Qt5-FSArchiver

Version: 0.6.19 Web: http://bit.ly/Qt5FSArchiver

The name of this project on Sourceforge is a little misleading as it’s listed as Qt4FSArchiver. In fact, the application has smoothly transferred to modern Qt5 bindings some time ago. Nevertheless, it’s still a GUI front-end to the FSArchiver command-line utility, which stands in the same line with Clonezilla and Partitionmanager.

The main use case for running Qt5FSArchiver is when you need to back up or restore a partition or a directory. In other words, you can do either a partial or global backup of your system – not only just directory structure – but also your drive setup (MBR, GPT or GUID). If you need to restore a broken Linux installation or clone your OEM image to other machines, Qt5-FSArchiver is exactly what you need.

The application requires root privileges to run and carefully retains all permissions when creating an image of your drive. The interface is densely populated with various flags and options, but it’s still easy enough to get around. The top-right area lists all found partitions and the area below shows your directory tree where you can choose where to store backups. Take note of the flags to the left: here you can optionally use the encryption key; split backups to parts; save PBR (it will save the bootable flag of a partition) or set the number of CPU cores for multithreaded backup.

By default, Qt5-FSArchiver uses the LZO compression method for backups, but other options are also available (GZIP, BZIP2, LZMA). The main Actions menu of the application contains quick links to other frequently used features, such as network partition or directory backup/restore, MBR/GPT backup restore and few other options. We tested Qt5-FSArchiver to transfer our bootable /dev/sda1 (/ boot/efi) and /dev/sda3 (/) partition to another drive and it worked magically. Of course, the same could be done from a bear command line (see $ fsarchiver – help ), but it was much more convenient thanks to Qt5-FSArchiver.

“You can do either partial or global backup of your system.”

A few mouse clicks and your partition is carefully backed up ready for your to wreak havoc.