On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, Bryen wrote: > On Fri, 2007-12-07 at 23:40 -0500, Bob S wrote: > > Hello SuSE people, > > > > I plan to buy an external USB drive for my backups. I would really like > > to do a commmplete and full backup. > > > > Can I make a "clone" of my SUSE 10.3 ? I mean bootable and everything. If > > not, can I copy everything and then boot it from the DVD? Again, if not, > > and I just want a backup of everything, must I partition the new drive > > exactly as the original drive and rsync the partitions individually? > > > > I am thinking hard drive failure (could take it out of the enclosure and > > replace the failed internal disk with it) as well as file corruption > > backups. Used to use Kdar for backups but it isn't supported for 10.3 Was > > always worried about a reinstall after a hard drive failure with all of > > the extra stuff I have installed. > > > > Bob S > > I'd like to hear what others say about "cloning" methods. But just to > stick my two cents in, if you wanted to clone, I would suggest using dd > rather than rsync. And then just dd the entire partition by block > records. > > Depending on what additional options you would want to use, the basic > syntax would be: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/WhereverYouAreBackingUpTo/ (where > if is your source and of is your destination) > > But if you're only interested in data backup, then rsync is probably > your best bet. > -- > ---Bryen---
I agree. dd will allow you to copy an entire partition block by block. This is good if you are replacing a hard drive and want to keep the partition layout the same. Rsync is better for doing things like incremental backups. I use a home-grown script run from a cron job to do a nightly backup of my home directory to a second hdd on the same machine. It isn't a pretty script (in fact, it's pretty crude) but it does the job that I need it to do. It consists of only one line: rsync --logfile=/var/log/home_backup -Ca /home/<username> /backup/<username>. This just compares each file in /home/<usersname> with its corresponding file in /backup/<username> and copies any that are new or have changed, resetting the archive bit for each file. I also have set up the log file in logrotate so that it rotates the logs and keeps 5 days worth. There are probably plenty of flaws in this backup method (I wouldn't use it in a business situation - I'd write something a little more sophisticated or run a commercial backup solution) but for my needs at home it works fine. I hope this is of some help. -- ====================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV [EMAIL PROTECTED] ====================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
