[nflug] dump vs partimage

[Joe]

I watch both dump and partimage complete - but they write to my
secondary disk drive - so I know the file is good on that drive, but it
doesn't tell me anything about the image of it that I later burn to
CDROM and that will be the one I'll have to depend on for a restore. The
one on disk is erased as soon as it has been burned to save space.

I will read up on the simulated restore options you refer to.

As for saving time, I've been through this process before. It takes 15
minutes or less to back up my home partition. My backup script as it is
now runs takes 3 - 4 hours by the time all the CD's are burned. I'd
probably throw the machine out before trying a bare metal restore
without a good backup. I expect that would take more than a week between
figuring out what to restore, finding it and then configuring it. I had
a lot of help from people like you on this list and elsewhere over
several years to get it humming like it does now. I'm sure there's quite
a few things I just wouldn't remember.

Thanks.

Joe

Daniel V wrote:
> --- On Sun, 1/11/09, Joe <josephj at main.nc.us> wrote:
> ... > notebook ... HP Centrino Duo 1.6GHz w/ 100GB HD SATA (that I'm 
>   
>> trying to replace w/ a 320GB - see 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 w/ Win XP.
>>
>> The rest applies to the desktop system only.
>> ...
>> 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?
>>     
>
> I usually watch partimage complete.
>
> I don't know about dump, but check this out...
> http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manual-en_Burning_a_DVD_RW_from_SystemRescueCd_by_mounting_it
>
> See http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page
> You do have the ability to do a restore simulation, with nothing being written.
>
> See http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl8_dump.htm
>
>
>   
>> 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
>>     
>
> I suppose it depends on your needs. If you knew how much time you could save by just backing up your data, you might change your mind.
>
>
> Daniel
>
>
>       
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