Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

[kennethmsmith]

Does anyone know a good program or command set to use to backup my entire harddrive configuration (or create a ghost image) so that I can restore it if something fails on me? I have a clean install of Kubuntu 7.10 without windows (no dual boot), and have kept it up to date to this point with adept updater. I have tweaked it, and set up the desktop the way I want it, and don't want to have to go back through all of those downloads, and configurations again. I want to snap-shot my harddrive and OS configuration so that if an update or error causes my drive to fail or something, I will be able to restore it back to a stable state that I have imaged.

Thanks.
Ken

[Snowhog]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

dd command

[kennethmsmith]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

can you describe what this command does and if there are any additional steps or precautions to take?

[dibl]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windo

This should get you started:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090824.0

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

I don't know what you want to back it up to, but I have used G4L for several years to image hard drives at work. It will create a backup to an ftp server or local disk (such as an attached USB drive). G4L is open-source and available on sourceforge. It's basically a script that combines dd, netcat, ftp, and gzip (or bzip or lzop) compression.

The other method I've used is to boot to a liveCD, mount a samba/nfs/ssh/whatever share on a server, mount the local partitions, and make tarballs of each partition. This is more efficient space-wise than G4L, and you can selectively restore partitions (for instance, you can restore your root partition without overwriting your /home partition), but it's also more work to restore a whole drive from "bare metal" (you have to rebuild the partitions with the same formatting, copy in the data, then reinstall grub).

Some other options that I haven't personally explored very deeply are clonezilla and partimage. You might want to check into those.

[kennethmsmith]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

ok.. well sounds like there are mulitiple options. (what i love about linux vs windows)

dd command
G4L
clonezilla
partimage

Let me give a little more detail about what I want to do, and perhaps you guys can help me narrow down my selection.

I basically want to backup my main drive (only hard drive in the system) which only has Kubuntu 7.10 on it (no other OS's). I did the automatic full install from a 7.10 install disc, and have made a few tweaks and configuration changes, and the standard updates. I just don't want to have to go through all of that again, so I want to image (backup) that drive to my much larger portable USB drive (where i keep all of my other important data). Then if something fails or goes legs up, I can (hopefully) access the USB drive and restore the hard drive state from there.

I guess that brings up a second question of how I restore (depending on which method I use) back to the hard drive.

Thanks

[kennethmsmith]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

oh... i forgot to ask also... I see this thing called "keep" in the utilities of kubuntu. appears to be for backing up drives or partitions also. Is this any good? Should I use it? I didn't find much in the way of description or help on it.

...

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windo

G4L, clonezilla, and partimage all have pretty straightforward restore procedures. They're menu-driven applications.

The biggest issue you have with using dd or G4L is that it's a bit-for-bit copy, which means you don't have the flexibility of resizing the partitions if you need to (for instance, if your drive dies and you want to restore to a drive that's 10GB smaller, you could be in trouble). It also means you're backing up a lot of junk (the empty space on the drive looks the same to those programs as the files do, they make no distinction), which can be space-consuming if you don't prep the drive a little first (by writing zeros to the empty space, for example). I believe clonezilla backs up on the file level, so as long as there is enough space to hold all the actual files, you should be ok. But as I said, I don't know clonezilla well enough yet to recommend it, though it looks promising from what I've seen.


All of these methods are going to operate from a boot CD, so if your hard drive dies it's just a matter of booting to a CD and hooking to your USB drive to do a restore. I guess all I can recommend is that you download clonezilla or g4l and boot them up and see which one makes more sense to you.

I haven't used Keep, though I've heard of it.

[Qqmike]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windo

EDIT (already): lykwydchykyn addressed some of my issues here; Partimage is not a bitstream backup -- it is a file backup; lykwydchykyn is also hitting on the size issue (see my comment below);
Study this matter a bit; maybe try two methods (they are free); test your back-ups!
Play with this when there is no stress/crisis.

Here's my further thoughts:

My how-to has been referenced on the dd command:
dd Command
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090824.0

I sure as s*** am not the expert on image back-ups. I've backed up everything except an entire bootable drive, but that should follow the same rules. I would shake it down to two options:
dd command
Partimage

(subcategory of the dd command: the DoD version of dd called dcfldd found on the free Helix Live CD – an excellent choice for using dd)

dd is raw, powerful, unforgiving, excellent. Cautions apply.
Check my how-to, check the reference there to AwesomeMachine's now-famous how-to on dd, and check how he says he always does a backup of his entire hard drive. EDIT: read down through at least his first two posts.

Tip: Watch for size. For sure, backing up a hard drive to an identical hard drive (same size, type, make) should be easy, even trivial. Watch for this size issue in A-M's how-to.

[kennethmsmith]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windows

I think i'm going to try the SystemRescueCD and use partimage on there. Then I will always have the CD to help with any other problems in the future. I hope.

Thanks for all your input on this one.

[Qqmike]

Re: Create a Ghost Image of my Hard Drive - Kubuntu 7.10 installation - no windo

Good idea. That's well known.

Knoppix is another well-known Live CD used for rescue/utilities. I know Knoppix has many things (e.g., TestDisk & PhotoRec), but can't recall if it also has Partimage. GParted Live CD has Partimage * however * there's a chance that although the gparted project will be continued, it is uncertain if the Live CD project will be continued (=> there's no volunteer developers to step in to do it thus far).