Backup ideas?

[Robert Meyer]

Well, as I recall, if you make a tar backup of the windows partition and
restore
it, it still can boot.  I remember having windows eat my whole hard drive
(linux
included) during an install, disregarding the partition map.  I added another
drive, booted CDROM, tarred off windows to the new drive as a tar file in a
linux
filesystem, repartitioned the drive, installed linux, untarred the windows
stuff,
and fixed LILO.  Both O/S would then boot without issue.

Given that process, it would take pretty much the same kind of thing to do what
you're trying to do.  Dual boot the box, tar windows to the cdrw, use something
like 'ufsdump/ufsrestore' to backup Linux (both to the cdrw with cdparanoia
or some such) and then be able to rebuild them from a boot CD in rescue mode.

How's that for a plan?

Implementation is left as an exercise for the reader... :-)

Cheers!

Bob

--- Joe <josephj at main.nc.us> wrote:
> My laptop is a 233 MHz Pentium currently running Windoze 98se.  I recently
> crashed the hard disk and had to reinstall everything from scratch.  I don't
> want to do that again any time soon!  I've investigated all the backup
> options I can think of on the Windoze side and nothing seems adequate.  The
> problem is that I can't install an internal CDRW in this machine and Norton
> Ghost won't do an image dump/restore on an external device (and I don't have
> another computer to use over a network).
> 
> SO ...
> 
> I would like to make this a dual boot machine anyway with something like
> Mandrake or Red Hat.  If I do, is there some way I can buy an *external* CDRW
> and do a system image dump that can be restored?
> 
> Ideally, I'd like to be in a position where I could format my hard drive,
> stick in a floppy boot disk and automagically have it restore Linux and
> Windoze from the *external* CDRW just like nothing happened.  If that's
> asking too much, I could certainly do a minimal Linux install and run some
> utility from there.   Can this be done?  I know Linux can do a lot of things
> Windoze can't.  I'm not stuck on a CDRW if there's another reasonably priced
> device that would do it better, but a CDRW would be nice to have.
> 
> The tricky parts are that the CDRW has to be external and that Windoze likes
> to overwrite the MBR.  And of course, if I have to install Linux before I do
> the restore, it might get upset if the restore tried to overwrite the
> programs doing the restoring.
> 
> Machine details:  It's a Winbook XL 233 MHz Pentium with a CDROM and a 10 GB
> HD (8 GB available through the BIOS).  It has a 3COM Etherlink III PCMCIA
> card (3C589D) in it and an LT Winmodem (549 driver) built in that has to can
> be convinced to work.
> The hard drive is currently partitioned roughly in half (C: & D:) with a
> total of about 5 GB free (not counting the unused 2 GB the BIOS can't see).
> 
> Any ideas would be appreciated.  If I can't think of anything else, I'll buy
> another laptop with a CDRW and an Ethernet card and use Ghost 2002 over the
> network to back it up.  I'd love an excuse to get a new computer, but I'd
> really rather not spend the money if I don't have to.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Joe
> 

=====
Bob Meyer
Knightwing Communications, Inc.
36 Cayuga Blvd
Depew, NY 14043
Phone: 716-308-8931 or 716-681-0076
Meyer_RM at Yahoo.com

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