system backups to bare metal

**PattiMichelle** · 25-Aug-2012, 10:46

Originally Posted by nrickert

Have you checked "/boot/grub/device.map"?

Nope, I'll give that a shot. Do you know if there's a general DIY online for this? Even if you bare metal restore after a disk crash using bacula or any other software this would be an issue with Linux. I know it's not an issue for Windows XP or later.

EDIT: Yep - device.map has the old descriptor in it! That may be the problem!

Code:

(hd0)    /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST1000DL002-9TT153_W1V072QJ

EDIT2: Huh. I just looked into the new HD in the /dev directory and it doesn't have ../disk (etc.) directories in it. I guess those get created at boot time.

**PattiMichelle** · 25-Aug-2012, 11:32

OK, that didn't do it. I still don't get the GRUB stage 2 text on the screen after the BIOS stuff.

There must be some other file I'm missing...

**nrickert** · 25-Aug-2012, 12:36

Then you might also need to reinstall grub.

If your clone is sector by sector, that shouldn't be needed. But if it amounts to a file system backup/restore, then there might be some data that grub relies on, that has been relocated.

**PattiMichelle** · 25-Aug-2012, 17:34

Well, that's what's got me bugged - I did a device-to-device clone with the latest Clonezilla, so it is indeed a sector-by-sector copy. I guess I have to try reinstalling grub but I was certain this issue would have been fixed by now since everyone restoring after a drive crash would have to deal with it... I am not sure how to reinstall grub - there used to be an option on the install disk to do that, but I think that went away... but I will check out the install disk for it.

**robin_listas** · 31-Aug-2012, 04:19

On 2012-08-26 02:36, PattiMichelle wrote:
>
> Well, that's what's got me bugged - I did a device-to-device clone with
> the latest Clonezilla, so it's sector-by-sector copy.

No, it is not, unfortunately.

Clonezilla tries to be clever and only stores used sectors; those that grub uses are "unused", so
what it does is try to recreate grub instead using the grub that is on the live clonezilla CD.
That's the reason I don't like clonezilla when doing backups of Linux. Interestingly it does a
better job with ntfs boot disks.

It would be preferable that clonezilla copied as is the first 63 sectors or so. Everything at the
start of the disk till the disk structures should be cloned bit to bit.

> I guess I have to
> try reinstalling grub but I was certain this issue would have been fixed
> by now since everyone restoring after a drive crash would have to deal
> with it... I am not sure how to reinstall grub - there used to be an
> option on the install disk to do that, but I think that went away...

Right.

But you have an /etc/grub.conf file that can guide you to reconstruct it.

Also, you might have to run a "mkinitrd" on the chrooted new system.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" (Minas Tirith))

**deano_ferrari** · 31-Aug-2012, 04:46

Clonezilla tries to be clever and only stores used sectors; those that grub uses are "unused", so
what it does is try to recreate grub instead using the grub that is on the live clonezilla CD.
That's the reason I don't like clonezilla when doing backups of Linux. Interestingly it does a
better job with ntfs boot disks.

It would be preferable that clonezilla copied as is the first 63 sectors or so. Everything at the
start of the disk till the disk structures should be cloned bit to bit.

That is good to know. (Not that I've ever used Clonezilla). Thanks for sharing this info.

**deano_ferrari** · 31-Aug-2012, 05:06

@PattiMichelle: This may explain the issue you encountered

DRBL - FAQ/Q&A

**PattiMichelle** · 31-Aug-2012, 14:23

Well, Clonezilla asked me if I want to copy the bootloader. If you're right, it's worse than I thought. I guess mere mortals can no longer do this trick (clonezilla backups) any more. Or any backups for that matter - it's really about the disk-id thingie. I tried for a couple of hours with google to figure out how to "reinstall GRUB." I'm giving up and reinstalling OpenSuSE. So far (since 10.0 anyway) that has always worked. Fingers crossed!

So I guess it's only useful to back up data now. Is there any disk mirror routine that gets around this device issue? What is the "traditional" install option so that everything is done in terms of sda, etc.? So I can do bare-metal backups easily in the future? There are 4 or 5 options now.

Thank you very much for the time you've taken to fill me on the status of this issue. Have a great weekend.

EDIT: Hey - I was just looking at that Clonezilla site - I wonder if I used the 32-bit Clonezilla? It looks like that breaks GRUB in OpenSuSE12.1 x64. (is *anyone* running 32 bit linux any more?

even most laptops are standard >4GB nowadays)

**PattiMichelle** · 31-Aug-2012, 14:36

I just remembered ping as a sector-by-sector copier - but I remembered it wouldn't boot on all systems. Is there a true sector by sector copier?

**hendersj** · 31-Aug-2012, 14:48

On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:46:02 +0000, PattiMichelle wrote:

> I just remembered ping as a sector-by-sector copier - but I remembered
> it wouldn't boot on all systems. Is there a true sector by sector
> copier?

dd or dd_rescue will do that.

As long as you mount partitions by device rather than by label or ID,
assuming the devices are identified in the proper order, that should take
care of this.

Jim

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openSUSE Forums Administrator
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