Backing up system to DVD
 

I have finally been able to get Linux (Feisty 7.04) running on my system and an I'm slowly beginning to bring over increasingly important documents & files over from XP.
What application can I use to backup my Linux (and or my XP system - also on the same PC) to a DVD?

I'm using two HD's, one (my main XP system drive) is exclusively devoted to XP and a secondary slaved HD has two partitions devoted to XP and a further two which contain Linux.


And on an unrelated note... I installed AVG Free for Linux, but I keep getting a message that I don't have permission to update the virus definitions. What's going on?

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!

WDC WD153BA Master HD 16 GB /// WDC800JB-00ETA0 Slave HD 80 GB
LITE-ON LTR 32123S 32x12x40x RW /// HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H54N

Chances are that your software will not fit on a single DVD, even a dual layer DVD. I use an external USB hard drive. That allows me to keep several backup files.

If you want to use an external hard drive then the best way to back up your Windows partitions from Linux is to use partimage. You could use Norton Ghost if you want to back up your Windows system from within Windows. I use both methods because I have several Windows computers and only one Norton Ghost license so only one Windows computer gets Ghost.

The best way to back up your Linux system is to use the tar utility. Be sure to back up your hard drive MBR to a file on the Linux partition, then back up the Linux partition. That will allow you to restore your Linux system onto a bare metal computer or a replacement hard drive.

If this interests you then post a reply and I will provide instructions. You could also find instructions by using the Linux Questions search feature to look for tar in the keyword search and in a separate search look for partimage.

With partimage you could backup whole partitions to images you may burn on DVD. [1]

If you want to backup Linux you should take a look at the howto you will find under [2].

[1] http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partimage
[2] http://www.bluehaze.com.au/unix/cdbkup.html

Reference [2] should include the p parameter in the tar extract command.
should be
The reasons that I recommend using an external hard drive include the following:
- People don't want to split files to put them on DVD and then reconstruct them to restore.
- The tar method onto a storage medium that is large enough to hold the entire archive file makes it easier to restore to bare metal.

You're right of course. Backing up to an external drive would be ideal. Unfortunately, for this moment, backing up onto multiple CDs or DVDs is the best I can do.

(I do have an ancient HD drive sitting in a drawer somewhere... and getting an external cover wouldn't pose any challenges. The problem is that it's only ~3 GB, thus waaaaay to small to be of any real use for this application.)