I hope someone is familiar with partimage.

Upon discovery of partimage that is even distributed in rpm form for Mandrake as well as others, I read about it and found that it allows a person to copy the partitions but only copies the data not the entire partitions unless they are full. As such, I decided it would be perfect for a total back up of my MDK 9.2 installation.

scratch:

However, I ran into a very strange situation.

You are first supposed to name the directory you are going to put the image file into and what you are going to call the file.

Then you are asked if you want the file compressed and how you want the it compressed. You are given the choice of either tar.gz or bz2. I chose tar.gz and it then asked me what I wanted to call the file again.

When it was all done it gave the file .ooo instead of .gz. As such, I could not burn it onto a cd and could not even uncompress it to put it back on my HD.

Does anyone know how I make partimage work correctly so that the partition image is truly compressed as tar,gz?

Please help and thank you!

Partimage uses tar compression but it does not create a tarball file, so you can't use tar to put it back. The image file usually gets about 2 to 1 compression. You have to use the restore function in partimage to restore the image to the partition that you designate. The ".000" extension is standard with partimage and it will always add it to your filename. If the image is too large to fit in one file on the file system your backing up to(FAT32 has a 2GB limit), partimage will automatically create a second file with the same name but with a ".001" extension. The third file is ".002", etc, etc.

Partimage cannot image a mounted partition, so if your running within mandrake you'll never be able to backup your root partition. The easiest solution is to use the partimage system rescue cd(the iso is on their website) which is a bootable cd with partimage and other useful utilities on it. Knoppix also has partimage on it and you can run it from a knoppix cd. When using a boot cd with partimage you must mount the partition that your writing the image to and never mount the partition your imaging.

I'm not sure if partimage can backup directly to cd-r, but it definitely cannot span an image across multiple cds. You can tell partimage to create image file sizes of a specifed size on your hard drive(eg 650MB) and it will break the image down into those specified sizes. You then burn those to cd-rs. To restore, you'll have to copy the cd-rs back to a hard dive location before the restore function will work. When doing a restore with multiple files you need only designate the .000 file and partimage will find the rest provided they're in the same directory. Because of the cd-r limitation, it's best to have a backup partition for your partimage backups.

Here's a little tutorial on some of the details of partimage usage:

http://www.desktop-linux.net/backups.htm

kilgoretrout, I truly must thank you and wish I had asked for your help in the beginning.

However, and I apologize if I am being further naive, I am trying to do something that may be very unusual. So I will explain my experiment and hope you can tell me if using partimage as directed will work for it.

FIRST: I do not use Windows at all anymore.
SECOND: I bought a Lexmark X75 PrinTrio believing I could find a way to make it work in Linux (it is totally maufactured for Windows).
THIRD: I spoke to Lexmark about when they will have a driver and software for Linux and even people at Win4Lin about setting up the Windows software for the X75. Lexmark said they do not see anything happening in the forseeable future and Win4Lin does not have their software programed to function with any USB connected hardware (X75 is also totally USB).

MY EXPERIMENT: I considered doing a partimage of my entire mdk 9.2 as I now have it (total back up), then I would erase everything and install Windows XP onto only a 1.5 gig partition. Afterwards I would install mdk 9.2 and give it the remaining 18.5 gig, in which I would create two main patitions and a swap and make sure the partitions were given the same labeling that the original patitions had (ex: dev/hda6, etc..). Then I thought I could put the backup into the reinstalled mdk 9.2 and have everythign back the way it originally was, but now also with a tiny Windows and use of my X75.


Can it be done if I use Partimage correctly?? On the other hand, would all of this work better if I use a completely different total backup software??

Thank You Again!

U could make a complete backup and after that u could just try resizing a Linux partition with GNU parted (see article ) and after that create a new partition for XP
If sth. goes wrong with resizing, you still have your backup

This is doable but it could get very complicated. One thing to keep in mind, is that partimage will not restore an image to a partition smaller than the one it was imaged from regardless of how much empty space is on the partition. Also, if you or winxp install, create any partitions in front of any of your current mdk partitions the partition names for all your mdk partitions will change and no longer correspond to the entries in fstab and lilo.conf. The result will be you won't be able to boot into mdk even if you do restore.
Think all this through carefully. Post your current partition structure(names and sizes), your fstab and lilo.conf. Also, post how you want everything to wind up after your winxp install(partion names sizes and what's on what partition). You need to be very clear on this otherwise you could wind up with a complete mess.

I truly expected that my experiment is a bit dangerous, but I do not understand your suggestion or at least do not believe I can make it work. So I will explain why but then I must ask you to perhaps help me with it.

FIRST: I thought I would have to totally erase everything before I could put Windows Xp on the HD and I am understanding your info as saying I can install Win XP without erasing Linux and have XP work fine along with Linux. Am I understanding you correctly?

SECOND: If I can do the above. How do I do it successfully?

Now I originally planned to copy everything onto 1 or more cd's and erase everything. Then I would install WinXP afterwhich I would reinstall mdk 9.2 and repartition the HD so I can boot into either WinXP or Linux. Then I would go into Linux and put my copied partimage back into Linux to reestablish all the files I backed up. You informed me, however, that partimage will not reinstall a backup into a partition that is not exactly as the original. So I truly hope there is another way to do this (perhaps the installation of XP without erasing Linux).

Yes it is, therefore I suggested to make a backup When "play around with partitions there is always a chance that all data on the hardisk gets lost...


Thats what I meant

1st step: make a complete backup of your system and write down the partition table (just for security reasons if sth. goes wrong)
2nd step: boot your computer from a CD or floppy (which contains GNU Parted, there should be a floppy image availabe for download at the GNU Parted homepage ) and start GNU Parted
3rd step: resize one of the linux partitions (make it smaller for the XP partition)
4th step: reboot and see if your Linux still works (could be necessary to reinstall the boot manager for example). If it still works go to step5 ; if not restore your old partition table and put the backup back on the harddrive
5th step: create a new partition for XP on the free harddisk space
6th step: install XP
(7th step: could be becessary to reinstall your boot manager again; since I don´t have XP I can´t say if its bootmanager can boot Linux)

I hope this made a little bit clearer what I meant