scaled down ghost backup FC6
 

Hi
been serching for a straightforward way to backup a FC6 install (8gb on a 60gb disk) to a 40gb disk as a clean backup.
tried clone on G4L - ghost for linux, but it screwed up, kernel panic & etc. it took hours to run!
apparently dd will only do same - same or smaller - bigger (with resize partition).
should i give clonezilla a go on a disk?
i'm only a mild linux user .. still trying..
would be great if there is anything like acronis out there!

thanks ..

dd is a straightforward way to clone partitions. You can clone to a drive--or to an image file. But--it is slow

If you want to clone an installation, it will be better to clone using the drive designator instead of the partition. This way, you will get the mbr also. This method works if the partition is at the beginning of the disk.

Please do this:
open a terminal
su to become root
fdisk /dev/hda (or whatever the correct device id is for the drive where you have fc6
u to put fdisk in sector mode
p to list partitions
post the results here


PS: I don't bother backing up the OS or the apps---just data. If the OS were to crash, I would simply re-install. (I do keep non-replaceable app tarballs and such with my data.)

thanks, willco.
just to explain the reason i'm needing ghost backup is that i'm trying to crash course my linux learning - been taking far too long. .. so got a few machines to test, which of course means i reck the OS and numerous useful apps regularly! i think if i can ghost i can reinstall overnight and be ready to experiment next day.
cheers, back soon.

hmmm ....
no fdisk and cant yum install, but do have gparted...

/dev/hda1
filesystem: ext3
mountpoint: /boot
label: /boot1
size: 101.94mb
used: 17.37mb
unused: 84.57mb
flags: boot

/dev/hda3
filesystem: linux-swap
mountpoint:
label:
size: 1.17gb
used ---
unused ---
flags

/dev/hda2
filesysyem: ext3
mountpoint: /
label:/
size: 56.00gb
used: 8.91gb
unused: 47.09gb
flags:

First, why not use "backup"?

The problem with "dd" is that it copies the entire partition, including unused space. If your partition is 60gb with only 8gb used, your output with be a 60gb image with only 8gb used.

If you really need a partition image, "partimage" may be useful. See: http://www.partimage.org/

Here's a product you can use for free (trial)

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagel.html

It won't copy free space allowing you to save a HDD and burn it to DVD if you prefer. My / partition has 5.8GB used, the compressed image is 1.4GB. I'm not sure if this utility compresses the image as I use the bootitng from same vendor.