[lug] Backup

[John Karns]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005, Siegfried Heintze wrote:

> Can anyone comment on booting a stand alone linux like knoppix to restore a
> windows partition?  I hope to try out Mondo/Mindi rescue. I believe they
> will restore linux and windows partitions from a local DVD. I wonder if
> there is some software like Mondo/Mindi rescue that can restore a windows
> partition across a network?
>
> Siegfried

I've just used knoppix to do it.  Don't know anything about the pakage you
mention.  I don't use the dark side's OS that much anymore, but I do have
a dual boot setup.

1) I don't run XP, but 2k or earlier.

2) NTFS can be problematic, as Linux historically has not carried write
support for the fs - due to MS licensing issues, lack of dicumentation, or
some such. [1]  Under just sporadic use, vfat vs ntfs performance isses
haven't been a concern.  I've no idea whether or not XP supports vfat.

3) ISTR having successfully restored W95 installs from .tar file backups.
Results with W98 were mixed (worked in some cases not for others so I
assumed that sometime during that period, MS or an OEM made it sensitive
to relative file positions).  Doing an image backup has always seemed to
work though, up to W2k anyway.  The catch is that you have to restore to
the same size partition (or close, differences probably depending on the
cluster size) as the one you backed up from.

4) To restore after booting knoppix, just mount the partition as you normally
would, and reverse "if" and "of" parameters from what they were for the
backup.


[1] There is now an alternative for ntfs support, which apparently uses
MS .dll support in an effort to yield reliable (?) write support.  The
name of the project escapes me at the moment.  ISTR having seen it on
sourceforge, if memory serves.

-- 
John Karns