Tool To Backup / Restore Gmail Emails In Linux: `Backup Gmail` [IMAP]

A while back we wrote about backing up a Gmail account using Thunderbird. That doesn't work for restoring but you could at least have access to all your old emails.

'Backup Gmail' can backup / restore Gmail emails using a GUI or via command line

But I've recently discovered a small application that allows you to both backup and restore your Gmail emails in Linux with just a few clicks. The application is called "Backup Gmail" and you can use it to backup Gmail either from the command line or using a graphical user interface. It uses IMAP, meaning that restoring your emails will also restore their labels!

Incremental backups, preserve read / unread emails

Besides backup/restore, the also has a few other very useful features: it supports incremental backups and it can also preserve read/unread emails state - for this make sure you check the "Keep read/unread" option or else all your emails will be marked as read! However, using the "Keep read/unread" option, the Gmail backup becomes kind of slow.

Backup timetable, include / exclude labels

Further more, "Backup Gmail" can fetch only emails from a certain period of time and you can also include or exclude labels.

I've made two 'Backup Gmail' tests: one with a new account (which you'll see in the video below) in which everything worked perfectly and another one with a an account that has a few hundred emails. For this second account, Gmail Backup displayed an error when restoring my emails, however the restore actually worked; also, while backing up, the Backup Gmail window appeared to freeze but it was working so if that happens to you too, ignore it.

Not tested: the command line interface and the incremental backup option.

Backup Gmail video

Check out this video I've recorded demoing Backup Gmail (in the video you'll see both the backup and restore Gmail features in action):

Download and usage

Firstly, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install python-pyside.qtgui python-pyside.qtcore

To use 'Backup Gmail', download it from Launchpad (make sure you download the latest version), extract it and double click "gui.py", then select "Run". You can also set up automated backups using the command line interface - navigate to the folder where you've extracted Backup Gmail and run "./backup_gmail.py --help" to see all the available options. Basically all the features that are available for the GUI are also available in the command line interface.

Important: do not check the "Incremental Backup" option the first time you do a backup because you'll get an error like this: "username or password incorrect". You can check this option once you've performed the first backup.

Install Sparkleshare In Ubuntu Via PPA (Open Source Cloud Sync - Dropbox Alternative)

Sparkleshare is a tool to synchronize your files in the cloud - like Dropbox or SpiderOak - but unlike these, Sparkleshare is open source and allows you to use your own server. Sparkleshare uses GIT so if you delete/modify some files by accident, you can easily revert the changes. You can use it with your own server, GitHub or Gitorious. In this post I'll only cover setting up Sparkleshare with GitHub.

Sparkleshare is still in development and until now you had to compile it yourself but I've recently came across a PPA that provides Sparkleshare (Client) GIT snapshots so you can easily install it in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

Install Sparkleshare (Client) in Ubuntu via PPA

To add the PPA and install Sparkleshare in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nuovodna/nuovodna-stuff
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sparkleshare

Warning: this PPA also provides some other packages so use it at your own risk! It is better to add the PPA if you plan on using Sparkleshare so you'll receive updates but if you just want to try it out, you can download the .deb below:

• 32bit
• 64bit

Setting up Sparkleshare with GitHub

Setting up Sparkleshare with your own server is a bit complicated so in this post I'll only cover synchronizing your files with GitHub. For using Sparkleshare with your own server, see: Set Up Sparkleshare With Your Own Server.

GitHub is a web-based hosting service for projects that use the Git revision control system but with Sparkleshare, we'll use it as our own cloud server to which the files will be synchronized. You can use Sparkleshare (w/ GitHub) to back up files in the cloud, easily share files with others, synchronize your local code with GitHub and so on. All this also applies to Gitorious too, but in this post I'll only cover setting up Sparkleshare with GitHub.

1. Get a GitHub account (it's free!).

2. Create a repository @ GitHub: click "Dashboard", then click "New Repository". Your repository name will later be referred to as your folder in Sparkleshare.

3. Start Sparkleshare, enter your name and email and click next. Then stop (do not go to the next step)! Now open Nautilus and go to /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.config/sparkleshare

Here, you'll find a file called "sparkleshare.YOUR_EMAIL.key.pub". Open this file in a text editor and copy its contents.

