Drive imaging

nnjond · 10-12-2010, 02:11 PM

Hi,

I've customised my KDE pretty much how I want it,

So should the need arise, and to avoid all the re-install rigmorale, should drive imaging be the right backuo option to create a clone of my os + environment?

My Data is on a 2nd disc and appears at /media/ which i need not backup.

Thanks for your time

John VV · 10-12-2010, 02:55 PM

you can use the built in "dd" program
or "clonezilla"

by "customised my KDE" do you mean just settings ? if so then just copy your ~/.kde4 folder to a cd
there might be a few other folders too depending on just what you did

PenGUiN_6_1 · 10-12-2010, 03:13 PM

One option...
Use LiveCD to go to terminal

Waitr for terminal to let you type command

Exe cute

Code:

mkdir /.lazydog
ls -a /
mount $DataDrive /.lazydog -t $type -o rw
dd if=/$OsDrive of=/.lazydog/backup0.OSdrive bs=$size

...where OsDriveis your system, .lazydog or whatever is your data place, dd works thing for thing...specified by bs, which is the size of the in and out thing; it is optional. DataDrive is what you call to save the image.

Using this, REMEMBER THE MOUNT TYPE, because if need be, you can do this...

Code:

mount -t $type $path/backup0.OSdrive /mnt/hd -o loop,ro# or whatever

...to the image. Be sure you have the space for it.

jefro · 10-12-2010, 03:28 PM

You have a choice. Either you can dd it which is an exact copy of every bit of the drive even empty space or you can consider a file based backup solution. Tar and cat might be used along with redobackup or clonezilla type of solutions.

nnjond · 10-12-2010, 04:59 PM

Thanks All.

I see now I don't want to clone my partitions. John W seems to offer the appropriate advice as It's just my settings i wish to preserve.

Should I just copy .kde, and on re-install substitute for my default .KDE ?

John VV · 10-12-2010, 05:16 PM

most things for kde ( and Gnome) if they were installed for just the normal user then they are in your home folder

themes and backgrounds ( if system wide) are not

for a test try this

make a new user and copy folders over one by one soon your new user should have the same settings