Windows Partition Backup ussing Linux?
 

Hi all...
Here´s mi question:

Does anyone knows how to backup a windows partition with Linux, so that anytime that the Windows becames corrupted i just descompress the backup?
I really need a way that works...
Any good guide or site about it?
And what about XP, is it possible???
Thanks.

The SIN Raven

Partimage can do it but it lists NTFS partitions as experimental. However, I've been told by others that they've used it on NTFS and it works fine. Here's a link:

http://www.partimage.org/

It works great and it's free.:D

Thanks for repliyng.
to be honest i already know partimage, but i dont like it very mutch, i was thinking more in a tradictional way, using tar´s etc...
Is this possible?
Thanks.

The SIN Raven

Since you can't write to an NTFS partition, at least not safely, with linux I can't see how a traditional backup using tar would work. You could back it up but couldn't write back if you needed to. You could hack around using the dd command to copy the partition block by block and restore it using dd if you know what your doing but that's exactly what partimage does with a nice front end and some added flexibility so why reinvent the wheel.

I'm using an lnx-bbc disk to boot onto the w2k comp. I establish an nfs with my linux comp and then type this:

dd -if=/dev/hda -of=/mnt/nfs/comp.20031213.img

I did try piping that through gzip, but it kept giving me nasty error messages. Anyone know why?

Then when you want to apply the backup all you should have to do is:

dd -of=/dev/hda -if=/mnt/nfs/comp.20031213.img

notice that I just switched the "if" and "of".

Theoretically you should be able to do individual partitions (if=/dev/hda1), but I've never tried this so I have no idea.

Now I am no linux guru, but this seems to make sense to me so feel free to comment.