[nflug] Verifying a cdrom image backup, some ideas

Joe josephj at main.nc.us
Sun Jan 11 15:28:04 EST 2009 

I have two computers, a desktop (mid-tower) and a notebook.
The desktop, which is the one this is about, is running Mandrake 9.1 on
a Dell PII 266MHz (dual boot with Win 98se). It has a 30GB main drive
and a 120GB secondary drive that are both EIDE. (I'll want to duplicate
this for my notebook once it works on the desktop).

The notebook is an HP Centrino Duo 1.6GHz with a 100GB HD SATA (that I'm
trying to replace with a 320GB - see my other thread - "Help needed
Initializing a new notebook disk drive"). It also has a 250GB USB hdd
that is attached when I'm at home. It is running kubuntu hardy dual
booted with Win XP.

The rest applies to the desktop system only.

I currently use partimage for the windows partitions, but that works
fine anyway because windows isn't running when partimage is.

As far as the Linux partitions are concerned, what difference does it
make whether I use dump or partimage *with respect to* verifying that
the backups burned to CD's are good? In either case, I have a (set of)
iso file on my secondary disk and the image actually burned to a CDROM
and I want my script to be able to give me some confidence that that the
CDROM is a valid copy and readable.

I can't just wipe the machine and try a restore because if it fails,
I've got a dead machine that would take forever to rebuild - especially
with trying to find all the software versions old enough to install
correctly - to say nothing of all the configuration stuff that was done
so long ago I'd probably never figure it all out again even if I could
remember what I did.

The desktop is *very* old and does not get much in the way of software
updates. Firefox 3.0 just failed to install and updates for that were
always a no-brainer. So, for this system, full backups make a lot of
sense to me.

Joe

Daniel V wrote:
> Joe, please refresh my memory here, what GNU/Linux distribution are you using? Are you using IDE or SATA disk drives? 
>
> A simple solution to backing up is to use partimage (http://www.partimage.org/Screenshots). It also comes in SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org), a boot-up CD-ROM distro.
>
> You could just backup your setup, but things change so quickly in GNU/Linux, that I think it's better for you to set back up your data and then redo your install and then transfer data over. Example, I like using Sylpheed for email, so I backup the two relevant directories. Whatever distro I'm using, CentOS, Knoppix, Ubuntu, will at some point invariably install the latest Sylpheed is in their repository. I was using Sylpheed stable in a Knoppix virtual machine and then when Sylpheed 2.50 came out I backed up the directories and installed the latest Ubuntu on another machine and then installed Sylpheed, which was a new version than what was on Knoppix at the time. The new Sylpheed in Ubuntu immediately worked with the old data and all is good. Now Sylpheed is updated again, but I don't have time to try to compile from source, so I'll probably just wait for Ubuntu 9. I haven't looked at the changelog for the newest Sylpheed yet, so I don't know yet if I
>  have a compelling reason to upgrade.
>
> A few things that might affect potential start-up from an external drive.
> If you use an Intel motherboard, you might be able to use the Intel Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Boot Manager. Or you might be able to use the SuperGrubDisk CD-ROM (http://www.supergrubdisk.org/).
>
> Daniel
>
> --- On Mon, 12/15/08, Joe <josephj at main.nc.us> wrote:
>
>   
>> From: Joe <josephj at main.nc.us>
>> Subject: Re: [nflug] Verifying a cdrom image backup
>> To: nflug at nflug.org
>> Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 3:34 PM
>> That sounds even simpler than what I'm trying to do now, but how easy i
>> it to verify that it worked? I guess I just have to unplug my main drive
>> and put the backup one in. That's not too tough, but I don't really want
>> to pull my system apart every time.
>>
>> I have a removable drive bay I could use that holds my current backup
>> drive. What I don't know is how to set the machine up so lilo can boot
>> from the backup drive as an option on its menu.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> SilverBear wrote:
>>     
>>> Well, I agree it's best to keep data separate, and
>>>       
>> backed up separately.  But a person might also have his OS
>> tweaked "just so." Reinstalling and then
>> dl/installing  all the right packages could be a hassle.
>>     
>>> With prices as low as they are these days, a separate
>>>       
>> backup HDD that can mirror selected partitions, including
>> OSs, is quite practical. It needn't be always mounted
>> --or even physically connected-- just so long as it's
>> convenient to attach to the system when needed.
>>     
>>> Backing up a whole 8GB OS partition with dd from a
>>>       
>> liveCD usually takes 15-20 minutes or so, if I remember
>> correctly. I have 2GB RAM, so adjust for that. Yes, disk
>> write and bus speeds play a large part in how soon a dd
>> command will complete large amounts of data, but RAM seems
>> to factor in as well.
>>     
>>> John
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: cloudlakedreamer at yahoo.com
>>>> Sent: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:34:41 -0800 (PST)
>>>> To: nflug at nflug.org
>>>> Subject: Re: [nflug] Verifying a cdrom image
>>>>         
>> backup
>>     
>>>> Who has time to mess with restoring from lots of
>>>>         
>> CD-ROM's ? I backup my
>>     
>>>> data, and then if necessary, I'll just
>>>>         
>> reinstall, then come back and
>>     
>>>> restore my scripts, my email, etc... Just an idea,
>>>>         
>> it might save you a
>>     
>>>> lot of time.
>>>>
>>>> Daniel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --- On Fri, 12/12/08, Christopher Hawkins
>>>>         
>> <chawkins at bplinux.com> wrote:
>>     
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> From: Christopher Hawkins
>>>>> Subject: Re: [nflug] Verifying a cdrom image backup
>>>>> re: mondorescue ... you might just download ... see how they do verification.
>>>>>           
> ...
>   
>>>>> restore it and then compare. Maybe restore then rsync -avn 
>>>>>           
>> ... original_dir/* restored_dir/
>>     
> ...
>   
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Joe"
>>>>>           
>> <josephj at main.nc.us>
>>     
>>>>> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 2:39:30 AM GMT
>>>>> ... making image backups of my system in chunks that
>>>>> fit on cdroms.
>>>>> ... using dump... md5sums ... do not match...
>>>>>
>>>>> I just ran a 15 cdrom backup that worked fine,
>>>>>           
>> but I realized afterwards that since the root file system was mounted,
>> the backup was probably useless, so I recreated it using a livecd with
>> the root unmounted.
>>     
>>>>> That's the one I'm having trouble verifying now.
>>>>> Am I doing something wrong?
>>>>> How do I verify that what I wrote to the cdrom
>>>>>           
>> is identical to the image on disk and is completely readable - a
>> reliable/restorable copy?
>>     
>>>>> TIA
>>>>> Joe
>>>>>           
>
>
>
>       
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