[opensuse] Question for the hard-disk management experts
Hi all. I'm messing around with my Dad's laptop computer - an Acer Extensta 5210 with an 80GB HDD, 1.5GB RAM and Windows 7 (yuk!). Windows 7 runs like treacle on this thing for some reason, and he has another (newer) Windows laptop anyway, so I'm installing oS 11.4 on it for him. The thing is that I want to dump the Windows partition and the Acer recovery partition to a portable drive so that I have a way back if he decides he wants to go back to Windows (which I don't think he will - his desktop machine runs oS 10.3 and he's been using that for ages, although only occassionally - it runs a local IMAP server for him so he can get the same mail on both laptops). Anyway, I've dumped the Windows partition (now 43GB) and the recovery partition (10GB, near enough) with dd if=/dev/sda<1,2> of=<image_name> to a terabyte USB drive, but my question is this. Should I backup the partition table from the original drive as well, to ease the process of restoring it back to its current state before I completely blow away these 2 partitions of the HDD in the laptop? What is the correct way to do this, apart from pen and paper? Assuming I do back it up to the USB drive, what would the process be to restore it? Sorry for the long'ish explanation, but context is sometimes useful. TIA, Rodney. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:09:38 Rodney Baker wrote:
[...] terabyte USB drive, but my question is this. Should I backup the partition table from the original drive as well, to ease the process of restoring it back to its current state before I completely blow away these 2 partitions of the HDD in the laptop? What is the correct way to do this, apart from pen and paper?
Assuming I do back it up to the USB drive, what would the process be to restore it?
Never mind, I found the answer here: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-how-to-backup-hard-disk-partition-table- mbr.html Backup: # dd if=/dev/sxX of=/<path>/sdX-mbr.bin bs=512 count=1 Restore: # dd if=sdX-mbr.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1 count=64 skip=446 seek=446 Hope this helps someone else. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:31:55 Rodney Baker wrote:
On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:09:38 Rodney Baker wrote:
[...]
terabyte USB drive, but my question is this. Should I backup the partition table from the original drive as well, to ease the process of restoring it back to its current state before I completely blow away these 2 partitions of the HDD in the laptop? What is the correct way to do this, apart from pen and paper?
Assuming I do back it up to the USB drive, what would the process be to restore it?
Never mind, I found the answer here:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-how-to-backup-hard-disk-partition-table - mbr.html
Backup: # dd if=/dev/sxX of=/<path>/sdX-mbr.bin bs=512 count=1
Restore:
# dd if=sdX-mbr.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1 count=64 skip=446 seek=446
Hope this helps someone else.
Further to this, the above restore command restores the partition table but not the boot sector (the first 446 bytes). In my case I will probably want to restore the boot sector as well, in which case it will mean leaving of the skip and seek params (if I'm understanding this correctly). -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday, 2011-10-29 at 10:09 +1030, Rodney Baker wrote:
Anyway, I've dumped the Windows partition (now 43GB) and the recovery partition (10GB, near enough) with dd if=/dev/sda<1,2> of=<image_name> to a terabyte USB drive, but my question is this. Should I backup the partition table from the original drive as well, to ease the process of restoring it back to its current state before I completely blow away these 2 partitions of the HDD in the laptop? What is the correct way to do this, apart from pen and paper?
I would backup the entire HD using dd. Ie, using if=/dev/sdX. It copies all, not each partition separately. For this situation it is better, IMO. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAk6rUBkACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XdjwCdEHR7oKBqPlWw5Nu8IlYpBk0r jqYAoIscXQAgprUzX6Ft2r9FQa2JqGXE =96bs -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 2011/10/29 03:00 (GMT+0200) Carlos E. R. composed:
On Saturday, 2011-10-29 at 10:09 +1030, Rodney Baker wrote:
Anyway, I've dumped the Windows partition (now 43GB) and the recovery partition (10GB, near enough) with dd if=/dev/sda<1,2> of=<image_name> to a terabyte USB drive, but my question is this. Should I backup the partition table from the original drive as well, to ease the process of restoring it back to its current state before I completely blow away these 2 partitions of the HDD in the laptop? What is the correct way to do this, apart from pen and paper?
I would backup the entire HD using dd. Ie, using if=/dev/sdX. It copies all, not each partition separately. For this situation it is better, IMO.
