Full System Backup of Linux from ext to NTFS disk
 

hi all

I wonder if I can backup files from an ext partition to a ntfs partition and keeping all kind of metadata and file infos?!

With other words:

Can I backup a full linux system from a ext file system to a external ntfs partitioned disk using rsync -a (keeping all file permissions)?

Is something getting lost of a file (like permissions or anything... flags...) when copied / rsynced from ext to ntfs?

The thing is, that when I restore the stuff back from ntfs to ext, can I still use my system properly?

And can I backup files like photos from ext to ntfs without loosing any meta data?


Or asked more in general: What is the difference of a file on a ext partition compared to the same file on a ntfs partition?

Thanx for any hints
ice21 =)

There have been improvements in preserving POSIX file metadata through the NTFS drivers, but there are many issues in preserving a full system: ownerships, permissions, timestamps, and hard links. It is unlikely to be perfect.

You could use backup software such as clonezilla (or an archive format such as tar), but these make incremental backups difficult.

One solution would be to loop mount an ext file system on the NTFS drive, and use that for your rsync backup. The backup would be inaccessible to the Windows system (since the virtual file system would be inside a single Windows file), but that might not matter for your purpose.

The metadata associated with photos is not a problem, because it is stored inside the file, not externally in the file system. Likewise for the metadata of other media (music, video, documents, etc).

I'll add to the good advice given by neonsignal, and suggest using a tool like Mondoarchive or systemimager, that generates .ISO images, with your 'backups' in them. That way, it's just a file, and can be copied to whatever is on the other end, as long as there's room. Getting the data back is a matter of burning the ISO(s) to a CD/DVD, and reading them.

Mondoarchive will even let you burn system-recovery DVD's that are bootable, and can support network booting too.

Why not use a compression program of your choice to a single file?