I'm about to install Linux and generally wreak havoc on my new Thinkpad, but I really want to backup and keep the total configuration (Including the "Access IBM" parts). I read somewhere that the extra bits are hidden by the BIOS, but when I run Knoppix, /etc/fstab shows what seems to be the hidden partition as /dev/hda2 vfat ............
Now, in order to back up, I have shared a folder on my Windows box, and smbmounted it, I then typed:

dd if=/dev/hda | bzip2 | cat > /mnt/shared/backup.img.bz2

The file is currently growing and growing on my windows hd...... Will this do the trick?

Is samba/ Windows/ my router reliable enough not to corrupt this data? Would it be safer to save it to my ipod, if not? Is there some utility on Windows that will zero all the unallocated blocks, so that the compression will be more efficient? Can I make bzip2 do a multipart archive? Will NTFS object to the file if it gets too big?


Thanks


Update:

I need to know how to split it up into pieces < 2gb

Update 2:

Ok, I tried

dd if=/dev/hda | bzip2 | split - backup.img.bz2. -b 512m

and it seems to be working, but my original questions still stand.

There is a dedicated tool, it's called partimage.

It took twelve hours, the second time! Will it take that long to restore? How does one speed it up?

If you want to be quick select No Compression.