From: "Koos Pol" Date: 14 Dec 2000 16:10:41 CET Message-Id: <20001214151046.F23C1829B@bitbucket.extern.uniface.nl> Subject: Re: [SLE] How to make and restore a backup of the whole system? On Thu, 14 Dec 2000 14:53:17 +0000, Jorge Cambra wrote: | Hi, | | I have SuSE Linux 7.0 for PPC running on my RS/6000 and I'm not very | skilled on Linux. I have a tape device and I would like to know how to | make a backup of the whole system (or the main part) in the tape. | | If I make a backup of the system and after I format the disk, What do I | have to do in order to restore the old system stored in the backup? <p>If you have a tape(s) big enough to contain a complete partition then I would recommend using a rescue boot flop to backup and restore. That would probably be the most easy, comfortable and fastest way: 1. boot from a rescue disk (e.g.: tomsrtbt) 2. backup partition to tape (e.g.: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/st0) 3. restore to tape (e.g.: dd if=/dev/st0 of=/dev/sda1) ..assuming you have installed one (or more) filesystem on /dev/sda1 and your tapedrive is connected as /dev/st0 If your tape is not big enough to hold a partition, then you have to backup directories (e.g.: tar cf /dev/st0 /usr/local), but this is a lot more work and more prone to error. Either way, if you can, boot from a rescue disk. This will save you tons of trouble. -- Koos Pol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- S.C. Pol T: +31 20 3116122 Systems Administrator F: +31 20 3116200 Compuware Europe B.V. E: koos_pol@nl.compuware.com Amsterdam PGP public key available