I intend to use Clonezilla (on the Parted Magic CD) to backup my system.
I backed up my home directory by copying to another hard drive. I realize there are a number of ways to backup. After poking around and looking at:
fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 300.1 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0008cb31
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 261 2094057 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 261 2872 20968448 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2872 36480 269957006 83 Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary
and System Monitor
Do I understand that cloning /dev/sda2 will copy everything I need?
I can see that /home resides on /dec/sda3.
Depends on what you need. cloning sda2 I would guess is root and that is all the system and program files plus maybe some data files if you use database management like mysql.
All you personal data and settings are in the home partition.
If you want to check what is mounted where just type mount
There are some parts of the FS that only exists in memory like /proc and /dev. They are created at runtime and are not persistent.
Dump ? is there such a thing?
Why use that or tar when you can use Clonezilla?
OP: I’m not sure what your backup/restore strategy is exactly.
Isn’t Clonezilla capable of making clones of the individual partitions /dev/sda1 and/or image the entire disk?
AFAIK, cloning / would include everything listed under /, unless you clone using actual blocks and then it copies/restores by physical block which is not copying by content.
Can you elaborate on what you want to be able to do with the backup? Tools like Clonezilla can be confusing during backup-time and absolutely nerve-wracking during restore-time (typically already a stressful situation). I’ve tried to use Clonezilla before for cloning an entire partition and only then did I realize that the eventual restore wasn’t as 1-2-3 simple as I thought. But perhaps you are trying to accomplish something else.
Clonezilla has the most confusing menu terminology I’ve ever seen. Maybe it is just a language barrier, not sure. I found the Redo live CD a while back, and fell in love. It makes backup/restore simple stupid. If your having trouble figuring out Clonezilla, give Redo a try. It is based on xPUD, which is based on Ubuntu. It also has other tools for recovery/partition management. The current version has a bug that affects the boot. It seems to hang at the grub menu and takes several minutes to start loading, so be patient. It seems like it isn’t doing anything, but it will load. Backup and Restore to Bare Metal with Easy Open Source GPL Redo Backup Solution
When using winXP I got spoiled using Acronis true home which gave me a 100% restore on the few occassions my PCs had a problem. I’d like to do the same thing with OpenSuse 11.2.
I think I have Clonezilla figured out. I am just trying to get a complete understanding of what to backup.
Actually another question: should I clone the swap partition also?
No - the data on there is (afaik) useless if you’re restoring a system from a backup, unless you are trying to restore a system that was “hibernated” to disk at the time of backup, not a wise thing to do at any rate. Just make sure that your target system (the one you’re restoring to) has the same swap partition size.
I have done it once with redo just to test it out. I backed up the whole drive instead of just separate partitions. I have sda1(ntfs),sda2(swap),sda3(/home),sda4(root). The only caveat is the new drive/partitions have to be the same size or bigger. I guess that is true for any bare metal backup. After making the backup, I deleted all the partitions and restored the drive. It was like I never left. The only thing I didn’t like about redo, is that it makes several files for the backup. It will be an awesome linux backup solution when it matures a little more. You might also want to check out Paragon backup. I also use it to make backups for bare metal recovery, and it makes one image instead of several files which I like better. It is free for personal use, but you need a Windows install to make the live CD. It reads Linux and Mac partitions. It is also simple stupid. Click the drive/partition, click restore/backup, and select the destination.