4. On the GitHub site go to Account Settings > SSH Public keys, click on "Add another public key":

Here, give your key a title (like SparkleShare-home or whatever you want) and in the "key" field, paste the .pub file contents (which you've copied under step 3).

5. Now return to the Sparkleshare window:

Select "GitHub" and under "Folder name" enter: "your_github_username/repository" (without the quotes), where "your_github_username" is your GitHub username and "repository" is the name of the GitHub repository you've created under step 2.

Now you should have a notification area icon for Sparkleshare and a folder called "Sparkleshare/your_repository_name" in your home directory. Copy files to this folder and they will get synchronized with GitHub.

Important: do not place any private files into the Sparkleshare folder as these files can be seen by anyone if you have a free account. For a paid account, you can get more space, private repositories, private collaborators, etc.

For help setting up Sparkleshare with Gitorious, see the Sparkleshare documentation.

Update: for using Sparkleshare with your own server, see: Set Up Sparkleshare With Your Own Server

How To Backup Gmail Using Thunderbird

Gmail had some issues a few days ago and reseted some email accounts so many people now want to backup their Gmail account(s). I got this request by email so I though I'd suggest a very simple (and free) way to backup your Gmail account: using Thunderbird.

Using the exact instructions in this post, Thunderbird will not delete your Gmail emails and will not mark them as read so it acts exactly as a backup, without interfering with your actual emails. You can of course use this to send emails too (just like with any email client - I've used Thunderbird because it's easy to set up and cross-platform) but the purpose of this how-to is to use Thunderbird just to download your Gmail emails (so you can turn off the outgoing server if you want) so you have a local backup in case something goes wrong with your Gmail account.

If you want to backup your Gmail account online, you can use TrueSwitch to copy all your emails into your Hotmail account or use Backupify which is free for a regular (non custom domain) Gmail account.

How to backup your Gmail account using Thunderbird

1. To backup your Gmail account using Thunderbird you'll firstly need to enable POP in Gmail. To do this, go to Gmail settings and on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab, under "POP Download" select "Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)" under "1. Status". 

Under "2. When messages are accessed with POP", select "keep Gmail's Copy in the inbox":

2. Now you can start Thunderbird and add a new mail account (File > New > Mail account). On the first screen, enter a name, your Gmail address and Gmail password, then click "Continue":

3. On the next screen, Thunderbird will automatically download the Gmail settings from its database. If you use Thunderbird 3.1.x, this is how it will look:

Here, you must select "POP" instead of "IMAP" for the incoming server. If you use an older Thunderbird version, you may need to click "Edit" and select enter the settings manually for the incoming server (POP) and enter the following info for the incoming server: pop.googlemail.com, port: 995

Now click "Create Account".

That's it! Now simply click "Get mail" and let the Gmail backup begin. Thunderbird will download all your Gmail emails - this will take a while. Now whenever you want to update the "backup", simply open Thunderbird and let it do its job.

If you're behind a firewall / router that blocks the incoming POP port (955), you can install TOR and then use it as a SOCKS proxy in the Thunderbird settings.

Thanks to JC for the suggestion!

Create A Full System Backup Or Custom Live Ubuntu / Debian CD With Remastersys

I realize many of you probably already know Remastersys, but we decided to make a post on it anyway because it's an amazing tool and maybe some of you never heard of it.

This was a tip sent by WebUpd8 reader Saurabhneo23:

It's one of the best tools out there to make a disaster recovery disc or make an ISO of your own customized Ubuntu. It's an equivalent to Windows backup and restore (if you use it only for system recovery and not to recover your personal files).

Remastersys is a tool which can be used to create a custom live Ubuntu / Debian CD. But it's not like the other such tools we've already covered as it can be used to clone your current installation which you can then use to either share it with your friends or create your own Ubuntu derivate. Don't worry about your private data and such, that's not going to be included onto the CD.

But that's not all there is to Remastersys: you can also use it for a full system backup onto an installable CD, DVD or USB drive - this will also include your personal data and you can later use it like any live CD/USB to reinstall your whole system and data.

