<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="backup-how">

  <info>
    <revision pkgversion="0.0.1" version="0.0.3" date="2015-01-28" status="draft"/>

    <link type="guide" xref="backup-why"/>
    <desc>Use Déjà Dup (or some other backup application) to make copies of your valuable files and settings to protect against loss.</desc>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Mate Documentation Team</name>
      <years>2015</years>
    </credit>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Tiffany Antopolski</name>
      <years>2011</years>
    </credit>
    <credit>
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <years>2011</years>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>How to back up</title>

<p>The easiest way of backing up your files and settings is to let a backup application manage the backup process for you. A number of different backup applications are available, for example <app>Déjà Dup</app>.</p>

<p>The help for your chosen backup application will walk you through setting your preferences for the backup, as well as how to restore your data if something goes wrong.</p>

<p>An alternative option is to just <link xref="files-copy">copy your files</link> to a safe location, such as an external hard drive, another computer on the network, or a USB drive. Your <link xref="backup-thinkabout">personal files</link> and settings are usually in your Home folder, so you can copy them from there.</p>

<p>The amount of data you can back up is limited by the size of the storage device. If you have the room on your backup device, it is best to back up the entire Home folder with the following exceptions:</p>

<list>
 <item><p>Files that you have copied from a CD, DVD, or other removable media, since it would be faster to copy them again than to restore them from backup.</p></item>
 <item><p>Files that you can regenerate easily. For example, PDFs that can be generated from TeX files, or object files that can be made with the Make utility.  Just ensure the source is backed up.</p></item>
 <item><p>Your trashed files, which can be found in <cmd>~/.local/share/Trash</cmd> (the Trash folder).</p></item>
</list>

</page>
