Is there a BACKUP in Windows that will RESTORE in Linux?
 

The Subject Line says it all.
I used this website's "search" utility employing the search-string:
"restore in Linux" .... came up empty.

Does anyone know of a software set that will run in Windows and perform a competent backup of Win data-programs......WHICH BACKUP FILE.....can be read
by a program running in Linux to perform a RESTORE of those files in Linux OS?

Of course another form of the question is: How does one "migrate" Win-data-files over to Linux?

Judd Smith

Put them into a .zip archive which you can then extract in Linux using the 'unzip' command? Or install 7zip on windows so you can create a .tar.bz2 archive.

That depends on the storage format use by the backup application in question. On Unix/Linux there are a few formats that could qualify as de-facto standards, like compressed tarfiles and cpio archives. On the Windows platform, things are not as straightforward:

• The backup application in Windows 2000/XP/2003 (known as "NTBackup") uses a proprietary format, identified by the .bkf file extension when backing up to a file. Tapes and file-based backups are supported.
  
• Backup Exec (currently owned by Symantec) is probably the most popular backup application on the Windows platform in the SMB market segment. It uses a proprietary backup format, but can read backups created by NTBackup (as NTBackup is an earlier, licensed version of Backup Exec). In addition to tapes and files, various virtual tape libraries are supported (requires additional licenses).
  
• Windows Backup in Windows 2008 and later is a completely different application. It backs up entire volumes to what is basically an image file. It can only store backups on dedicated disk drives (support for network shares was added in Windows 2008 R2).
  
• There are quite a few other backup applications on the market, and each usually has its own, proprietary backup/file format (generally true for the commercial applications).

Of course, you don't have to use a particular backup application to migrate files from a Windows PC/server to a Linux system. You could simply create a zip archive and store it on a removable drive. You could also copy the files across the network with rsync, samba, ftp, or any tool suitable for the job.

Au contrare
There is a way to do this at least most of it..

I used the Universal Boot CD for windows
Then I booted up the "bad" server with that cd and got into the directories I wanted to get off of the "bad" disk drive.
I then did a full blown tar of that entire folder and got this HUGE tar file and (I think) I then compressed it some more

Then I used the same program to create an "inside home only" ftp network server
I ftp'd the giant tar ball from the "broken disk drive" to a good USB disk drive and then extracted it
VOILA
The test was these happened to be home movies...i.e. big suckers like 600MB and they all played just fine
In addition I was able to get text files.
The only item in question is the OS itself.
I know tar will grab the files but you have some Windoze issues with permissions etc
Best of Luck

Unix since 1983 Linux mostly last 5 years
Rick
SysAdmin forever..

Snark--Ser Olmy--richleonhart

Thank you, all three.

Judd Smith

There's always this ...

Boot your machine with a live CD. (An Ubuntu installer CD would do in a pinch.)

Back-up your DOS file system using Linux tools. (tar.?z*, split)

Restore your data easily after migration.

That's always been my choice ... of course, you have to have sufficient backup media available, but that would be true in any case.

You can use dd for windows.

I think you can use debug.

You can use ghost.

Acronis may work.