Backing up entire filesystem

humbert

I'd like to convert my root filesystem from ext3 to reiserfs, it was recommended by the OS, gentoo, after updating portage which took ages. I've also got it running on another computer and the difference is conspicuous.

I've done some googling and found that it can be done without a format but going ahead without backing up seems like madness. I expect the best/only way to do it is to boot from a livecd which isn't a problem, what I'm wondering is what's the simplest way to backup everything and maintain symbolic links and permissions.

I've an external HD with plenty of space and a partition on it I can format to what ever filesystem might be convenient.

Oh and on a completely unrelated subject, if I remove the screen from a laptop(it's borked and I'm just using the the thing as a server) will it boot or will the bios go berserk?

ld50

man dump

try something like:

cd /backup_dir && dump -0uf - / | /sbin/restore -r -f -

also
http://surf.ap.seikei.ac.jp/~nakano/dump-restore/dump-restore-mini-HOWTO.en.html

NutJob

i used dd_rescue for this

Just as an extra for backup to a network drive

mount -t smbfs //smbserver/share /mnt/share

Backup

dd_rescue -A /dev/hda1 - | gzip -9 | split -b2000k - /mnt/share/img_hda

Restore

cat /mnt/share/img_hda* | gunzip -c | dd_rescue -A - /dev/hda1

That way if things go wrong you have an exact image


Worked for me as the disk was shagged and partimage crapped out.

btw "-" is stdout
-A is fill bad reads with zeros

Works like a treat and there are a ton more options available for read retrys etc

Go for a pint while you wait....

humbert

ld50 wrote:

man dump

try something like:

cd /backup_dir && dump -0uf - / | /sbin/restore -r -f -

also
http://surf.ap.seikei.ac.jp/~nakano/dump-restore/dump-restore-mini-HOWTO.en.html

Thanks, that worked perfectly. Well I dumped it to a file then restored it onto the new reiser fs. Didn't come across that utility and there's surprisingly little mention of it.

I'm not sure dd would be right for that, as i think it takes an image of the drive but I could be wrong.

Thanks.

phil

bit late, but rsync could be used for this, it's pretty portable across systems and extremely useful.

Phil.