To install Remastersys in Ubuntu Karmic and newer, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository karmic/"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install remastersys

Do not replace "karmic" with "lucid" or other Ubuntu version name!


For older Ubuntu versions and Debian, see the Remastersys website.

Once installed, you can access Remastersys by going to System > Administration > Remastersys Backup. Then, all the options are one click away:

Click on "Modify" to set the Live CD username (it must be in lowercase!), the Live CD title, filename and so on:

When you're finished with customizing these settings (or you can use the default values), select "Go back to the main menu" and select what you want to do: Backup the full system (including personal data), make a distributable copy and so on and then wait for your ISO to be built.

For more info, visit Remastersys homepage.

See also:

• Reconstructor - Ubuntu / Debian web custom Live CD creator
• Easily Create A Custom Ubuntu Live CD With Ubuntu Customization Kit (UCK)

Thanks to Saurabhneo23 for the suggestion to make a post on Remastersys Backup!

Install MintBackup (Linux Mint Backup Tool) In Ubuntu From A PPA

Linux Mint 9 comes with a completely rewritten MintBackup ("Backup Tool") - a great backup tool which is very easy to use.

In case you don't know, Linux Mint is a disto based on Ubuntu which some characterize as "Ubuntu after a week of customizations". But what if you simply don't want to install Linux Mint and just want to use MintBackup in Ubuntu? Well, we've created a PPA for that so you can now easily install (and stay up to date) with MintBackup in Ubuntu Karmic, Lucid and Maverick (though we've only tested it in Lucid, but it should work in Karmic and Maverick too).

But before installing MintBackup in Ubuntu, here's some more info on MintBackup: it can backup and restore files and directories (doh!) but not only that - it can also backup and restore your complete software selection (something you can also easily do via command line, but some are scared by the terminal) so you can install all the packages you had installed when you install a newer Ubuntu version.


Other MintBackup features:

• It can check differences in files and perform incremental backups/restorations
• It can check the integrity of the files after it copies them
• It can backup straight to an archive and compress it on the fly

Since MintBackup is designed for non-geeks mostly, it can only do local backups so if you want something more advanced, I suggest you see what the WebUpd8 readers consider to be the best Linux backup tool.

Install MintBackup In Ubuntu (Karmic, Lucid, Maverick)

To install MintBackup in Ubuntu, simply paste the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/mintbackup && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mintbackup

Once installed, you can access MintBackup via System > Administration > Backup Tool.

And speaking of MintBackup - an application which comes by default in Linux Mint -, there's a question I've been asking myself for years: why doesn't Ubuntu come with a backup tool by default? Really now, it's a very important part of every Ubuntu installation (or it should be!) and yet there's no such default application.



See also: Install MintMenu in Ubuntu from a PPA.

Poll Results: Best Linux Backup Tool / Software

The best Linux backup software poll is over. This is the first time since we started our weekly poll that a command line utility wins over all GUI alternatives.

You guessed it, the winner is: rsync (34.67%), with Back In Time (25.83%) on the second place, these 2 applications getting more than 60% of the total number of votes. However, Grsync was also mentioned quite a few times in the comments as being used with rsync so not everybody who voted for rsync uses it from the command line.

Here are the exact results for the "best linux backup tool / software" poll:

There were quite a few votes for other software (80), but scattered over many apps, most notable being:

-Bacula (8 votes)

-Grsync (5 votes)

the rest getting 2-3 votes each.

Browse all our weekly polls.

Giveaway: 3 Handy Backup Professional Licenses For WebUpd8 Readers

A while back we offered 3 Handy Backup Pro licenses to WebUpd8 readers. Well, it's time to do it again! Read on!

Firstly, what is Handy Backup? Well, it's an automatic backup application which you can use to backup data on CD/DVD-RW devices, LAN and remote FTP servers. While Handy Backup only runs on Windows, it can also be used in Linux with the help of Wine - especially since the supported filesystems include: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, Reiser4 and others.

Handy Backup Professional also includes Disk image backup which allows you to back up a full had drive with an OS installed (including all application settings and so on) which can later be fully restored, and also it includes database backup - allows you to back up database tables without stopping the service (hot database backup), using ODBC connectivity.

