Backup when Installed on a Hard Drive

When Tiny Core is installed on a USB drive, backup is designed to minimize the amount of writing to the USB drive, which results in the USB drive lasting longer.

Backup results in Tiny Core taking longer to start up and shut down.

When installed on a hard drive, Tiny Core can be set up differently.

This guide suggests options which may be used. This is to help people learning about this for the first time, who may not fully understand. There are also other options which may be used. You may set it up how you like.

Boot Options when Installing to a Hard Drive

When installing to a hard drive, it is ideal to include the following boot options.

opt=sda1 home=sda1 norestore

If not sda1, use the correct partition.

Save Application Settings

If you install certain applications, you may want to save settings related to those applications. For example, if you install a printer, and want to save printer settings.

There are various ways to save settings.

1. The ideal method in most situations, is to make a new extension for settings. For more information, see Make Extensions for Settings.

2. Settings can also be saved in /opt. For an example of this, see Tiny Core Passwords.

3. Another option is to use backup. If you want to use backup, don't include the “norestore” boot option. Then edit /opt/.filetool.lst. If you are using persistent home and opt, delete all references to the home and opt directories. In the version I am using, that is everything. Add a list of files and directories you want backed up to /opt/.filetool.lst.

Backup Documents

If you use persistent home and opt, and don't use backup to save settings, you can use backup to save documents. One way to do this is to create a new directory in /home/tc, called documents. Add home/tc/documents to /opt/.filetool.lst. Save all files you want to be backed up in /home/tc/documents.

Be aware: If you backup /home/tc there are a lot of hidden files. You can add a list of these to /opt/.xfiletool.lst, but it may be easier to backup a different directory.

For more information, see