xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"

      type="topic" style="tip"

      id="backup-thinkabout">

  <info>

    <link type="guide" xref="files#backup"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-19" status="review"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-20" status="review"/>

    <credit type="author">

      <name>Tiffany Antopolski</name>

      <email>tiffany.antopolski@gmail.com</email>

    </credit>

    <credit type="author">

      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>

      <email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>

    </credit>

    <credit type="editor">

      <name>Michael Hill</name>

      <email>mdhillca@gmail.com</email>

    </credit>

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

    <desc>A list of folders where you can find documents, files and settings

    that you may want to back up.</desc>

  </info>

  <title>Where can I find the files I want to back up?</title>

  
Deciding which files to back up, and locating them, is the most difficult

 step when attempting to perform a backup. Listed below are the most common

 locations of important files and settings that you may want to back up.

<list>

 <item>

  
Personal files (documents, music, photos and videos)

  
These are usually stored in your home folder (<file>/home/your_name</file>).

 They could be in subfolders such as Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music and

 Videos.

  
If your backup medium has sufficient space (if it is an external hard

  disk, for example), consider backing up the entire Home folder. You can find

  out how much disk space your Home folder takes up by using the

  <app>Disk Usage Analyzer</app>.

 </item>

 <item>

  
Hidden files

  
Any file or folder name that starts with a period (.) is hidden by

  default. To view hidden files, click the

  <gui><media its:translate="no" type="image" src="figures/go-down.png">View options</media></gui>

  button in the toolbar, and then choose <gui>Show Hidden Files</gui>, or press

  <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq>. You can copy these to a

  backup location like any other file.

 </item>

 <item>

  
Personal settings (desktop preferences, themes, and software settings)

  
Most applications store their settings in hidden folders inside your Home

 folder (see above for information on hidden files).

  
Most of your application settings will be stored in the hidden folders

 <file>.config</file> and <file>.local</file> in your Home folder.

 </item>

 <item>

  
System-wide settings

  
Settings for important parts of the system are not stored in your Home

  folder. There are a number of locations that they could be stored, but most

  are stored in the <file>/etc</file> folder. In general, you will not need to

  back up these files on a home computer. If you are running a server, however,

  you should back up the files for the services that it is running.

 </item>

</list>

</page>