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Backup system image. [SOLVED]

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:05 pm
by glore2002
Hello!
Is it possible to create an image backup of my installed linuxmint. I would like to be able to have a restore image to reinstall Mint as I do with windoes system image backup (for instance).

In conclusion, I would like to start my system with a cd or pendrive and to be able to restore my system completely.

Thank you!

Glore2002.-

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:13 pm
by memilanuk

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:31 pm
by Orbmiser
Have they added "Differential/incremental backup is not implemented yet"
But yep that is the one I see suggested the most and will have to give it a whirl myself.
.

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:43 pm
by memilanuk
There was no mention of differential/incremental back up in the original request - just system imaging.

I'm not aware of anything that combines the two. Might be out there, just haven't heard of it.

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:56 pm
by Orbmiser
Yep that was there statement on the link. Looks like they want to eventually add that feature. Which would be great if updating or changing system and have just one master iso stored somewhere upadated without the need to bakcup whole all over again for a few changes in system.
.

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:01 pm
by memilanuk
Ah. I thought you meant in the OP's request.

If they get there, they get there - great. It would be a very interesting feature. But for the here-n-now... we're 'stuck' with a bare-metal system restore image (in my case stored over the network via SAMBA) and then full/incremental backups to get user data restored.

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 8:03 pm
by memilanuk
Another option... may be to use SystemRescueCD w/FSArchiver to create a customized system recovery CD. It doesn't look like a particularly painless process, though... I think I'd play with it in VirtualBox - a *lot* - before I tried it on a 'production' system.

FSArchiver (included in SystemRescueCD or available separately) has the ability to do live backups of LVM snapshots, which is intriguing...

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 8:30 pm
by SurfaceUnits
Remastersys is a tool that can be used to do 2 things with an existing Debian, Ubuntu or derivative installation.

It can make a full system backup including personal data to a live cd or dvd that you can use anywhere and install.

and Unetbootin are my friends

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:53 am
by Bali
Hi,

Since I just install Mint 13 and had problem with it, I wanted to make backup of my install.

For many years I used : Ghost, CloneZilla, Acronis... They are all good but I was never satisfied at 100 %.

Last week I discovered Redo Backup , and I love it !

Open Source
Just download the small Iso image, burn it on a cd and boot on it to make your install image disk
Work with Linux and Windows File System.
Do and restore your backup in 5 minutes
Realy Good and simple User GUI. Can be used with mouse.
Some others tolls on it , like for partition editing, antivirus...

Ok, no incremental option, password image protect... But for now i don't care : I like it for his simple fast, multi file system ability way to do images.

By the way, I make and restore images maybe 10 times the last 5 days : it did his job fast and efficiently.

Try it and let me know.

http://redobackup.org/

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:58 am
by Dyfi
For interest, I have used Clonezilla, fsarchiver, and redobackup - clonezilla is my favourite and has never let me down. It also will do an image check to ensure the backup is restorable.

Fsarchiver has one very important feature - the image can be restored to a smaller partition. At my time of using Redobackup it was unable to create an image of just a partition, only image the complete hard drive - maybe this has changed now - does anyone know?

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:29 am
by Bali
Dyfi wrote:For interest, I have used Clonezilla, fsarchiver, and redobackup - clonezilla is my favourite and has never let me down. It also will do an image check to ensure the backup is restorable.

Fsarchiver has one very important feature - the image can be restored to a smaller partition. At my time of using Redobackup it was unable to create an image of just a partition, only image the complete hard drive - maybe this has changed now - does anyone know?
Hi Dyfi,

Yes you can select wich partition you want to back up; I have two: / & /home. I can either select one or both for back up and restore.

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:34 pm
by glore2002
Bali wrote:Hi,

Since I just install Mint 13 and had problem with it, I wanted to make backup of my install.

For many years I used : Ghost, CloneZilla, Acronis... They are all good but I was never satisfied at 100 %.

Last week I discovered Redo Backup , and I love it !

Open Source
Just download the small Iso image, burn it on a cd and boot on it to make your install image disk
Work with Linux and Windows File System.
Do and restore your backup in 5 minutes
Realy Good and simple User GUI. Can be used with mouse.
Some others tolls on it , like for partition editing, antivirus...

Ok, no incremental option, password image protect... But for now i don't care : I like it for his simple fast, multi file system ability way to do images.

By the way, I make and restore images maybe 10 times the last 5 days : it did his job fast and efficiently.

Try it and let me know.

http://redobackup.org/
I will give it a try. It sounds good. Thanks for your help!

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:39 pm
by jamvaru
personally,

i like to get a stable install, with everything necessary but not everything desired

do a clonezilla of it and forget it

if you need to backup anything else, just drag and drop to a different drive/partition

perhaps you need to do more, then i'm sure something more complicated will work for you

:mrgreen:

actually i never bother backing up linux anything, it never fails (well, rarely, and never so i lose anything important, cause i use other drives)
i only use clonezilla for windows, cause it is so much more of a pain to reinstall, and i only use it for games, so i don't care if it fails either, just don't want to have to start over from scratch there

linux is rather fun to start over from scratch with, it is so easy and smooth and there is always some new version to try, anyways

but lm 13 has been going strong for a long time now
lm 14 is doing just fine as well, which i am using right now

Re: Backup system image.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:29 pm
by sammiev
I have been testing many OS for years and clonezilla has been my best friend.
+1 for clonezilla.