• Registered: 2012-01-27
  • Posts: 27

Topic: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

I've got #! installed and setup the way I want it to... as a "base" starting point. I'm new to linux so I'm sure I'm going to screw things up along the way, and I'd like to have an image of my linux partition as-is to "restore" to if I feel I've screwed something up that I can't fix.

Is the dd command going to be my best bet to do this? I know I'll need to be booted into a live session rather than #! itself. If dd is the best answer, how would I create the image with compression so it's not a massive file?

Are there better methods to do what I want?

Thanks!

Last edited by joypunk (2012-02-03 21:49:46)

  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

dd is good, but IMHO fsarchiver is a much better tool

I have a restore point that I used fsarchiver for / root that is 2.3 gig in size

I also used it for my home dir, which is much larger and it created a file that is 10.7 gig in size

I have successfully restored both of these to other machines.

Here on the Crunchbang Wiki is an excellent How To for using fsarchiver

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  • Registered: 2012-01-27
  • Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

Thanks Vast! That worked perfectly. Only thing it didn't do was compress the file, but the "base" is only 5.43gb and the partition I have it saved to is 30gb, so plenty of room for it.

I used the GParted Live USB to do it, turns out fsarchiver is already installed on that so there was nothing to download and no need for an internet connection.

I have everything except /boot on the same drive, so there wasn't the option to back up /root differently than /home. So it's all or nothing for me, which is fine as I wanted an "all" to restore to.

Thanks again.

Last edited by joypunk (2012-02-03 21:51:17)

  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

Interesting that it did not compress.. 

My / Root is 6.89g used and fsarchiver compressed it down to 2.3g

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  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

Saw your edit....

Thats great that you got everything..

Well done big_smile

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  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

Here is a link of what I went through and had to do on a restore to a different machine..

This is just info for you in case you need it

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  • Registered: 2011-08-27
  • Posts: 55

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

You can also look into rsync based software like backintime to backup your root filesystem. It has the advantage that you can backup your system while you're using it without having to boot from a live cd. You just have to make exceptions for /dev, /proc, /sys and /media if you're backing up the root filesystem. I find it much more convenient than rebooting from a livecd and using dd and the like. Here's a decent link on it - http://www.schwabenlan.de/website/linux … -for-linux

  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

^ Those are good apps, anything using rsync is top notch

For me though, I have never had any success doing any backups or restores on a system while I was using it and have always opted for a livecd boot process for both

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  • From: inside Ed
  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 2,867

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

VastOne wrote:

For me though, I have never had any success doing any backups or restores on a system while I was using it and have always opted for a livecd boot process for both

Because we're idiots. I've only recently played with LVM and I don't plan to use anything else in the future. You create an LVM snapshot of /root, mount your backup partition or drive and fsarchive the snapshot there. The snapshot doesn't change, it's frozen. Purfect. it requires a reinstall though, and this is Debian after all. But do mess about on a spare machine if you have one. The SysResCD wiki has a more thorough tutorial.

LVM | Catalyst | Wireless
  • From: In Front of The Black Gates
  • Registered: 2011-04-26
  • Posts: 5,151

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

^ What advantage does that have over a typical fsarchiver backup/restore of root where you do not need to do a reinstall?

Same snapshot, same method as far as mounting your backup partition and using fsarchiver

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  • From: inside Ed
  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 2,867

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

You can do it live. When you're fsarchiving a snapshot of the root partition while the system is running, it's as if you're fsarchiving a root partition from a live CD. So in case your batch of upgrades is threatening to nuke your system, you don't need to do the shutdown, pop in live CD, fsarchive, reboot. Don't listen to me, here are the big guys: http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-LVM- … s-with-LVM

Read up on LVM, it's perfect, I can't believe I'm not using it big_smile

Last edited by el_koraco (2012-02-03 22:53:22)

LVM | Catalyst | Wireless
  • Registered: 2011-07-27
  • Posts: 897

Re: [SOLVED] Creating a "Restore Point"

Thanks VastOne and El ...

Been thinking about setting up a recovery partition using those progs. Hadn't done it, so wasn't all that confident about it. Think now I am though. Will still probably not set up the dang partition and end up borking myself and wishing I had. DOH ! *facepalm* tongue

No kidding, when I think back to all the time and PAIN I could've saved myself 1st getting into gnu/nix by backing up stuff. Makes me wanna puke. Sad thing is, I new better and didn't bother backing up anyway. Hmmmm ... must have sadistic tendencies or summin. Hundreds of hours trying to megatweak LM ... GONE ! GONE I TELL YOU ! Would've taken 15mins to make a backup ! *Double facepalm ! tongue tongue

Last edited by CBizgreat! (2012-02-03 23:07:57)

Some common cbiz abbreviations. This will save me time and yet @ same time tell folks what the babble is supposed to mean.

Vll ! = ( Viva la gnu/Linux !)    Vl#!! = ( Viva la #! !)    Last but not least, UD ... OD ! = ( Use Debian ... or die !) tongue