Copying everything locking up
 

I've written a script to backup everything on my HDD (all partitions) to an external USB drive. My three partitions are /, /usr and /home. However, when backing up / the copy stops for no reason (I didn't note the exact point and don't have time to run it again at the moment).

Is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to copy everything across? Is it an open file thing? It seemed to get a long way through before stopping.

Thanks

Well, copying /proc could be problematic. Also, when copying /, make sure it doesn't go outside the partition. Essentially, you should supply the -x option to the copy operation.

If you think about it, copying files like /dev/random might take a looooooog time! Copying /mnt may well lead to a lengthy recursive nightmare if that is where you have your external disk mounted.

Also, copying / while linux is actually running, may cause you problems as the files are changing all the time. The safest way to backup / is by running a CD only version of linux (like knoppix).

Well, using the -x option prevents /dev (on devfs or udev systems, I think), /proc, and mounted drives from being copied. I agree, a livecd may be preferrable, but it should be doable either way.