Hi Guys, we have a Linux computer running lots of specialty software and we wanted to make a complete, fully restorable to "as it was before & fully operational" back up of entire linux PC in case if the SDD crashes. Linux computer only has 1 SDD to backing up would only be doing 1 full drive back up (system and all files) to a portable USB SDD backup drive. Thanks all!!
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Full Linux Computer backup ?
- Thread starter Quarksbar
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I would like to know the answer too. When I looked a few years ago Linux did not have support for bootable backups like Mac has (CCC, SuperDuper).
yup..just dd it and if you want to schedule it you can dd via cron
Use rsync if you want to back up.
If you want a clone (very inefficient way of backing up files since its copying even the empty space) you can use the dd command like mentioned or my preference would be the cat command but to each their own. I prefer cat because its easier and faster.
ex. from root ' cat /dev/sda > /dev/sdc '
It is highly inadvisable to use dd or cat for a raw data dump of a live filesystem. You need to unmount the drives to prevent data manipulation while its being cloned. This is why cloning software has you make a bootable device. We aren't moving files we are moving raw data.
I would just use a live usb of your distro of choice. Verify the drive locations and that they are unmounted. Run the above command. Verify an identical backup using md5sum command on the partitions and/or boot from the clone to verify it works.
When the time comes to use the clone do the same thing except swap the drive paths in the cat command. Use gparted or resize2fs command on the new SSD to extend the primary partition if the new SSD is bigger then the old one.
If you want a clone (very inefficient way of backing up files since its copying even the empty space) you can use the dd command like mentioned or my preference would be the cat command but to each their own. I prefer cat because its easier and faster.
ex. from root ' cat /dev/sda > /dev/sdc '
It is highly inadvisable to use dd or cat for a raw data dump of a live filesystem. You need to unmount the drives to prevent data manipulation while its being cloned. This is why cloning software has you make a bootable device. We aren't moving files we are moving raw data.
I would just use a live usb of your distro of choice. Verify the drive locations and that they are unmounted. Run the above command. Verify an identical backup using md5sum command on the partitions and/or boot from the clone to verify it works.
When the time comes to use the clone do the same thing except swap the drive paths in the cat command. Use gparted or resize2fs command on the new SSD to extend the primary partition if the new SSD is bigger then the old one.
Boot to any live distro and then use either dd to do a direct clone to another disk or better yet use partimage (http://www.partimage.org/) to clone each partition to a timestamped file.