Radified Community Forums - Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install

zmdmw52

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #15 - Jul 10^th, 2008 at 12:27am

zmdmw52 wrote on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 9:27am:

Subsequently, I tried the '-ia' switch, the complete partition (entire 30 GB, including the vacant portion got imaged); ... on restoration from this '-ia' image, to an unequal-size partition (i.e. original part (incld. free space = 30 GB), destination part. = 60 GB), would the destination partition be auto-resized to 30 GB (if so, what happens to the additional 30 GB? -does it have to be extended manually using another (partitioning) program)?

Nigel,
I am still in the dark about this.

For including the boot sectors & MBR (& restoring successfully therefrom), would '

-ia

' then be the best option (with NG 2003)?

Linux User 483705 | (openSUSE 11.1, Ubuntu 9.04, i686) w/ Windows XP

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Nigel Bree

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #16 - Jul 10^th, 2008 at 7:00pm

The only change to the operation of Ghost when you use -ib is that is adds the boot track to the image at capture time, and if the image was captured with -ia then it will be restored when you do a "Disk" restore. Otherwise, everything else works as it would otherwise do, including the partition resizing that Ghost does.

It's really only the -ia (image all) and -id (forensic) switches that have functions that stop Ghost doing its normal default behaviours during restoration of other data.

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zmdmw52

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #17 - Apr 1^st, 2009 at 1:49pm

Having tried Clonezilla (Clonezilla Live CD 1.2.1-39), I find this to be the best partition backup/restore and disk clone software IMO (though limited). I have just succesfully restored a Linux ext3 / (root) partition from an image saved to a Windows partition (NTFS), successfully

*

.

*

Internet connnection got disrupted during updating Linux (openSUSE 11.1) & on reboot mouse and keyboard were unusable.

In addition: it can backup

MBR

and

Partition Table

(on by default) and you can choose to restore this or not when you restore from the saved partition image; the compression ratio is much better than NG⁺/TI and the speed is faster (average of about 1.2 GB/min for ext3 (SATA HD) > NTFS (also SATA HD) imaging. Also, for those restoring a Linux / (root) or /boot partition, it can (optionally-on by default) restore GRUB.

(⁺ Like 'TheShadow', I was an almost exclusive user of NG 2003 through a Boot CD, until I installed Linux (openSUSE 11.1, dual-booting with Windows XP Prof) and associated OSS ...
.... Shadow, how about giving the Clonezilla Live CD a spin ?
)

The GUI can be a bit confusing, but there is an online forum and Quick Reference Card (at the Sourceforge Download page).

Here are some links to Clonezilla Live CD:

Main Site:
http://www.clonezilla.org/

Wikipedia Entry: (with further links)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonezilla

How to use Clonezilla Live:
http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/#use

Forum on SourceForge:
http://www.clonezilla.org/forum/

Clonezilla Quick Reference Card d/l link:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115473&package_id=125231&r...

PS:
It's sad to see the very knowledgeable 'nbree' become an 'ex-member'. His answers were insightful and thought-provoking. Hope he'll return to Radified Forums with another User Name.
(But then, I guess his insightful answers would give him away !)

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Spanky

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #18 - Apr 1^st, 2009 at 8:41pm

zmdmw52 wrote on Apr 1^st, 2009 at 1:49pm:

PS:
It's sad to see the very knowledgeable 'nbree' become an 'ex-member'. His answers were insightful and thought-provoking. Hope he'll return to Radified Forums with another User Name.
(But then, I guess his insightful answers would give him away !)

I had the exact same thought.

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zmdmw52

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	Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install Reply #19 - Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 2:05am Quote: I had the exact same thought. :) ... as do so many others on Radified Forums.
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Pleonasm

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	Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install Reply #20 - Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 9:39am Readers of this thread may also be interested in the free utility MBR Fix.
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zmdmw52

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #21 - Sep 4^th, 2009 at 1:25pm

Brian wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 3:45am:

zmdmw52,
I don't think you can backup the MBR from a boot CD with MBRWork. The medium has to be writable. ie floppy or USB stick.

This may be easier. Download MBRWhisky from..
http://red.boot-land.net/mbrwhisky.html

Also download MBRWizard 1.53 (Aug 24 2004) from...
http://www.mbrwizard.com/download.shtml

Put both exe files in the same folder and run MBRWhisky. Choose your HD, Disk, Save MBR to file etc

How did it go?

As a follow-up, I tried to restore the MBR from the .dat file generated by MBRWhisky & MBR_Works. This happened after an accidental deletion from a Linux Live CD (posted the problem on www.annoyances.org, which I find good for Windows troubleshooting, http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1249500186).
However, I could not restore the MBR from the .dat file, as MBRWhisky /MBRWork just did not recognize the Hard Disks; Windows itself could recognize only the C:\ partition and not the extended partitions (4 extended partitions, from E:\ through H:\); this was most probably because the partition table (MFT) was destroyed.

I managed to get back some of the data in the extended partitions from an old image file (about a year old). Had I used Clonezilla Live CD rather than Ghost to image the C:\ drive [I tried to restore from a NG 2003 image of the C:\ drive. about 6 mo old, but after booting into Windows (normal & 'safe' mode), it still did not recognize the extended partitions], probably this could have been averted, as Clonezilla backs-up the MBR + MFT (Master File Table/ Partition Table).

Anyway, there was not much data loss, as I back-up my important documents, photographs, etc onto a flash drive frequently.

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zmdmw

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Re: Backup/Restore MBR b/f Linux install
Reply #22 - Sep 16^th, 2009 at 1:57pm

In continuation of the above:
I put the question about whether Clonezilla backs-up the Partition Table, etc (see [1]), when it images a partition (rather, qn was about what exactly the backed-up files in the Clonezilla-created backup folder, represented -see [2]) on the Clonezilla-Help Forum at Sourceforge.net. Steven Shiau (lead developer) clarified that Clonezilla indeed does backup the

Partition Table

of the Hard Disk (in addition, the

MBR

+

'Hidden Data after MBR

' are also backed up by default for a partition backup).

Quote:

You have used partclone to image sdb4 partition, and it's using gzip compression, and the image is split as 2 files, i.e. sdb4.ext4-ptcl-img.gz.aa, sdb4.ext4-ptcl-img.gz.ab.
sdb-pt.sf is the partition table outputed by sfdisk, sdb-pt.parted is the partition table outputed by parted.
sdb-hidden-data-after-mbr is the data between MBR and the first partition. Sometime it's useful for some recovery tools to put binary data in that area. We do not know it's useful or not, just dd it as an image "sdb-hidden-data-after-mbr".
Steven.

[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/forums/forum/394751/topic/3391130
[2] Backup folder contents (folder created by Clonezilla during partition imaging) - http://www.imagebam.com/image/6ab41b47779143 (also attached)

Clonezilla_Live_Backup_Image_Folder_Components.png (59 KB | 916 )

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