminal command ls, but it should also be possible to use the file explorer program to identify new files

Q 3/ "If you want to do a backup to an external medium, you have to mount that medium as the first step, otherwise that external medium cannot be accessed. For a manual backup or restore you can either mount manually or do an automatic mount (by clicking on the icon in the left half of the file explorer program)." Please, can you explain this in move detail?

I do not know what kind of medium you are using as target for the backup - is it a built-in additional hard disk, or a disk to be connected via USB, or ... ? And I do not know how you are starting the backup process, manually or with help of the scheduling function inside the backup tool, or via cron job, or ...?

Q 4/ If I have mounted an external HD can I find out it's the absolute path of its directory?

You can e.g. use the mount command, or just browse through the directory tree in the file explorer program, or - in case that you create a mount point and add it to the fstab file, then it is the mount point that you created.