From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JVfq6-0003Ok-8L for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:30:18 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E9154E06B4; Sun, 2 Mar 2008 04:30:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp3.clear.net.nz (smtp3.clear.net.nz [203.97.33.64]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E2AFE06B4 for ; Sun, 2 Mar 2008 04:30:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from zmori.markir.net (121-72-69-134.dsl.telstraclear.net [121.72.69.134]) by smtp3.clear.net.nz (CLEAR Net Mail) with ESMTP id <0JX300DL95TTMX10@smtp3.clear.net.nz> for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:29:54 +1300 (NZDT) Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:29:53 +1300 From: Mark Kirkwood Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Ghosting a Ext3 partition In-reply-to: <20080301203641.5246b692@pascal.spore.ath.cx> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Message-id: <47CA2D41.6030003@paradise.net.nz> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit References: <200802291227.35724.Jonathan.Haws@sdl.usu.edu> <959274.49799.qm@web31707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <20080301203641.5246b692@pascal.spore.ath.cx> User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (X11/20071203) X-Archives-Salt: 8cc10865-a380-4528-955e-fb79c94f8fbf X-Archives-Hash: 27927d8808a92f30e0ed64f436409948 Dan Farrell wrote: > On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 02:04:31 -0500 > "Ritesh Kumar" wrote: > > >> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 8:23 PM, maxim wexler >> wrote: >> >> >>>> Doesn't Ghost work with Ext3? What can I do to >>>> recover my system without >>>> reinstalling from scratch? >>>> >>>> >>> I've had success with #dd if= >>> of= bs= >>> >>> >>> >> Is there a reason why you backup the filesystem along with the data >> on it? I do only minor backups... but even for anything major I would >> use a tool like tar or rsync and drop the filesystem metadata >> entirely. >> >> Also directly reading from the block device is hazardous unless you >> umount (or mount as readonly) the filesystem in question. This is >> because, the filesystem may not keep all the data synced to the disk >> at all points in time. >> > > not that i'd recommend it for production systems, but you could mount > with the 'sync' option to help with this. > > Even mounting sync is not safe, if you want to use dd for a backup then boot from the live cd to backup everything. Otherwise using these methods is risking a backup that once restored, does not work - not good for the blood pressure... If you want to back the system up while it is running (in particular /), then you need to use a tool that understands how to create a backup image that is valid (i.e will boot) - something like xfsdump, dumpe2fs etc or smart tar/dump based tools like Amanda. I would recommend using one of the dump tools for /boot, /, /usr, /var *at least*. I've had the misfortune of helping many people restore their broken Linux and Freebsd systems... and the only backups I've never had issues with have been the *dump variety. They are a little unfriendly at first, but they work. regards Mark -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list