Handy Backup also comes with a server backup version (Download Handy Backup Server - trial for 30 days) but that's not included in the Professional package we'll be giving away. However for personal use, the Pro version should be enough!

The contest: 3 Handy Backup Professional Licenses Giveaway

Here's what you must do to get a Handy Backup Professional license (each license is worth $99 but you'll get it for free): simply comment to this post using a valid email address (so don't comment with a Twitter account and such, just using your email address so we know where to send the license) until Saturday morning (10 A.M. GMT+3) - that's in less than 2 days. Then I'll make a draw and send the winners the Handy Backup Pro license. That is all (not a real contest, I know).

Note: this is not a paid post, I didn't win anything by publishing it (other then the posibility to give you a license) - I didn't even get a license myself.

You can download Handy Backup from HERE.

Best Linux Backup Tool / Software

WebUpd8 reader Phil sent us an email suggesting "best Linux backup software" for this week's poll, so here it is.

The contenders are: Back In Time, fwbackups, Deja Dup, rsync (command line), luckyBackup, Simple Backup Solution (sbackup).

Vote for the best Linux backup software:

There are A LOT of backup tools for Linux so I skipped some from the poll (especially enterprise solutions since this is mostly about best Linux backup software for home users) but as always you can vote for an application not listed in our poll by selecting "Other" and then entering the application you would like to vote for.

Do not forget to tell us why you find a certain tool to be the best, using the comments form below!

Grsync (Rsync GUI) 1.1.0 Ubuntu 9.10 And 10.04 .deb Download

We wrote about Grsync before, an open source rsync GUI (Graphical User Interface) which you can use for file and directory synchronization (for backups, etc.).

Rsync is the well-known and powerful command line directory and file synchronization tool. Grsync makes use of the GTK libraries and is released under the GPL license, so it is opensource. It doesn't need the gnome libraries to run, but can of course run under gnome pretty fine. It can be effectively used to synchronize local directories and it supports remote targets as well (even though it doesn't support browsing the remote folder). Sample uses of grsync include: synchronize a music collection with removable devices, backup personal files to a networked drive, replication of a partition to another one, mirroring of files, etc.

Grsync 1.1.0 was released 2 days ago and it adds some small new features as well as some bugs fixed:

• "Use tray icon" preferences option added.
• Autogen.sh script upgraded.
• Modified Makefile.am to exclude subversion directories from the tar distribution file, other small fixes.
• Added --protect-args option, on by default, solves the "remote filename with spaces" problem.
• Fixed bug: doesn't save "itemized changes list" option.
• French translation updated (Thanks François).
• Added mime type definition for grsync session files with icon.
• Updated desktop file to open session files with "grsync -i".
• Made some fixes which could make grsync more stable on some systems.
• Added "run as superuser" extra options switch, uses "pkexec" from policykit.
• Added rsync child watch function.
• Added rsync process exit status output.
• Fixed behaviour when rsync window is closed not by using the close button.
• Added "contribute" menu item.
• Added workaround for freebsd and mac os X glib child watch problem.
• Fixed scrolling to end on pause.

Because Grsync deserves more attention, I decided to package the latest 1.1.0 in a .deb file (for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid) since both Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid have version 0.9.2 in the official repositories.

Download Grsync 1.1.0 .deb:

Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid):
64bit: grsync_1.1.1~webupd8~lucid_amd64.deb (131.0 KiB)
32bit: grsync_1.1.1~webupd8~lucid_i386.deb (126.9 KiB)

Karmic 9.10 (Karmic):
64bit: grsync_1.1.1~webupd8~karmic_amd64.deb (130.7 KiB)
32bit: grsync_1.1.1~webupd8~karmic_i386.deb (129.8 KiB)



If you're using the WebUpd8 PPA, all you have to do is:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install grsync

If you're not using Ubuntu, download Grsync 1.1.0 source packages from HERE.

Update: I updated the download links to Grsync 1.1.1.

