<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Introduction" HREF="intro.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="ARTICLE" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="ARTICLE" ><DIV CLASS="TITLEPAGE" ><H1 CLASS="TITLE" ><A NAME="AEN2" ></A >Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO</H1 ><H3 CLASS="AUTHOR" ><A NAME="AEN5" >Charles Curley</A ></H3 ><DIV CLASS="AFFILIATION" ><DIV CLASS="ADDRESS" ><P CLASS="ADDRESS" > <TT CLASS="EMAIL" ><<A HREF="mailto:charlescurley at charlescurley dot com" >charlescurley at charlescurley dot com</A >></TT ><br> </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REVHISTORY" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" ><TR ><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN="3" ><B >Revision History</B ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 2.1</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2006-03-28</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Added notes for NTFS. Edited the To Do list. Started work on LVM and using <A HREF="http://www.finnix.org/" TARGET="_top" >finnix</A >.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 2.0</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2005-10-12</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Notes for Fedora Core 4. Removed notes for older versions of FC and Red Hat. Also, changes in the writeup and scripts to reflect using <A HREF="http://www.knoppix.org/" TARGET="_top" >Knoppix</A > instead of <A HREF="http://www.toms.net/rb" TARGET="_top" >tomsrtbt</A >. See the scripts for change notes. Changed some scripts so that long lines don't fall off the right side of printed pages (oops).</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.8</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2005-02-19</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Added notes for Fedora Core 3</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.7</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2004-05-11</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Adjusted copyright language.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.6</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2004-04-29</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Added <A HREF="http://www.knoppix.org/" TARGET="_top" >Knoppix</A > notes, Syslinux, PPART, QtParted, some other rescue CDs, and made some fixes.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.5</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2003-12-19</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Fedora 1 and GRUB notes.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.4</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2003-08-17</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Some notes on burning CD-ROMs, and more on files to exclude.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.3</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2003-04-24</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Substituted new email address and URL for old.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.2</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2003-02-12</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Added Red Hat 8.0 notes, support for FAT32, split the first stage restore scripts, and other minor changes. Notes on <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#AMANDA" >Amanda</A >.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.1</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2002-09-10</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >New code to handle ext3 partitions in <A HREF="thescripts.html#MAKE.FDISK" ><TT CLASS="FILENAME" >make.fdisk</TT ></A >, and a note on <A HREF="creatingthestage1backup.html#INITRD" ><TT CLASS="FILENAME" >initrd</TT ></A >.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.0</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2002-07-24</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: c^2</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >We now use bz2 compression in the first stage, have the run time option to check for bad blocks, and have a script that runs the entire first stage.</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ><DIV ><DIV CLASS="ABSTRACT" ><A NAME="AEN77" ></A ><P ></P ><P >Imagine your disk drive has just become a very expensive hockey puck. Imagine you have had a fire, and your computer case now looks like something Salvador Dalĩ would like to paint. Now what?</P ><P >Total restore, sometimes called bare metal recovery, is the process of rebuilding a computer after a catastrophic failure. In order to make a total restoration, you must have complete backups, not only of your file system, but of partition information and other data. This HOWTO is a step-by-step tutorial on how to back up a Linux computer so as to be able to make a bare metal recovery, and how to make that bare metal recovery. It includes some related scripts.