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 1JVLlp-0001j8-5g for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:04:33 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 94367E01E2; Sat, 1 Mar 2008 07:04:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.226]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 69992E01E2 for ; Sat, 1 Mar 2008 07:04:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id h30so8735171wxd.10 for ; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:04:31 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references:x-google-sender-auth; bh=nnDfSQETP3YqTiID3Kx9f27RKch8+I2FCa+0w1dvnqY=; b=x3KY3/XkdPc6Ru7oEeJYmQc8TEjUtVW8FThBtKgHqis/pe0jC9oNwYkGaTwI5n736abcwr4cv/Hq2J4xMh8RzwFeY+UQa88rhgAq3CEQUgQczkUZjdahRcqfXQJ+exyuoOu4+BEvnPkh5nVr8OoyrXBU6X8+2sZF/RqCfRuKjpw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=Gt3mgQMo1rIMGvQyolaHYOrTkADdCRaa8P1Y9vCQ9mvyawjEz+Zlvak31hfct8eLZcuSt/scOQKLFRDs/g9l4akiC67oNnZk+Rl/U6GtJ9aNcshRkZ8MCGS8AVHqzAtAHpICQZfy3kKXiSv3f87//T1L2swwyLaN8lxzqic3tow= Received: by 10.100.227.20 with SMTP id z20mr14566150ang.14.1204355071175; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:04:31 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.100.137.10 with HTTP; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:04:31 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 02:04:31 -0500 From: "Ritesh Kumar" Sender: dial2ritesh@gmail.com To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Ghosting a Ext3 partition In-Reply-To: <959274.49799.qm@web31707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> 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: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_10725_19768668.1204355071159" References: <200802291227.35724.Jonathan.Haws@sdl.usu.edu> <959274.49799.qm@web31707.mail.mud.yahoo.com> X-Google-Sender-Auth: bfda2182de75a783 X-Archives-Salt: e5990285-a96b-4105-81e9-687c2728707c X-Archives-Hash: b17d8c8982e15910acc6f64501c9e076 ------=_Part_10725_19768668.1204355071159 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline 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. Actually, even the tar/rsync method may lead to inconsistent files if the files are backed up while they are still in active use. However, this is potentially less damaging than having invalid filesystem metadata backed up because the filesystem was not in sync. If you *have to* backup an always active system, I would first create a snapshot and then back up the snapshot. That ofcourse requires a more involved disk setup using LVM. _r ------=_Part_10725_19768668.1204355071159 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 8:23 PM, maxim wexler <blissfix@yahoo.com> 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=<partition-to-be-copied>
of=<partition-to-be-copied-to> bs=<varies>


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.

Actually, even the tar/rsync method may lead to inconsistent files if the files are backed up while they are still in active use. However, this is potentially less damaging than having invalid filesystem metadata backed up because the filesystem was not in sync. If you *have to* backup an always active system, I would first create a snapshot and then back up the snapshot. That ofcourse requires a more involved disk setup using LVM.

_r
 
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