Hi, Need some advise if I'm on the wrong path. GOAL: Backup data (/home and /volx) , Re-format a GNU/Linux system and Re-install fresh from scratch. But I do not want to recreate the users and passwords... This is that I'm planning to do after restoring the /home folder. 1. Overwrite the following files from the old hard disk /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/group /etc/gshadow 2. Reset ownership of files and folders since they may not match. Sample script: This could be addressed by running a for loop: -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- USERS=`awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd` for USER in $USERS ; do chown -R $USER /home/$USER chown $USER /var/spool/mail/$USER done -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- I have created a lot of groups folder in a folder called /vol1 and /vol2 -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- GROUPS=`awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/group` for GROUP in $GROUPS ; do chown -R :$GROUP /vol?/$GROUP done -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- Any comments on this approach being good / bad or flawed? Regards Rishi