Backup Your iPhone / iPod Touch Music Collection [Ubuntu]

One more interesting thing you can do with the packages we installed in our previous iPhone article is to backup the music on your iPhone / iPod Touch back onto a computer again, for example, after a PC crash that rendered your hard disk with your music collection useless. This is not possible with iTunes if the new PC account hadn't been activated before. However, this procedure will only work for non-DRM'ed files.

There are more ways to skin a cat, as they say ...

Backup via GTKpod:

This is the best way to do it: Just right-click on any file and choose "Copy selected tracks to folder" (or similar). Files get copied to your PC with a filename based on their tags. However, copying in GTKpod may not always work. In those cases, choose one of your other options down below.

Backup via Rhythmbox:

You can backup files from your iPhone back on your PC again by simply drag'n'dropping them into a local folder. However, they will have cryptic names (see next section on backing up manually).

Backup manually:

This method is fast but has the drawback that you'll need to do some things manually. Anyway, just double-click on the phone icon that should appear on your desktop after plugging it in via USB. Your music can be found in the directory relative to the iPhone mount point:

iTunes_Control/Music

In there you'll find many folders with numbers such as F00-F49 (or more). In there are your individual music files, but their filenames are destroyed so they now have file names such as libgpod004452.mp3 (for files copied with Linux; files copied with iTunes will have similarly cryptic names, however). The good news is that all tags are still intact so you can easily rename the files automatically again based on the metadata with your favourite tag editor. So, copy the entire collection to your PC again and let your tagger app do the rest.


Note: what's really special about this procedure is that it's not possible with Windows this easily. You can only copy your music BACK from the iPhone on Linux (or using really slow SSH on Windows).

This is a guest post written by StoneCut (thank you very much!). Browse all the posts by StoneCut.

Script To Backup And Restore Gnome Settings, Themes And More

Yougnome allows you to backup all things relative to Gnome in a single .tar.gz file, then restore them any time you need. It is basically a bash script but also comes with a GUI version, however, the GUI didn't work in my tests (probably because it was released for an older Gnome version).

Yougnome can backup and restore: all your Gnome themes, backgrounds and settings, Gnome panel settings, bluetooth-manager settings, Evolution settings, file-roller settings, gnome-screensaver settings, Metacity & Compiz settings, gnome-session settings, gnome-terminal settings, update-manager & notifier settings, totem settings, network configuration set by Gnome, screenlets and more.


Being very easy to use, the GUI version is not needed so you can just use the script. After downloading it, simply run it:

chmod +x yourgnome1.sh
./yourgnome1.sh

And then you will be prompted if you want to backup or restore, the path to the backup and that's it - in just a few seconds the backup will be ready.

Download Yougnome

Backupify: Free, Unlimited Accounts Until January 31, 2010

Backupify backs up all your online accounts (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Docs, Zoho, Photobucket, Wordpress, Blogger and so on) to the cloud, normally for a nominal fee, but until January 31, 2010, all Backupify accounts will be free with unlimited storage.

After this period, the service will be paid again, but anyone signing up for an accout until January 31 will have an forever-unlimited free account.

[via lifehacker]

Grsync: Rsync GUI For Easily Synchronizing (And Backing Up) Folders [Windows, Linux, Mac OS X]

Grsync is an open source rsync GUI (Graphical User Interface) which works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Rsync is the well-known and powerful command line directory and file synchronization tool.

You can use it for easily data backup. For instance, since Dropbox does not have it's own back-up tool (that's why I really like SpiderOak for this job), you can use Grsync to syncronize some folders you want to back-up with your Dropbox folder. Obviously, you can also use it with Ubuntu One or a network drive.

Grsync is VERY easy to use: just choose the origin and destinations folders.


Grsync features:

• Most commonly used rsync options available, additional options may be specified by command line switches
• Saves multiple settings with customized names (no limit on number of "sessions")
• Can do simulation or normal execution
• Captures and prints rsync output nicely on a own window and log to a file
• Parses rsync output to display progress bars and other information
• Highlights errors and show them on a separate window, for better and faster control over rsync runs
• Can pause rsync execution
• A good number of translations available
• Can run custom commands before (and stop in case of failure) and after rsync
• Shell script for batch, crontab use etc. provided (grsync-batch)
• Can import and export sessions on file; i.e. share your settings with people!
• Rsync backup made easy!
• Needs rsync installed on the system (command line tool only, no need for server-side daemon) and GTK
• Available for free and with sources!

