Upgrading to Edgy using CD / backing up whole system

[Ben Edwards]

On 12/01/07, Georg Sauthoff <g_sauthoff at web.de> wrote:
> On 2007-01-12, Ben Edwards <funkytwig at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> [..]
> > Also before doing this I want to back up by whole system to an
> > external USB drive.  I guess I will need to go into single user mode
> > and manually mount the drive (should be able to work this out but
> > pointers would be good).  I am planing on creating a directory on the
> > drive (i.e. /backup) and copying /. to it.  So the copy command would
> > be something like
>
> > cp -r -f -v -p -u -x /. /media/temp/backup
> [..]
>
> btw, GNU cp has an option -a (archive) that implicated the most needed
> options if want something like little changing permissions ownership
> etc..
>
> > Douse this seem correct, have I missed anything?
>
> I want to do a backup I suggest this:
> - don't boot the system you want to backup!
> - boot via a Live-CD

Would it not be easier/quicker to go into single user mode (init 0)?

> - plug you usb-drive mount it etc
> - use a tar-program! (GNU tar or star) - then you don't have to care, if
> your cp does everything right (like not following links, ignoring
> special files, saving attributes and permissions etc.) - tar is just
> designed to do it right.

Yes, just realized this.  I also remember that it is /., not / that
the source needs to be.  I seem to remember that missing the . means
that some (hidden I think) files can be missed.

Also I guess the other advantage of tar is it can compress (kind of on the fly).

Ta,
Ben

> E.g. mount every partition your current systems consists of and do
> something like this (as root!):
> # mount /dev/hdaFOO /mnt/old_root
> # cd /mnt/old_root
> # tar -c -f /mnt/extern/root.tar .
> (tar -z adds gzip compression)
>
> Use tar -x -f foo.tar to extract the saved files.
>
> Best regards
> Georg Sauthoff
>
>
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Ben Edwards - Brussels, Belgium & Bristol, UK
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