question about backups

[Lee Braiden]

On Sunday 09 October 2005 10:36, AA wrote:
> I have tried to create images with
> ghost, and they create successfully, but will not pass
> the integrity test.  Is this because the linux disc is
> not primary master?

I haven't used GHOST in years, since before it was bought by Norton.

However, if, I think you're saying that you're creating an image of a linux 
partition to another drive/partition on the same computer, and it's failing 
to verify as a correct image -- a correct copy of the original partition?  I 
can't imagine many realistic scenarios for why that would happen, besides 
hardware problems like a bad hard drive or bad memory.

> Is there any way to use ghost to 
> make backups of this system?

Linux and unix make accessing the hard drive's raw data very easy.  You could 
automate the whole thing, without GHOST, by just copying data from the raw 
disk device (say, /dev/hda) to a file on another partition.  If the partition 
you want to restore to is the same size, then restoring is as simple as 
reversing the process: just copy the file's data back to /dev/hda.  Of 
course, you can compress this data while copying with something like gzip or 
bzip2.

There are also linux-based, free alternatives to GHOST, as well as other 
one-step restore tools that make CD or DVD images, etc.  The "dump" command 
is probably worth a look, too.

Personally, I use faubackup to store just my personal data, and don't bother 
to backup the OS files since they're available on CD and/or the net anyway.

-- 
Lee Braiden
http://www.DigitalUnleashed.com