Once you install it, Grsync is available under Applications > System > Grsync.

Note: to sync files outside your home folder, you may want to run Grsync with sudo!

Download Grsync (packages available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux: Maemo, Suse, Mandriva and Slackware). Ubuntu users: Grsync is available in the Ubuntu repositories. To install it, simply open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install grsync

SpiderOak: Cross Platform Cloud Back-up Solution

We already covered SpiderOak, but only on a quick test, because back then, I didn't see the need for another tool like Dropbox. Read on to see why Dropbox might actually not be enough!

In case you don't know, SpiderOak allows you to back up your system with the needing any cloud server hosting plans. It's an online backup, sync, sharing, access & storage solution for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE). They offer 2 GBs of space for free and you will be enjoying all of the features SpiderOak has to offer. By referring 3 friends, you can get 3 more GB of free space (1GB per person referred).

Why both Dropbox AND SpiderOak?

Firstly, because SpiderOak has a built-in automated backup system. With Dropbox, you had to either create symbolic links or run a back-up application to do the backup, but SpiderOak can do it all in just one app.

For instance, I am synchronizing my Firefox profile for my home and work computers and also transfer some files without using an USB pen drive and so on, by just placing the files in my Dropbox. With SpiderOak, I back-up my system / config files.

So if you want to simply sync files, use Dropbox, if you also want to backup important files, give SpiderOak a try.

Note: one way to use Dropbox for both file sync AND backup could be to use 2 different Dropbox instances (and accounts).

Another interesting SpiderOak feature is the way sharing works:

Even though all your data is stored encrypted, you can carefully and selectively allow portions of your SpiderOak Network to be shared (or become public) to family, friends, colleagues, or clients. You can create a ShareRoom by choosing any number of folders from several of your computers. A ShareRoom may be accessed as a unique web URL or by entering a user's ShareID and RoomKey on the SpiderOak homepage – easily allowing people you invite to view your documents, pictures, movies, and so on.

Additionally, as you make additions or edits to the folders within a ShareRoom (no matter what computer those changes are made on), the changes are automatically viewable to those who have access to the ShareRoom. This process is definitely more efficient than having to constantly upload new changes to an FTP site or resend big files via e-mail.

In my tests, SpiderOak was kind of slow on Windows, but then again I use Windows only at work and the PC configuration isn't that good (1GB RAM with a AMD 2800+ processor). On Linux, it seems to run pretty smooth.

If you are considering using SpiderOak, you can use my referral link: you will get 1 GB of extra space for free (I will also get 1 GB) - only works for the first 3 accounts created using this link.

Handy Backup Pro Licenses Giveaway Winners Announced

The Handy Backup Pro 3 licenses giveaway contest is over.

The lucky winners will receive a Handy Backup Professional License worth of $99 which they can use to backup applications, settings, photos or whatever and even their entire hard drive on USB sticks, CD/DVD, LAN, FTP or they can just use the Handy Backup servers on which they have unlimited storage available.

The 3 winners are:

1. sayantan
2. Nightwish24
3. Matt

Website used for drawing the random winners: http://mytexttools.com/Random-Line-Picker.html. You can view a video of the random draw, below:

The 3 winners listed above must comment on this post with the same name and email address as in the original contest post to receive their prize (by email). They will receive their Licenses via email as soon as I see the comments.

Winners: please remember that your comment must be posted no later than 48 hours after I publish this post.

Please note that unfortunately, Scott Splavec was not qualified for the draw because the rules stated that all users must comment using their email address, not Facebook, Twitter or other such profile.

3 Handy Backup Professional Licenses Giveaway [Worth $99 Each]

About Handy Backup:

Handy Backup is a disk imaging and backup software developed by Novosoft LLC. Handy Backup creates backup copies of data stored on computers working under Microsoft Windows and Linux, through WINE (more about Handy Backup and Linux, HERE). The backups can be stored to a variety of local and remote devices including HDD, CD/DVD discs, FTP and SFTP servers and other storage media.