</P ><P ></P ></DIV ></DIV ><HR></DIV ><DIV CLASS="TOC" ><DL ><DT ><B >Table of Contents</B ></DT ><DT >1. <A HREF="intro.html" >Introduction</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >1.1. <A HREF="intro.html#COPYRIGHT" >Copyright Information</A ></DT ><DT >1.2. <A HREF="intro.html#DISCLAIMERS" >Disclaimers</A ></DT ><DT >1.3. <A HREF="intro.html#NEWVERSIONS" >New Versions</A ></DT ><DT >1.4. <A HREF="intro.html#CREDITS" >Credits</A ></DT ><DT >1.5. <A HREF="intro.html#FEEDBACK" >Feedback</A ></DT ><DT >1.6. <A HREF="intro.html#TRANSLATIONS" >Translations</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >2. <A HREF="overview.html" >Overview</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >2.1. <A HREF="overview.html#LIMITATIONS" >Limitations</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >3. <A HREF="preparation.html" >Preparation</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >3.1. <A HREF="preparation.html#INSTALLINGZIPDRIVE" >Installing the ZIP Drive</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >4. <A HREF="creatingthestage1backup.html" >Creating the Stage 1 Back Up</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >4.1. <A HREF="creatingthestage1backup.html#THEMEANDVARIATIONS" >Theme And Variations</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >5. <A HREF="firststagerestore.html" >First Stage Restore</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >5.1. <A HREF="firststagerestore.html#BOOTING" >Booting</A ></DT ><DT >5.2. <A HREF="firststagerestore.html#RESTORATION" >Restoration</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >6. <A HREF="secondstagerestoration.html" >Second Stage Restoration</A ></DT ><DT >7. <A HREF="distributionspecificnotes.html" >Distribution Specific Notes</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >7.1. <A HREF="distributionspecificnotes.html#FEDORA3" >Fedora Core 3 and 4</A ></DT ><DT >7.2. <A HREF="distributionspecificnotes.html#KNOPPIX" >Knoppix</A ></DT ><DT >7.3. <A HREF="distributionspecificnotes.html#AEN583" >finnix</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >8. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html" >Application Specific Notes</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >8.1. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#LVM" >Logical Volume Manager</A ></DT ><DT >8.2. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#SELINUX" >Selinux</A ></DT ><DT >8.3. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#GRUB" >GRUB</A ></DT ><DT >8.4. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#TRIPWIRE" >Tripwire</A ></DT ><DT >8.5. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#SQUID" >Squid</A ></DT ><DT >8.6. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#ARKEIA" >Arkeia</A ></DT ><DT >8.7. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#AMANDA" >Amanda</A ></DT ><DT >8.8. <A HREF="applicationspecificnotes.html#NTFS" >NTFS</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >9. <A HREF="someadvicefordisasterrecovery.html" >Some Advice for Disaster Recovery</A ></DT ><DT >10. <A HREF="whatnow.html" >What Now?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >10.1. <A HREF="whatnow.html#TODO" >To Do</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >11. <A HREF="thescripts.html" >The Scripts</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >11.1. <A HREF="thescripts.html#FIRSTSTAGE" >First Stage</A ></DT ><DT >11.2. <A HREF="thescripts.html#SECONDSTAGE" >Second Stage</A ></DT ><DT >11.3. <A HREF="thescripts.html#BACKUPSERVERSCRIPTS" >Backup Server Scripts</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >12. <A HREF="resources.html" >Resources</A ></DT ><DT >A. <A HREF="appendix1gfdl.html" >GNU Free Documentation License</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >0. <A HREF="gfdl02.html" >PREAMBLE</A ></DT ><DT >1. <A HREF="gfdl03.html" >APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS</A ></DT ><DT >2. <A HREF="gfdl04.html" >VERBATIM COPYING</A ></DT ><DT >3. <A HREF="gfdl05.html" >COPYING IN QUANTITY</A ></DT ><DT >4. <A HREF="gfdl06.html" >MODIFICATIONS</A ></DT ><DT >5. <A HREF="gfdl07.html" >COMBINING DOCUMENTS</A ></DT ><DT >6. <A HREF="gfdl08.html" >COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS</A ></DT ><DT >7. <A HREF="gfdl09.html" >AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS</A ></DT ><DT >8. <A HREF="gfdl10.html" >TRANSLATION</A ></DT ><DT >9. <A HREF="gfdl11.html" >TERMINATION</A ></DT ><DT >10. <A HREF="gfdl12.html" >FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE</A ></DT ><DT >11. <A HREF="gfdl13.html" >How to use this License for your documents</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="intro.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Introduction</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >