Imaging HardDrive in Linux

SyntheticShield · #1 19th January 2007, 02:51 AM

Okay, using windows I used Norton Ghost to image my hard drive in case of disaster. I would keep it as updated as I could. I kept two images.

1. Windows XP Pro w/all patches and updates, Virus Scanner, Firewall, etc and MS Office installed and updated. Basically a bare bones set up.

2. After I got all the other software installed that I would normally use and apply any updates and patches I would do a defrag with Diskeeper, clean the registry with RegSeeker and then clean up any temporary files and such. Basically as pristine of an install as I could make it, then I would make another image. Time consuming, yes, but when Im out on a photography shoot or chasing storms, I wanted a means to get back up and running in the event of a crash or something and it would normally only take me about 30 minutes to re-image the drive.

So, having said all that, is any of this necessary in Linux, specifically FC6? Now JN4OldSchool told me how to set up the installation and gave me a link to a how-to that showed me how to set up the drive and so forth, which I have configured everything that way. So I know I can do a re-install if necessary and just leave the /home partition untouched and I assume be back to where I was in the even a re-install was needed.

Anyway, just looking for some input on that. If I dont then I will wipe that process from my brain to make room for more Linux stuff, LOL.

Thank you for your help.

Dies · #2 19th January 2007, 03:23 AM

I would say no just because you used a separate /home so you can easily re-install and be up and running in less than an hour, although you'll still have to re-install some stuff, but if you want to experiment try :

yum install gparted ntfsprogs

You can find it in Applications>System Tools, it's a graphical partitioner and it's very slick allowing you to re-size partitions and copy them also, I use this to keep a back up of Windows on an old IDE drive.
You just right click the partition and copy and paste it to the other drive, with Windows you'll probably have to run fixmbr and fixboot so it will boot again but it works.

JN4OldSchool · #3 19th January 2007, 03:24 AM

OK, let me clarify a few points. You will be back as far as your personal documents, program config files such as KDE desktop, FF bookmarks...However, any additional software you install is USUALLY not kept in /home. So this is gone. You will have to reinstall again. But this usually isnt a huge deal and considering updates I would suggest this rather than backing apps up. No defrag, no registry cleanup, you do have temp files, but FC changes versions so quick it really is needless to worry about this, just update the version with a clean install. Just keep in mind that if your drive dies you lose /home, so please back up any important things externally also.

SyntheticShield · #4 19th January 2007, 04:05 AM

Okay, I see your point in this. Im an experimentation freak, so I may have a lot installed at any one time and after I have played around with it for a while I may decide there's some I dont want and will remove them. So is there anyway that I could get a print out or something of what is currently installed so that if something happened I could at least re-install what I had.

My /home directory I guess I'll get into a habit of backing it up to a usb drive or something like that until I can get my network attached storage set up and on line.

SyntheticShield · #5 19th January 2007, 04:06 AM

Oh and Dies, I have gparted installed, I installed ntfsprogs, but I dont see it listed.

yinglcs · #6 19th January 2007, 04:09 AM

JN4OldSchool,
Can you please tell me what application I need to install to do this "You will be back as far as your personal documents, program config files such as KDE desktop, FF bookmarks" ?

Thank you.

JN4OldSchool · #7 19th January 2007, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yinglcs

JN4OldSchool,
Can you please tell me what application I need to install to do this "You will be back as far as your personal documents, program config files such as KDE desktop, FF bookmarks" ?

Thank you.

no application. You need to create a seperate /home partition.

Dies · #8 19th January 2007, 04:22 AM

ntfsprogs is a command line tool, but it works with gparted in order to allow it to do re-sizing, filesystem checks, etc. You can find a full list of current and planned features here :

http://wiki.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsprogs

@yinglcs - It's not an application you just make /home a separate partition. You can accomplish the same thing by just backing up your home folder. I only back up those things that are a pain. If you open your home folder with Nautilus and hit ctrl+h you can see all the hidden folders. In KDE I believe you need to go to view and select show hidden folders.