Linux imaging, make a recovery dvd software?

[Necuno]

My Debian box 1.0 (actually more like 20.0 attempts) is now in a general working condition.

With the fear / fun of having to redo it I was wondering if there is some native tool I can use to make a nice backup and restore of the current installation. Otherwise I suppose I can just backup the partition(s) with something like nothing ghost.

Is there another method to backup you linux system?

I have to say since I attempted linux with woody quite a few things has become a lot more "easier". Still I can see why most would say ubuntu or linux mint is the way to go for linix first timers

Thanks

 

[vinodh]

Try Clonezilla. I haven't used it before but it seems to be exactly what you need.

 

[ponder]

dd, clonezilla, systemback, Mondo Rescue, Back in time are just a few examples you can look at.

 

[Necuno]

Thanks a lot

 

[biometrics]

Clonezilla is good though the interface is a bit crude. Note you'll need two flash drives. One for it to boot off and one for images. If it still works the same way ...

 

[BigAl-sa]

What Ponder said, can't beat dd.

 

[ponder]

What Ponder said, can't beat dd.

If you're a noob then approach with caution, it's also affectionately know as disk destroyer if you don't know what you're doing

 

[Necuno]

If you're a noob then approach with caution, it's also affectionately know as disk destroyer if you don't know what you're doing

LOL.

If it asks you to type "Yes, do as I say" then run away?

 

[Jay_Bee_Kay]

I'd agree on clonezilla, if it's a basic install and you have a dedicated external storage - you can partition it to have the live clonezilla bit on one partition and use the other as storage for your image in order to just insert and restore at a later/needed stage.

 

[ponder]

LOL.

If it asks you to type "Yes, do as I say" then run away?

It does not ask you anything or prompt you for anything, it just executes your command so if you stuff up it will do as you told it to do

 

[vinodh]

It does not ask you anything or prompt you for anything, it just executes your command so if you stuff up it will do as you told it to do

That reminds of a friend of mine that was messing around with Windows 95 using stiffies to install and saw a message about "Do you want to format this drive?" and he clicked "yes" and immediately lost all his data.

 

[ponder]

That reminds of a friend of mine that was messing around with Windows 95 using stiffies to install and saw a message about "Do you want to format this drive?" and he clicked "yes" and immediately lost all his data.

Trust me I lost 500GB of data before using dd, not dd's fault but I should have checked the device identifiers between reboots as they changed.

 

[shadow_man]

Trust me I lost 500GB of data before using dd, not dd's fault but I should have checked the device identifiers between reboots as they changed.

Thats why I tend to mount things with device by blkid so that its still the same drive even if the identifiers change