HDD Backup

[MDH1966]

Since I am fairly new to Linux, I have some questions about backing up my LMCE system.

I have read on the web about using "tar" to grab what I need to a file and save it on a drive.  This seems simple and easy enough to recover using the LMCE install disk as a live Kubuntu OS.

Anyone have any better ideas.  I would like it to be simple and easy to recover from if I crash my LMCE system.  I also want to use it for LMCE 1004.  I would install Kubuntu 10.04, run all the updates/upgrades, backup my drive and start playing with LMCE.

Thanks,

<M>

[rperre]

i use the tar ball way and it works fine, there are programs out there that do backups, i can't remember the names, either way you have to use a "rescue, or live cd" to restore.

make sure if you use the tar way to exclude the dir's you don't want to backup (like mounts, media, etc..)

Here is the commands i use:

to backup with tar

Code:

tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/sys --exclude=/home/coredump /

to restore with tar

Code:

tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /

Richard

[Beeker]

Hey M
Grab a copy of something like Acronis or Norton Ghost and make a bootable DVD then boot of it and plug in a USB stick or USB HDD and make a backup of the whole HDD this is assuming you have a seperate HDD's for LinuxMCE and your data and it will do all the partitions etc when you do the restore to your LinuxMCE HDD, I have a separate 80Gb HDD for the core and then my software RAID.

If I stuff my system I can go downstairs plug in the HDD and boot off the DVD (I use Acronis) am I am back up and running in 6 mins saves so much stuffing around, the advantage is when I finally get a working image then I will just make another backup image and name it accordingly.............no downloading just nice and easy, you would only need to do updates & upgrades.

The only one thing I am not sure of is if there would be an issue with dist-upgrades as I have not done one since my original image I made in Feb last year but it sure makes it easy to recover if you stuff things like I have on a few occasions trying to test new ideas........this way it keeps the wife & 3 yr old happy

Regards
Beeker

[MDH1966]

i use the tar ball way and it works fine, there are programs out there that do backups, i can't remember the names, either way you have to use a "rescue, or live cd" to restore.

make sure if you use the tar way to exclude the dir's you don't want to backup (like mounts, media, etc..)

Here is the commands i use:

to backup with tar

Code:

tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/sys --exclude=/home/coredump /

to restore with tar

Code:

tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /

Richard

I have read online about doing exactly what you state.  Is it really as simple as just unzipping the files and copying them back to the HDD?

Thanks
<M>

[locutus]

Hey M
Grab a copy of something like Acronis or Norton Ghost and make a bootable DVD then boot of it and plug in a USB stick or USB HDD and make a backup of the whole HDD this is assuming you have a seperate HDD's for LinuxMCE and your data and it will do all the partitions etc when you do the restore to your LinuxMCE HDD, I have a separate 80Gb HDD for the core and then my software RAID.

If I stuff my system I can go downstairs plug in the HDD and boot off the DVD (I use Acronis) am I am back up and running in 6 mins saves so much stuffing around, the advantage is when I finally get a working image then I will just make another backup image and name it accordingly.............no downloading just nice and easy, you would only need to do updates & upgrades.

The only one thing I am not sure of is if there would be an issue with dist-upgrades as I have not done one since my original image I made in Feb last year but it sure makes it easy to recover if you stuff things like I have on a few occasions trying to test new ideas........this way it keeps the wife & 3 yr old happy

Regards
Beeker

I personally use clonezilla for doing what you are.

[JoakimL]

On the Advanced|Confiuration menu you have a Backups page. I've done it a few times and it produces a .tar.gz file which you can place on a stick or where you like it.
I'm not sure exactly what's backed up, but I supposed it's all LMCE configuration data and no MP3s or other stuff you add yourself.

Another option, including full ghosting of you harddisk can be found in the live-CD Trinity Resque Disk. I has saved me a couple of times for both Windows and Linux systems. To be found at http://trinityhome.org/


/Joakim

[MDH1966]

On the Advanced|Confiuration menu you have a Backups page. I've done it a few times and it produces a .tar.gz file which you can place on a stick or where you like it.
I'm not sure exactly what's backed up, but I supposed it's all LMCE configuration data and no MP3s or other stuff you add yourself.

Another option, including full ghosting of you harddisk can be found in the live-CD Trinity Resque Disk. I has saved me a couple of times for both Windows and Linux systems. To be found at http://trinityhome.org/


/Joakim

Sweet...thanks for the info.
I will have to check that out.  I think that I will look at the LMCE backup and see where that lands me.

<M>

[Aviator]

I do a http://clonezilla.org/ image of my system hard disk after each apt-get upgrade. I do this for two reasons:

1. Drive failure. I have an image that I can restore fully configured and ready to go

2. Update issues.  If for any reason an apt-get upgrade does anything I don't want, I can restore the image.

For the media drive, I have a freenas box running in my workshop. I use rsync nightly to back up the media drive in the core.  Since it is in a different building on the property, I have a (sort of) off-site backup of my media. I have thought about using RAID5, but RAID is still not enough and I can get a full backup with just 2 2TB drives.

I have tried the system backup and restore on to a VM test core, I was not able to get it working.