Backup pc

[Freeman]

Hi guys

I have a multiboot OS with Grub as a bootloader. The following options are available: Win XP1, Win XP2, Vectorlinux and Ubuntu. The only thing I am missing right now is a complete backup solution to backup everything. By that I mean the following:
- MBR (grub is in there)
- ReiserFS (Vectorlinux & Ubuntu)
- NTFS (Win XP)
- If possible, no installation required and backup/restore starting from a booted livecd

I already did my own research and came up with the following candidates:
- Norton Ghost 14 > No MBR, No ReiserFS support > so I guess it will be 'by by Grub' after recovery
- Acronis True Image 11 Home > Installs things in the MBR > don't want to mess in there > does have ReiserFS
- Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 > does have ReiserFS > not clear if MBR is copied to the fullest

Anyone has some suggestions on this topic? What do you use, why, what are the limitations,...??

I'm asking this because I have a new Dell Latitude D630 from work, and I want to play with it. Meaning: install Linux, bootloader, ... And I want a tool to backup the complete supermarket

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Freeman

[bigpaws]

I evaluated Acronis 10 the backup took almost 16 hours and the
restore was over 24 hours. Way too long for me to recommend.

The backup was for a W2K box and 16 gigs.

I have not evaluated any others.

Bigpaws

[uelsk8s]

If you do a full disk image/clone with ghost it will do the mbr and reiserfs.

[toothandnail]

My personal favorite for this type of thing is Dfsee. Its not free software, but it can do just about anything you need when it comes to disk partitions, and comes with Windows, DOS, OS/2, Linux, and now (I believe, haven't actually looked yet), Mac versions all in the same archive.

It can be used short term without a license, but will time out fairly quickly. Have a look here:

http://www.dfsee.com/

It will resize partitions, make backups of the MBR and the partition table (that last one has saved my bacon more than once) and will also make image copies of entire partitions. Recently, I bought a new (to me) IBM T42, which came with a 40 GB drive. I picked up a 160 GB drive, but didn't want the pain of reinstalling XP. So I made an image of the original 40 GB XP partition to a USB drive, installed the 160 GB drive in the laptop and dumped the image to the new drive, then used Dfsee to create partitions for my Linux installs. I now have XP, Zenwalk 5.0, Vector 5.9 Standard, Vector 5.9 SOHO beta 1 and a second copy of Zenwalk on the disk, all thanks to Dfsee.

Restoring the 40 image to the new drive took about an hour and a half.

paul.

[Freeman]

If you do a full disk image/clone with ghost it will do the mbr and reiserfs.

If uelsk8s is 100% sure about this, then I guess using Norton Ghost would be the simplest. DFSee looks somehow complicated to me. And the only thing it needs to do for me is backing up the whole rim ram (MBR for bootloader and Reiserfs inclusive).

Wish me luck guys

[Freeman]

Ghost doesn't give me the control over the MBR that I want, so I switched to www.clonezilla.org.
Great stuff! And above that, it's opensource! 

[GrannyGeek]

I'm adding this just for information's sake.

If you have Windows 98 or later and a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, you can download the free (no cost) Seagate DiskWizard or Maxtor MaxBlast software and they both include a disk imaging program incorporating Acronis TrueImage. It can image and restore ext2 and 3 and reiserfs partitions.

Before I installed Vista SP 1, I made an image of my entire 160-gig laptop hard drive (Vista and VL 5.9 Deluxe) onto a USB 2 hard drive. I had created a bootable CD for running DiskWizard.

It took a very long time--nowhere near the 16 hours Uelsk8s experienced, but 8 hours at least. This was perhaps because I was imaging a bigger drive than I usually have done. With Norton Ghost on an XP computer, I make images of just Drive C and the hidden Restore partition, which is about 16 gigs total. I make plain copies of Drives D, E, F, H, and I by dragging and dropping from the hard drives onto a USB external hard drive.

Anyway, if you have a Seagate or Maxtor drive, Windows 98 or later, and want a free version of Acronis TrueImage, download DiskWizard or MaxBlast and you'll have it. It's a large download--over 100 megs.
--GrannyGeek