On 11/24/2012 04:26 PM, C W wrote: > Thanks for the replies, everybody. Does restoring from a backup work > reliably? > > Just about every time so far for me. Some points to remember: > > IMAGE backups of a drive partition are much larger than backing up just the > data that comprises the system. You're also backing up all the unused space > on that partition. Thus the file produced is much larger than a tar or zip > archive so more space is need on the storage drive. Hard drive gigs are cheap > these days,even more so if you buy used at Freegeek or a factory > reconditioned drive at Pacific Solutions, so that should not be a problem. > > Backing up the drive's partition table helps avoid some problems that might > occur although such are rare. If your restore fails, e.g. if you boot and > GRUB fails to find the system files it needs, restoring the backed-up > partition table can help. > > It also helps to have a DVD or USB live copy of the main system you use. For > example if you're using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, write that distro to a DVD/USB and > boot up with that. That way you minimize any problems that might arise by > using another distro while restoring. > > If even restoring the partition table fails, you can always reinstall GRUB > from that DVD/USB live system onto your drive thus: > > sudo fdisk -l # (to find Ubuntu root) > > sudo mkdir -v /Ubuntu > > sudo mount /dev/sda1 /Ubuntu #(where sda1 is the drive partition where your > restored system is located) > > sudo grub-install --root-directory=/Ubuntu /dev/sda #(where sda is the > physical drive where your restored system is located) > > Reading the grub-install man page before you need it and related online info > will help clear up any confusion about grub-install options. > > You probably won't need that latter hassle but it helps to have the > ammunition available if some odd issue surfaces and you can't get the > restored system to clear GRUB. With all those tools you can pretty much rest > easy that you can backup and restore your stable system without fearing its > extinction and the need to reinstall from scratch. > > > >
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