A while ago I had decided my Haiku box would better serve another purpose with another OS because I hardly ever used it. Before wiping it, I made a backup of the whole root directory. I have a new project computer, an Optiplex 360, that I think would make a good Haiku box. If I installed Haiku and copied over everything from my root backup, would I have my old installation back in full? I’m asking because it would be inconvenient to do and a waste of time if it won’t work.
Yes. Note that you need to store xattr in backup, otherwise system will be broken. Using ZIP, dd or another BFS partition for backup is fine, tar currently don’t work. Reinstalling boot loader may be needed when restoring from backup (makebootable command or copying UEFI boot loader for UEFI systems).
My backup is stored inside a directory on an ext4 partition. Would that be an issue?
I just want my user files and downloaded apps back. I don’t wanna mess with any core stuff like the bootloader. If I copy everything over to the new Haiku installation without overwriting anything that’s already there, will I have what I want?
It should work I think.