Backup Complete Hard Drive

[Fred Roller]

kate wrote:
> I have now used the backup and restore commands in Terminal with out any
> problems when it comes to files and directories, but the situation is
> that I can not back up the whole hard drive to a external hard drive
> complete.
>
> For Example to test the system I have placed jpegs onto desktop and
> executed a complete dump after I have used the restore command to place
> back all the data, that has worked but the desktop dose not show or
> replace the files that I have deleted as a test.
>
> What I mean is do a complete system back up onto a external hard drive,
> erase or format the original and place back all directories and files as
> it was originally.
>
>
> Thanks Kate
>
>
>   
Sounds like you would be better served with DD:

Backup:

    dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/media/[external drive]/backup.img bs=512

Restore:  (which requires no formatting and may be defeating the purpose):

    dd if=/media/[external device]/backup.img of=/dev/sda1 bs=512

you need to be able to umount the /dev/sda1 device or boot from a live 
cd to complete.  If on the other hand you just need the data files then 
tar would serve:

Backup:
   
    tar -cvf /media/[external device]/backup.tar /path/to/directory

example:
    froller at metis:~$ tar -cvf /Crypt/backups/test.tar test
    test/
    test/test1
    test/test2

   

Restoration:

    tar -xvf /media/[external device]/backup.tar -C /path/to/directory

example:
    froller at metis:~$ tar -xvf /Crypt/backups/test.tar -C /home/froller/
    test/
    test/test1
    test/test2

in the restore example the -C /home/froller/ is not needed because I am 
already in the working directory, just used it to show it could be used 
if you were /not/ in the working directory.  Hope this helps.  In double 
checking my work I did come across this:

    http://www.faqs.org/docs/gazette/backup.html

which may be of some interest.  Good luck.


-- 
Fred
www.fwrgallery.com

"Life is like linux, simple.  If you are fighting it you are doing something wrong."