Handy Backup has a Wizard driven interface and a task-based architecture which allows creating and scheduling three types of operations: backup, restore and synchronization. Key options include task scheduler, ZIP compression, Blowfish encryption, e-mail notifications, and an option to start other programs before or after task execution.

File systems supported by the software include NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, Reiser4 and other. This variety is achieved through the use of disk imaging module which allows performing sector-based backup which doesn't query the file system. Though this feature is not primarily designed for hard disk cloning, it can also be used for this purpose.


Here are Handy Backup Professional main features:

• Scheduled backup, restoration and synchronization of your folders and files;
• Disk image backup – ability to create an exact copy of your hard drive including the operating system, all applications and settings, so the system can be quickly restored after a system failure;
• Versatile choice of supported storage media including CD, DVD, LAN drives and FTP/SFTP servers;
• Capability of running as Windows service, which allows executing tasks on specified time not requiring the user to be logged on;
• Integrated ZIP-compression, password-protection and encryption of your data;
• Option of one-click backup of Outlook Express, Windows registry, My Documents and other common types of data;
• Detailed logging and e-mail notification of all processes.
• Back up data of Android-driven mobile devices, such as T-Mobile G1 (Google Phone).

As if backing up to local media, local servers, and offsite locations weren't enough, all users of Handy Backup can also take advantage of the Novosoft Remote Backup Service which provides you with unlimited storage in a highly secure web server.

Download Handy Backup

3 Free Handy Backup Professional Licenses Giveaway

One Handy Backup Professional License costs USD $99 but it's developers are giving away 3 free licenses to WebUpd8 readers. Since there must be quite a few people desiring one (I want one too, but I won't keep any for me and give it all to Web Upd8 readers so please use it to it's full potential if you win one:) ), I will make a draw on who will get it.

Here's how the contest (actually it's not exactly a contest) will take place: you will have to post a comment here, requesting a Handy Backup Professional license. You must use a real e-mail address or else you will be disqualified (so only comment using your email address, not with your Disqus, Facebook or other profiles). It doesn't really matter what you comment because I hate those blogs that ask you to comment saying why you must be the chosen one, take the red pill :), twitt, pray or other stuff like that. No, all you have to do here is comment using a valid email address (but please, no vulgar comments). :)

The comments must be posted until Sunday, 18 of October, 2009, 12:00 PM (GMT). Later on Sunday (or Monday), I will post the winners in a new post on Web Upd8. The winners MUST confirm that they still want to receive the free license in the post where I will announce the winners (if you don't want to miss the post you could subscribe to Web Upd8 posts using your favourite RSS reader or by email) and then I will send him/her the free license (to the email address which he used to comment).

If a winner fails to confirm in a 48h period, a backup winner will be chosen (I don't know how exactly, we'll see). Hopefully, everybody will confirm it's $99 Handy Backup Pro license prize.

Twistory Backs Up Your Tweets In An iCal Feed

Twistory is a free tool to back up your tweets. . It goes beyond a simple data dump, though, by plotting your tweets in an easy-to-import iCal feed.

Twistory is really simple to use, and doesn't require authentication. Just feed it your Twitter username—or any Twitter name, really—and it kicks back an iCal feed link that you can push into iCal, Google Calendar, or any calendar app that accepts the .ics format. Start using it with Google Calendar before you reach Twitter's 3,200 tweet backup limit, and you'll have a search-ready, exportable database of your tweets.

Twistory is a free service, doesn't require a sign-up to use.

Simple, Easy To Use Back-Up Application: Todo Backup [Free]

From the makers of EASEUS Partition Master comes Todo Backup, a free backup / restore application for Windows which seems very well build and simple to use. I strongly recommend it to non-geeks because it is using very detailed instruction wizards, but advanced users will also find this back-up tool quite useful -- it comes with a lot of interesting features such as a Clone Drive you can use to transfer a drive over to another or (my favourite) the ability to mount backup image files to a virtual drive and control the drive letter.

EASEUS Todo Backup is free and works on Windows 2000 Professional/XP/Vista/7 and Windows Server 2000/2003/2008.

