Techniques and programs to prevent disasters in Linux

Screenshot of the sync tab in Firefox.

Enabling browser sync is a good way to prevent disaster on Linux.

Loss of access to data stored on our computers can be measured on a scale from annoying to catastrophic. Fortunately there are techniques and programs to prevent disasters.

The RAE defines disaster with three meanings:

  • Great misfortune, unhappy and regrettable event.
  • Thing of quality, result, organization, appearance or other unfortunate characteristics.
  • Little skillful person, not very capable, who does everything wrong, or everything goes wrong.

Honor debt It is a Tom Clancy novel that will go down in history. Not because it's especially good, but because it anticipated an attack on US buildings using commercial aircraft. Nobody, at least publicly, paid attention to the other terrorist attack in history. A virus that gets into the servers of the New York Stock Exchange.

Taking advantage of the excessive dependence on computerized models, the virus manages to cause great damage to the country's economy and then paralyze the entire computer system.

It is likely that none of us store data whose loss or adulteration can cause problems worldwide, although it can complicate our lives. That is why it is advisable to take some precautions.

Here are some things we can do:

Have a plan

Milo Murphy's Law is an animated series on the Disney XD channel. It tells the story of a teenager prone to catastrophes. As a result, he carries in his backpack a series of tools with which to implement contingency plans.

Fortunately for us, there is little chance that an elephant will step on our smartphone or a flying saucer will accidentally destroy our computer. Nevertheless, nothing assures us that we will not suffer theft, breakdowns or accidental deletions. Spending a few minutes thinking about what to do in those cases will save us time later.

I launched into the LInux world without a network. After a Google search I decided to download the Debian network installer. We are talking about the year 2006. The installation was half way through and I did not even have a Windows CD. On a public computer I downloaded the Knoppix live and with this I managed to save the Ubuntu installation medium.

Months later I swapped the computer for one with a Foxconn motherboard. The memoirs will remember that this company was accused of blocking the installation of Linux. Feeling like an expert, and having an Ubuntu installation medium, I asked for it without an operating system. I start the system and the monitor shows me a message of unsupported resolution. As time went by, I knew that a change to the bootloader was enough, but at that point, I had to pay to have a pirated version of Windows installed.

Have tools close at hand

With the passage of time I was gathering aa series of tools that allow me to recover from this type of disaster. They are as follows:

  • Super Grub2 Disk: It is a boot manager that you can install on a pendrive or dvd and use it on any computer when the computer does not work. Works with Windows and Linux distributions.
  • Boot Repair Disk: This tool in live mode allows you to recover the bootloader installed on the computer. In case it cannot be fixed, we can obtain a report of the errors and copy it online to obtain help in the forums.
  • Gparted: This distribution allows us to create, modify and erase the partitions of the hard disk.
  • WoeUSB: Yes, I have Windows 10 installed and I like it, do not judge me, you can have a brother like me. With Woe USB you can create a Windows installation pendrive at any time. Unlike the tools mentioned above, WoeUSB is an application. Although we can install it without problems on a Linux distro that has live mode.
  • Yumi: Although there are another cross-platform app It allows you to install multiple distributions on a pendrive, I don't put it on the list because I never got used to it. Yumi is very good, but it is only available for Windows.

Make backup copies

And make backup copies of the backups. And don't forget to upload your backup copies to the cloud.

I lost important files by formatting the wrong disk. The second time I lost them because a power surge ruined my hard drive. The next time I lost important data because Ubuntu's disk creation tool insisted on formatting the wrong drive. I learned my lesson the third time.

It is true that in the repositories we have Testdisk, a tool for the terminal that allows you to recover deleted data. But it takes many hours, and unlike commercial tools it does not recover them with the original name, so you have to review file by file. But, it is always better to be safe.

The easiest thing to safeguard is browser bookmarks and passwords.  Firefox, Chrome and Opera offer the possibility to synchronize between computers. Brave has it partially implemented. I use a less elegant approach. I copy the configuration folder to an external disk and paste the contents into the new configuration folder.

In case of using an email client like Thunderbird, it is convenient is to configure the accounts with the IMAP protocol. Unlike the POP protocol, emails remain on the server until they are deleted there.

Linux distributions based on GNOME usually include Déjà Dup. This application allows us to schedule periodic backups, determining which folders to include and which ones not. We can also choose the storage location and the time to make the copy.

In case you need a program with more options, Back in Time our allows you to create multiple copy profiles with different folder settingss selected and frequency of copying.


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  1.   Night Vampire said

    Another useful tool to consider would be TimeShift to take snapshots of the system and restore it to a previous state if necessary. It saved me a couple of times after installing some updates.

    1.    Diego German Gonzalez said

      That is a good piece of information. In fact it is an application that major distributions should incorporate by default. Thanks