Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

This forum is for Marvell Kirkwood devices such as the GoFlex Home/Net, PogoPlug v1/v2, SheevaPlug, and ZyXEL devices.
Topic locked

Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby yazyazoo » Fri Mar 15, 2013 5:47 pm

I was wondering what is the best/easiest way to backup my boot drive? It took awhile to setup and would hate to have to do it again in a year if the boot drive was to fail.

I am hoping there is a backup that allows you to copy to the USB stick and it will work just like the original.

I know in Windows if we wanted to take a image of a USB stick we could use something like WinImage. If a backup was needed you just loaded the image and plugged it back it and it worked just like the original.

Any suggestions?
yazyazoo
 
Posts: 78
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:19 pm
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby moonman » Fri Mar 15, 2013 6:28 pm

You can use dd to make an image on any linux computer:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dd if=/dev/sd? of=/home/<where you want it saved>')
Pogoplug V4 | GoFlex Home | Raspberry Pi 4 4GB | CuBox-i4 Pro | ClearFog | BeagleBone Black | Odroid U2 | Odroid C1 | Odroid XU4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[armv5] Updated U-Boot | [armv5] NAND Rescue System
moonman
Developer
 
Posts: 3388
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:36 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby campigenus » Fri Mar 15, 2013 11:31 pm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('moonman', 'Y')ou can use dd to make an image on any linux computer:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dd if=/dev/sd? of=/home/<where you want it saved>')



That would, of course, work. But, wouldn't TARing it be a better choice? With a tar one can restore specific files and restoring to a differently sized HDD, or whatever media, is quick and easy. It would be like having your own "ArchLinuxARM ... latest.tar.gz" file. No?
~~~
"Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity."
- Henry S. Haskins
campigenus
 
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:00 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby moonman » Sat Mar 16, 2013 1:12 am

Yes you can do that. But many people have problems after the first installation, and my guess is that it may have something to do with lazy inode creation for ext2/3. Doing dd will avoid that as filesystem is already there. This is just a guess though.
Pogoplug V4 | GoFlex Home | Raspberry Pi 4 4GB | CuBox-i4 Pro | ClearFog | BeagleBone Black | Odroid U2 | Odroid C1 | Odroid XU4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[armv5] Updated U-Boot | [armv5] NAND Rescue System
moonman
Developer
 
Posts: 3388
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:36 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby yazyazoo » Sat Mar 16, 2013 7:37 am

What would the restore command be?
yazyazoo
 
Posts: 78
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:19 pm
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby suyanlu » Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:44 pm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yazyazoo', 'W')hat would the restore command be?


dd
suyanlu
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:33 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby sneasle » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:27 am

Hey all


I have a pogo running alARM and have finally gotten everthing I need installed. I am planning on putting together several pogos with this same exact software build and I would like to know thoughts on the best method of cloning the drive I already have so I don't have to do the installation process another 6 times.

I've been trying to use clonezilla, but I've run into a problem. I bought 5 of the same model drive, but it appears that the drive that has the working install on it is some random 30megs or so larger then 3 of the others, and clonezilla is pitching a fit. I think this size discrepancy is also going to make doing it with dd very difficult, and I don't think rsync will copy the mbr and partition table over.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do?
sneasle
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:37 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby moonman » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:25 am

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yazyazoo', 'W')hat would the restore command be?


swap if and of

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dd if=/home/<saved image> of=/dev/sd?')

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sneasle', 'H')ey all


I have a pogo running alARM and have finally gotten everthing I need installed. I am planning on putting together several pogos with this same exact software build and I would like to know thoughts on the best method of cloning the drive I already have so I don't have to do the installation process another 6 times.

I've been trying to use clonezilla, but I've run into a problem. I bought 5 of the same model drive, but it appears that the drive that has the working install on it is some random 30megs or so larger then 3 of the others, and clonezilla is pitching a fit. I think this size discrepancy is also going to make doing it with dd very difficult, and I don't think rsync will copy the mbr and partition table over.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do?


You can use cp -a <source> <dest> or use dd with resize2fs after
Pogoplug V4 | GoFlex Home | Raspberry Pi 4 4GB | CuBox-i4 Pro | ClearFog | BeagleBone Black | Odroid U2 | Odroid C1 | Odroid XU4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[armv5] Updated U-Boot | [armv5] NAND Rescue System
moonman
Developer
 
Posts: 3388
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:36 am
Top

Re: Best way to Backup the Boot Drive?

Postby sneasle » Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:27 pm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('moonman', '
')
You can use cp -a <source> <dest> or use dd with resize2fs after


Can you elaborate on this? resize2fs looks to be a different command, not a flag for dd. Will copy (cp) copy the MBR as well?

The 'good' drive I have is some 7880megs, the drive I want to clone it onto is some 7850megs, or something in that range.

Keeping in mind that I am a linux noob, I am not familiar with any commands for dd that will allow a copy to a smaller drive.

It doesn't make sense to me to dd it first, and then make the 'good' drive smaller... or am I misunderstanding your instructions?

I'm attempting to shrink the good drive at the moment, down to 6g or so, hopefully if this works there shouldn't be any problems with cloning it, right?

Edit:
Shrinking didn't seem to help any, it shrank the partition but the drive still shows at it's full size so a direct copy doesn't seem to want to work..

Any thoughts?
sneasle
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:37 am
Top
Topic locked

Return to Marvell Kirkwood

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests

Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group    © Arch Linux ARM