Hello,

I want to use Ubuntu for awhile but have been held back because I'm uncertain of how to do backups for both Windows and Ubuntu.

Should I have three HDs for each or dual boot XP and Ubuntu on one HD and have one backup HD?

If I have a backup HD for a dual boot machine, then should I backup everything or backup a shared space between the OS... is it possible to set up a shared folder accessible by both OS?

Could someone share their backup methology for dual boot machine?

Thanks ^^;;;

You need four partitions, Ubuntu, swap (you don't backup swap), XP, and backup. How these partitions are spread across HDs is irrelevant except for the case of HD failure. In the case of HD failure you would like your backup to be on a different HD than the master copy.

I recommend you create a backup partition and mount it on /backup. Then you can do update style backups of Ubuntu with:

cp -pur / /backup

I put my cp command in anacron so that it is executed automatically once a day.

As to the parts of your question about Windows, I don't know the answer.

-------------------------
Steve Stites

The method I use is to create a FAT32 partition to store images using partimage. Windows and Linux can both read and write FAT32 without difficulty, and partimage can create images of both NTFS and EXT3 partitions very well.

Starting with a bare hard drive, I create four partitions:

1. NTFS (for Windows)
2. EXT3 (for Linux)
3. FAT32 (for O/S images)
4. SWAP (for Linux)

After I install Windows, I boot System Rescue CD, save the master boot record (MBR) using something like

# dd if=/dev/hda of=WINDOWSXP.MBR bs=512 count=1

and create an image using partimage. Then I install Linux and if I install Ubuntu, it automagically detects my Windows installation and adds it to my GRUB menu. Finally, I boot System Rescue CD and backup the MBR again and create an image of the Linux partition. If I have space on a USB drive or a network share, I skip the step of creating the FAT32 partition, and store the MBRs and partition images there.

Once I'm done, I have clean installs of my Windows and Linux installations in case of a catastrophic failure. Occasionally, I boot System Rescue CD and take a snapshot using partimage, so I do not lose too much work.

I have been using this system for over two years now without any problems. Many people have pointed out that the web page for partimage states that NTFS support is experimental, but I have used it without a problem for two years. That's a pretty good experiment, wouldn't you agree?

That sounds great. However, is it possible to move FAT32 partition to a separate HD using partimage? I want to protect my files in case of HD failures. One of my HD died on me recently and I've been paranoid ever since then...