I don't like using any more storage space than necessary for backups, so I would use an app that makes a compressed image of the entire HD instead of DD (DFSee, but likely there's some FOSS that could do the same). -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2011-10-29 04:09, Felix Miata wrote:
I would backup the entire HD using dd. Ie, using if=/dev/sdX. It copies all, not each partition separately. For this situation it is better, IMO.
I don't like using any more storage space than necessary for backups, so I would use an app that makes a compressed image of the entire HD instead of DD (DFSee, but likely there's some FOSS that could do the same).
Clonezilla, I think. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6rYlIACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VsyQCeLaxk/6PtuvbqDbU9/8J50ec/ XioAoJleTHbx6ehyu1dS5w04iIcPP2I7 =yH/+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Felix Miata wrote:
I don't like using any more storage space than necessary for backups, so I would use an app that makes a compressed image of the entire HD instead of DD (DFSee, but likely there's some FOSS that could do the same).
I beleive it's possible to run dd through gzip to compress the data. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2011-10-29 05:04, James Knott wrote:
Felix Miata wrote:
I don't like using any more storage space than necessary for backups, so I would use an app that makes a compressed image of the entire HD instead of DD (DFSee, but likely there's some FOSS that could do the same).
I beleive it's possible to run dd through gzip to compress the data.
Man dd shows nothing on "compres" or "zip". You can compress the resulting image later, of course. I have a compression procedure using zisofs when burning such images to several DVDs, but it is rather involved. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6r4TwACgkQtTMYHG2NR9UoUACeN0PRm4LWuVN3W0Cz4Sb4I7R5 HXQAn22ZmUmy1dV2gpnp9obsxmnV4vlh =ie2K -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Saturday 29 October 2011 13:19:24 Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2011-10-29 05:04, James Knott wrote:
Felix Miata wrote:
I don't like using any more storage space than necessary for backups, so I would use an app that makes a compressed image of the entire HD instead of DD (DFSee, but likely there's some FOSS that could do the same).> I beleive it's possible to run dd through gzip to compress the data.
Man dd shows nothing on "compres" or "zip". You can compress the resulting image later, of course.
dd if=/dev/sda | gzip - > foo.gz should work Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Man dd shows nothing on "compres" or "zip". You can compress the resulting image later, of course.
That's the beauty of chaining commands in Linux & Unix. Here's an example I just grabbed off the net: dd if=/dev/wd0a | gzip -9 > /mnt/backup.gz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2011-10-29 20:05, James Knott wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
That's the beauty of chaining commands in Linux & Unix. Here's an example I just grabbed off the net: dd if=/dev/wd0a | gzip -9 > /mnt/backup.gz
That is true, but the result is not as reliable or robust as an application designed from start to create backup compressed images. It can add forward recovery data that serves to recover from media errors (and have into account the size of that media). I don't know anything in Linux with that capability. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6sQgsACgkQtTMYHG2NR9WXAwCfdYZkRWbA5ec/0EYhZ10mMSwE CwsAnRivtb03TCK0z/1yj1/es1X4Avmv =XmJW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Saturday 29 October 2011 20:12:27 Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2011-10-29 20:05, James Knott wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
That's the beauty of chaining commands in Linux & Unix. Here's an example I just grabbed off the net: dd if=/dev/wd0a | gzip -9 > /mnt/backup.gz
That is true, but the result is not as reliable or robust as an application designed from start to create backup compressed images. It can add forward recovery data that serves to recover from media errors (and have into account the size of that media).
I don't know anything in Linux with that capability.
parchive, which stores data redundantly with enough checksum information so that lost files may be recovered, if there aren't too many lost What non-linux tools with that capability are you referring to? Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2011-10-29 20:53, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 29 October 2011 20:12:27 Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2011-10-29 20:05, James Knott wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
I don't know anything in Linux with that capability.
parchive, which stores data redundantly with enough checksum information so that lost files may be recovered, if there aren't too many lost
Yes, I know and use it. There is another tool, dvdisaster from http://www.dvdisaster.com. It was available on packman, but for 11.4 nobody has it. Dunno why.
What non-linux tools with that capability are you referring to?
I don't know what closed source modern apps nowdays do it. In the 80/90's I used pctools backup. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk6sWFgACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XiOwCglehavTYFtFImtDDk2/T35VRD N+cAnRMxw+J+oH7ygXPvKpoyq6zeBcCn =TbIL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Anders Johansson
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Carlos E. R.
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Felix Miata
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James Knott
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Rodney Baker