Download EASEUS Todo Backup

Mound Data Manager Takes Snapshots Of Your Applications For Later Restoring [Linux]

Mound Data Manager is a tool that can manage data in the context of other applications. You can take snapshots, delete, and move data from many of your favorite applications. As an example: one day, Firefox starts crashing due to a bad add-on or script. With this application, you could restore everything to a previous configuration which didn't encounter these problems.

The program is at version 0.2.1 and does not recognize many apps, but allows management of snapshots, see the difference between different snapshots and export them.

To install Mound Data Manager in Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

1. Open a terminal and paste the following command:

-for Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/jpeddicord/mound/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

-for Ubuntu Karmic 9.10:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/jpeddicord/mound/ubuntu karmic main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

2. Add the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys CC2ACA8F

3. Installing:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mound-data-manager

After installing Mound Data Manager, you will find it under Applications > Accessories > Mound Data Manager.

[via fausto23]

luckyBackup Is A Powerful, Fast and Reliable Backup & Sync Linux Tool

luckyBackup is a backup and sync application running on Linux and Mac OSX, powered by the rsync tool. It is simple to use, fast (transfers over only changes made and not all data), safe (keeps your data safe by checking all declared directories before proceeding in any data manipulation ), reliable and fully customizable.

Installing luckyBackup

Ubuntu Linux users: open a terminal and paste the following commands to add the luckyBackup PPA repository.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 62E44DBB
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/luckybackup-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release -sc` main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/luckybackup-maintainers.list

Then install luckyBackup:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install luckybackup 

If you don't wish to add the repository, you can just download the .deb files:
-32bit
-64bit

Other Linux distributions & Mac OSX

Fedora rpm download: 32bit or 64bit
Slackware download: txz (i486)

Repositories:

distro	description		maintainer
Debian	Debian Sid		Patrick Matthaei
arch linux	Arch linux User Repositories (AUR)		Tom Tryfonidis (thanos)
openSUSE	openSuse KDE4 Community repo		Stephan Kleine
Mepis	Mepis Community repo		Marcos Del Puerto García
Mac OS X	Fink project		Jack Fink
Gentoo	official Gentoo tree		Theo Chatzimichos

After installing, you will find luckyBackup under Applications > Accessories > luckyBackup. You can also run it as super user, by going to Applications > System Tools > luckyBackup (super user).

How to use luckyBackup

Now you can start creating your back-up: click the Add button, and fill out the Task properties window. Specify a name for the task as well as a source directory (the directory that you want to back up) and a destination directory (the directory where you want luckyBackup to store the backups) (the destination directory can be inside the source directory, but we have to exclude the backup directory from the backup then, because otherwise we'd create a loop - I'll come to that in a minute). Mark the Also create a task for restore purposes to automatically create a suitable restore task for this backup. Then click on Advanced - here you can exclude directories from the backup (e.g. Backup files, Trash). To avoid a backup loop, we have to exclude the backup directory; to do this, click on User Defined and add the backup directory to the exclude list. A Task properties window with the properties of the restore task will open if you have marked Also create a task for restore purposes. Make sure the settings are correct and click on Okay.

Now you will find two tasks in the main window, the backup task and the restore task. We want the backup task to be active (so that it can be run by cron, for example), while the restore task will usually be invoked manually (e.g. in case of data loss), therefore we mark the checkbox of the backup task and click on the floppy disk icon to save our changes to the default profile (so that you don't lose the tasks you've just created when you close luckyBackup).

Manual Back-up

Then to start our first manual backup, make sure that the backup task is checked (and the restore task is not) and click on the Start button:

To restore a backup (e.g. in case of data loss), uncheck the backup task and check the restore task and click on Start.

Automatic Back-up

luckyBackup supports scheduled (automated) tasks (i.e., cron jobs) too. To create such a cron job, click on the clock icon > a new window will pop up (schedule). Click on add to create a new cron job. You can now define when you want luckyBackup to create a backup for you. Click on okay when you're done:

The new cron job should now be listed in the schedule window. Click on cronIT and you're done!

Credits: howtoforge