Backups and reinstalls

tacm · 01-22-2007, 04:33 PM

I am running Ubuntu 6.06 and I have had to configure the OS to make diferent things work Wireless, flash, java.....ect. My question..Is there a way to make a recovery disk with all the changes so if I need to recover I wont have to set everything up again?

chadl · 01-22-2007, 05:03 PM

If you have the space, the entire hard drive can be imaged using the command (as root):

Code:

dd if=/dev/hda bs=1k conv=sync,noerror | gzip -c > /<a partition not on hda>/backup.img.gz

Then, if your system crashes a Linux live-cd can restore it using the command (again, as root):

Code:

zcat /<path to backup device>/backup.img.gz | dd of=/dev/hda bs=1k

Ubuntu might have it's own backup/restore utility... I don't know.

Note: I just wrote the above commands off the top of my head... check them before use.

Matir · 01-22-2007, 05:52 PM

I do something similar and make a rsync mirror image of my system onto another disk. It does take some extra space, but it's great for disaster recovery.

tacm · 01-22-2007, 06:01 PM

Im glad it can be done, but I must be honest......its a little over my head. is there a place I can get a step by step? Thanx

mkhan919 · 02-06-2007, 05:45 AM

Don't know if you found what you were looking for but here is a good thread explaining dd command.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=362506