Backing up my system completely (solved)

[eddieg780]

I have my Kubuntu Gutsy working great. Is there a way to back it up completely to a USB hard drive? I've read some posts here but not quite sure how to do it still. Thanks.

PS...Is there like a standard command line to back up the entire system?

[dibl]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Depending on what you have in mind, this might be a decent place to start:

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

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

What I have in mind would be an entire system back up. I would like to get a larger drive and transfer the system I already have set up. Or just in case my hard drive goes up so I have it available to me. I worked really hard setting up what I have to get it right. I read the page you suggested and if I used the default settings will everything go ok? Maybe like cloning the os for re installation.

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Better read the AwesomeMachine reference: he shows you how he clones his main HDD.
And at least look into Partimage.

[mechanism]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Yes. There is.

I've got to get that "How To" completed...
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3092148.0

Mike

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

I tried
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc
and I get
dd: opening `/dev/hda1': No such file or directory
then I tried
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc
dd: opening `/dev/hda': No such file or directory
so I typed
sudo fdisk -lu
and got this
Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders, total 195371568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000843e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 187333964 93666951 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 187333965 195366464 4016250 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 187334028 195366464 4016218+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders, total 195371568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa315a315

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 195366464 97683201 7 HPFS/NTFS
What did I do wrong? I wanted to put the image named kub.img in the image folder on my usb drive.

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely

I can't see any hda1 in your fdisk output ... ? What IS drive hda?

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Boy do I feel like a butt head. Its sda1 not hda1. right?

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely

OK, sda1 is the partition you are making an image of.

“I wanted to put the image named kub.img in the image folder on my usb drive.”

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc

That statement should make an image of the Kubuntu root partition.
If there's any problems:
You may have to use sudo in front of dd (sudo dd etc ...).
You may have to issue this command from a live Kubuntu CD (but probably not; try it first from Konsole in sda1, or from any Kubuntu installed on internal hard drive).
And if dd is ever quirky for you, copying as you are (from internal sda1 to external sdb1), you may also try it using the dcfldd command from the Helix Live CD (works just like the dd command:
dcfldd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc
issued from a Terminal in Live Helix CD; or sudo dcfldd etc)
And, of course, finally, just make sure that sdb1 has enough room for an image of sda1
Note: sda1 is your Kubuntu root partition (I believe); that's different than sda, which is the entire hard drive sda! I would think that sda1 is what you want. Is your /home part of sda1 also?

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Thank you Qqmike. You're right. I want to make an image of my Kubuntu 7.10 partition. My /home is in sda1 as well. Another question...Do I have to format my USB drive for ext3 or can it stay NTFS? It is a 100 GB drive that's empty so there is enough space for my image file. If so, how do you format a drive in Kubuntu? Do you know about how long it will take to back it up? It appears to be about 29GB or so. You see, I need to learn this because my wife wants to start a business and I want to use Kubuntu to run it. Thanks again. Ed

PS...I see the Helix CD mentioned a lot on here. This might sound stupid, but is this another OS and where can I get it?

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely


The Helix Live CD is a live forensic/rescue CD; it has a DoD version of the dd command called dcfldd. (And Helix is based on some Linux OS—maybe on Knoppix, I can't remember.) See the references mentioned in the how-to:
dd command, how-to:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090824.0
If you are going to use the dd command a lot, or for important stuff, the other reference to read is the how-to by AwesomeMachine, also referenced there.


“Do I have to format my USB drive for ext3 or can it stay NTFS?”

I'm really not sure. What I am sure about is that ext3 would be safe (= the same format as the Kubuntu 7.10 partition). The dd command copies everything, bit for bit, including the filesystem. So if you copied the entire partition to another partition (partition for partition), the image file in the target would have the same format as the source partition. In your case, you are copying to a file contained within the target partition, so I'm unclear about the results (upon restoring and so on, as I've not done that yet).
Personally, I would want to use ext3 all the way (until & unless my personal experiments gave me the confidence to do otherwise).


“It is a 100 GB drive that's empty so there is enough space for my image file. If so, how do you format a drive in Kubuntu? Do you know about how long it will take to back it up? It appears to be about 29GB or so.”

To format and partition in Kubuntu, use the GParted Live CD (free download):
GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
How long it will take depends on the size of sda1 (you are copying the whole partition). Depends on many factors with your machine. On mine, it might take 30 minutes to do 30 GB (or so).
You will NOT see any evidence of the backup while it is being done—only afterwards will you get a brief standard report to the screen. But your hard drive LED light will be On while it is running. (The dcfldd version on Helix does have a progress meter telling you how many bytes have been copied.)

There's nothing wrong with using dd. But it is kind of a raw, bit-for-bit device. Just keep in mind Partimage as something to look into, also. (I only use dd, so far.) And the cardinal rule in this game is to * test your work *. That means, to test your backup. BUT, in this case, you will be risking things to do that! It will probably work just fine (mine have), but to test this you really need to test a restore. Most people do not do that! They hope and pray they never need the backup, and then have faith the backup will work if they ever need it. Fact is, you could restore the backup to some other identical-sized partition to test it (of course, the GRUB boot manager may not work and will have to be adjusted/edited from a live CD to make that backup boot, but that's not a real big deal). Not trying to discourage you here, but just to suggest that these things may require a learning curve: partitions, dd images, bootloaders, etc. I'm not any expert. And I only really trust/believe what I have actually, personally done on my system .
From what I read in forums, people who use commercial backup software have the same issues, concerns, caveats, learning curves.

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

I formatted my USB drive in ext3 with Gparted. Worked great. Typed sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc in Konsole and got...dd: opening `/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img': Not a directory
So I took out /image/kub.ing and now it's been backing up for over an hour and a half. Does this seem a bit long? Or is something missing from the command?

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely

It's working now to copy sda1 to sdb1 (partition to partition), and that's OK; there's some issues, but it will become clear to you (which partition is smaller?).

90 minutes? That sounds OK. The HDD LED will be On red (or whatever color you have). What is the size of sda1?


"... and got...dd: opening `/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img': Not a directory"

To fix that so you do get sda1 backed up as an image file in sdb1, you need to mount sdb1:
sudo mkdir /media/sdb1
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1
sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1/image/kub.img conv=noerror,notrunc
Then it will go.

[eddieg780]

Re: Backing up my system completely

Both my sda1 and sdb1 are 100 gig drives. I thought that sdb1 was mounted when I see it on my desktop with the green arrow in the lower right corner. Is this not true? It's still backing up at too. 2 1/2 hours and counting..

I sure hope a software program comes out soon to do this kind of back up for Linux. I love this OS. Have you heard of or used a program called Clonezilla?

[Qqmike]

Re: Backing up my system completely

"I thought that sdb1 was mounted when I see it on my desktop with the green arrow in the lower right corner. Is this not true?"

Yes, but you have to refer to it using its "mounted name"; that is, its mount point or folder. Like /media/sdb1 or /media/my2ndDisk, or whatever it is mounted as (right-click and select properties to see its mounting folder or mount point).


Partimage.

Clonezilla? -- yes, it's well known.

I don't use any, but I'm probably the exception! A good buddy uses Partimage with great success (5 minute backups of the root partition upon a crash)

Yes, 100 GB is a large amount of data. Is sdb1 an external drive (or am I confusing things)? If so, that takes awhile longer (USB interface being slower)