Using SBackup to Transfer an Existing Installation

[tokyotea]

(Crossposted from 6.06 Forum because I followed a link and didn't realize I was in the wrong place ... )

I am intending to play musical HDDs later today and have a question about Sbackup. I have a large HDD that is seriously underutilized in the machine it is in, but have a smaller HDD that could replace it, freeing it for other duties thre are two more PCs involved in the switch, but we need not discuss them. The smaller HDD is large enough for its intended duties on that box.

The current HDD has Kubuntu 8.04-i386 (Horny Hamster) installed on it and the HDD I replace it with will have the same. The current 8.04 install works as advertised and is 100% rock solid.

What I would like to do is install the basic OS and then do a restore of the current installation on the smaller HDD so that, when the machine is turned back on, it will be as if nothing had changed.

According to the Sbackup tutorial, the program will automatically back up and restore:

/etc
/home
/usr
/var

Are these *all* of the directories that are modified when programs are added to Kubuntu? My first inclination is to copy the entire disk to DVD, but it _appears_ as though that is unnecessary (famous last words).

Also, does anyone know if Sbackup can be used to strip XP off a physical HDD and restore it to a VirtualBox?

[ishachaitanya]

Re: Using SBackup to Transfer an Existing Installation

Re: Howto: Backup and restore your system!
Backing up by AptonCD and restoring packages offline.

First one have to install aptoncd in the offline computer or the computer which has no internet connection.

The AptonCd can be downloaded with all dependecies in a folder of a internet computer and then can be installed in that internet computer and in any other computer which have no internet connection. To do this one has to be a superuser or administrator with password for the internet computer.

the command is as follows

root@ubuntu:/# apt-rdepends aptoncd 2>&1 | grep "^[a-zA-Z0-9_].*$" > /tmp/x1

apt-rdepends to be installed first in the internet computer if not already installed.
The above command is for creating a list for all dependencies for aptoncd with the main aptoncd package.

Next commands are

root@ubuntu:/# for f in `cat /tmp/x1` ; do apt-cache show $f | grep Filename | cut -f 2 -d ' ' ; done >/tmp/x2

mkdir mycache
[to keep the downloaded aptoncd package with all dependencies in the mycach folder under root]

root@ubuntu:/# cd mycache

root@ubuntu:/mycache# wget -B http://np.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ -i /tmp/x2

[if wget is not already installed then it is to be installed first before executing the above command]
this command will start downloading packages & all dependencies of aptoncd application.

Now copy the mycache folder to the home directory of the computers which have no internet connection and install it in those computers.

In the internet computer also install the aptoncd and make backup of all packages with upgrades and dependencies and make a CD/DVD/ISO image. Carry them to the computers having no internet connection and by using aptoncd application restore the packages and upgrades with all dependencies.

So by using only one computer with internet one can install applications in other computers having no internet connection at all.