How to create a recovery partition?

[Tassadar]

Hi all,

I have been using linux (Kubuntu x64 to be exact) for a few months and I use an bootable Clonezilla USB drive to make and recover images of the system, and works great.

Now I want to make in the hard drive a recovery partition that will allow me to press a key or something similar when booting the computer and then go to a recovery option with what I can restore the computer to the default state.

I need all to be in the internal hard drive, not on a USB drive, and I need the recovery process to be easy to use (I don't wan't to have to select partitions or other options).

Mainly, I understand that making this can be a bit difficult, but I don't mind, the question is that the result, i mean, the recovery option must be simple and easy to use.

Anyone knows how could I do this?

Many thanks in advance

[oshunluvr]

As usual there are many ways to do this. Why don't you start by outlining the steps you want to take in order to create the backup, how often to update it, and how you expect to access it?

Off the top of my head some ways to do this: btrfs snapshotting, RAID1, identical partitions using dd, rsync or rdiff-backup to a partition, etc...

[Tassadar]

As usual there are many ways to do this. Why don't you start by outlining the steps you want to take in order to create the backup, how often to update it, and how you expect to access it?

Off the top of my head some ways to do this: btrfs snapshotting, RAID1, identical partitions using dd, rsync or rdiff-backup to a partition, etc...

Thank you for your answer, oshunluvr.

What I want to do is basically the same that branded laptops have, a method to restore the computer to the initial state. So I will never have to update this "recovery system" in the same computer.

Of course, I update the system regulary, so I would have to make new "images" that will be restored, but once I have the computer built, I want it to have the default O.S. and the recovery to restore this default, that will be the same always in this computer.

I would like to have the easiest posible way to implement it, no matter if it's with clonezilla or not, but I have to use free software.

Many Thanks

[Guest]

According to me, for any Microsoft OS, to install from recovery disks or recovery image takes lot of time. By that time, you can do fresh install and install all required softwares.

While using Linux distribution, you really don't have to care about this, as if any error occurred with any package with your system, you can simply remove that package and reinstall that package. This is not the case with the Microsoft OS.
E.g if theres an error with your kubuntu-desktop settings, you can simply update the kubuntu-desktop or uninstall and reinstall the package - kubuntu-desktop.

For data storage, I would recommend you to create a separate partition for your /home. This can be created maunally at the time of Kubuntu/OS installaton

[oshunluvr]

Yes of course on the free software. That's why many of us are here! Almost all the software needed to do this is already on your system.

IMO, as I think gauravdighe was pointing out - doing a full system re-store is not often required and is overkill in many cases. Although it is somewhat likely you will someday render your system temporarily broken, there are usually easier remedies than a bare metal wipe and re-install.

Another easy option with linux is to have a small cheap thumb drive and install linux to it. Then you always have a bootable device in case of a problem. I generally keep only backups of system files I edit myself and my personal data. It only takes a half hour or less to do a new install and I'd rather not invest so much time in making backups of a system so easily re-installed. Lately, I'm using a new filesystem called btrfs that has snapshot capability so that's a no brainer.

Assuming you want to go ahead anyway, there are a couple possibilities on how best to do this:

The program "dd" can execute an exact copy of a partition and restore the same.
You can create a dual boot system and boot to the second install once in a while to update it, but keep it clean of "tinkering."
You can use a program like rsync or rdiff-backup to duplicate your system.

First things first - it's easier to back up your system and protect your data if you keep a separate /home partition. Then you can keep two separate backups a system back up and a home backup. The first saves you from breaking your install, the second from losing personal files. Either way, half your hard drive space will go to backing up the other half. Not a very efficient way to use your drive, but if you can spare the space and need that level of backup, I guess you can do it.

All these methods would be best served or require a separation partition to store the backup(s). You didn't give specifics about your laptop, so I'll assume a single drive only of 320GB in size. Here's how I might start:

partition 1 = 2-4 GB for swap (match RAM size)
partition 2 = 16 GB for system
partition 3 = 138 GB for home
partition 4 = Extended
partition 5 = 166 GB for backups

Then I would install Kubuntu to both partition 2 and partition 5, thus you have two bootable partitions. On partition 5 install: remove anything not absolutely necessary and install all the trouble shooting and recovery tools you want. Then install to partition 2 and start using it. I'd do a weekly backup of the system and home to partition 5. The backup methods have advantages and disadvantages. I would probably use "dd" to make a bit-for-bit copy of the system but use rdiff-backup to save the home files. That way you could do a one step pave-and-recover of the system partition but easily dig into the home backup for a single file when desired.