How to save entire OS partition?
by jan128 from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5EFH2)
This is a serious matter, so please treat it that way.
After spending days recovering my limping system I need a serious way to save / backup operating system, not some silly data, got that covered.
Here is "the spec" :
Manually, nothing automatic, preferably using command line , not GUI
backup / copy /save the entire operating system PARTITION to another PARTITION.
The "copy to " partition must be enabled so grub to find it, hence eventually boot able as the original.
The reasons are simple:
Upgrading to new version release is "Russian roulette " - going from Ubutu 16 to 18 on-the -fly took almost an hour. Downloading from ISO USB stick is much gooder, but not too "what is happening , progress" oriented.
Both methods are hard to verify if all previous packages are still workable.
So my "primary directive" is NOT to have download packages AFTER the OS fails.
I had good luck with "ddrescue". Can anybody recommend alternative or is that as good as it gets with Linux ?
Secondary though - would RAID5 work to do the above "automatically"? I realize if something catastrophic happen to running OS and it gets passed to RAID array the system may not boot again using the RAID array. That is why I am using multiboot anyway and it saved me from total meltdown many times.
After spending days recovering my limping system I need a serious way to save / backup operating system, not some silly data, got that covered.
Here is "the spec" :
Manually, nothing automatic, preferably using command line , not GUI
backup / copy /save the entire operating system PARTITION to another PARTITION.
The "copy to " partition must be enabled so grub to find it, hence eventually boot able as the original.
The reasons are simple:
Upgrading to new version release is "Russian roulette " - going from Ubutu 16 to 18 on-the -fly took almost an hour. Downloading from ISO USB stick is much gooder, but not too "what is happening , progress" oriented.
Both methods are hard to verify if all previous packages are still workable.
So my "primary directive" is NOT to have download packages AFTER the OS fails.
I had good luck with "ddrescue". Can anybody recommend alternative or is that as good as it gets with Linux ?
Secondary though - would RAID5 work to do the above "automatically"? I realize if something catastrophic happen to running OS and it gets passed to RAID array the system may not boot again using the RAID array. That is why I am using multiboot anyway and it saved me from total meltdown many times.