RE: To dd or to rsync, that's the question...
Use rsync if it's a working set of data, that is the data changes regularly and you want to keep everything in sync. Otherwise DD for speed! -Original Message- From: fedora-list-boun...@redhat.com [mailto:fedora-list- boun...@redhat.com] On Behalf Of Dan Thurman Sent: 01 December 2009 18:02 To: Fedora Users Subject: To dd or to rsync, that's the question... Which is the preferred backup solution? As it seems, when I use rsync to copy data from disk1 partitionX over to disk2 partition X, I noticed that if one uses Fedora Selinux, one has to touch /.autorelabel for that partition. It seems to work, except in cases where the UUID is being hard-wired especially with HAL devices and I started noticing it in cases where xorg devices are sometimes spitting out errors showing UUID devices, and crashes Nautilus but recovers and it does this almost every time the system is rebooted into Fedora. On the other hand, if one decides to use dd instead, does this preserve the UUID of the devices including that of the disk partition and it should work perfectly even without the use of /.autorelabel? I am trying to get data off of disk1 which is failing (via smartd) and wish to use the correct backup and restore method getting the data off of disk1 onto disk2 without integrity loss, whatever that means. In the case of dd, it falls flat, if there are sector errors and this would not work, as in my case - so backup programs that do byte copy would perhaps also fail. This was the reason I was forced to use rsync in order to get the data copied over (with errors: I had two files corrupted and I assumed that a reinstall of the OS would pickup the missing pieces) so this leads to Vista as follows on this case, however, I experimented on another system using dd and Vista, it seems to make no difference at all when trying to 'upgrade' or reinstall the OS on top of the existing OS. I noticed that dd was the only solution for XP and it works, on the other hand it does not work for Vista. What I did in the Vista case was to rsync the Vista partition to disk2/Vista partition, bootrec /fixBoot, set active (boot) to the drive2/Vista partition and completely reinstall Vista (because I could not figure out how to 'update' instead of Install as the Update was greyed out), and in doing it this way, the Vista/DVD seemed to recognize the partition as such, but moved the contents to windows.old and proceeded to complete the installation. Of course, this means a complete manual reinstall of 3rd party software and user profile, a royal pain in the a$$. Interestingly though, it appears that one does not need to reactivate the license, and I have yet to see it being asked for. Any pointers/advice is appreciated! Kind regards, Dan -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: To dd or to rsync, that's the question...
On 09-12-01 13:01:47, Dan Thurman wrote: Which is the preferred backup solution? ... I am trying to get data off of disk1 which is failing (via smartd) and wish to use the correct backup and restore method getting the data off of disk1 onto disk2 without integrity loss, whatever that means. You don't seem to be doing a backup, but rather making a copy of an existing drive. You should probably do that and then also make a backup some other way. To copy a disk, I always use dd and then expand the last partition as needed (it's usually LVM2, so I then expand some of the LVs). The disk I usually do this to has WinXP (and Win98) as well as Linux /boot and LVM2 partitions. In the case of dd, it falls flat, if there are sector errors and this would not work, as in my case - so backup programs that do byte copy would perhaps also fail. ... ddrescue -- TonyN.:' mailto:tonynel...@georgeanelson.com ' http://www.georgeanelson.com/ -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: To dd or to rsync, that's the question...
Tony Nelson wrote: On 09-12-01 13:01:47, Dan Thurman wrote: Which is the preferred backup solution? ... I am trying to get data off of disk1 which is failing (via smartd) and wish to use the correct backup and restore method getting the data off of disk1 onto disk2 without integrity loss, whatever that means. You don't seem to be doing a backup, but rather making a copy of an existing drive. You should probably do that and then also make a backup some other way. To copy a disk, I always use dd and then expand the last partition as needed (it's usually LVM2, so I then expand some of the LVs). The disk I usually do this to has WinXP (and Win98) as well as Linux /boot and LVM2 partitions. In the case of dd, it falls flat, if there are sector errors and this would not work, as in my case - so backup programs that do byte copy would perhaps also fail. ... ddrescue I tried ddrescue and it seems to work, except that there was 4 errors reported. When I went to look at the mount, it seems to indicate that the partition was not readable, perhaps left in some unknown state. Are there any ddrescue options that I need to be aware of? The command I used was: ddrescue /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 I tried to go into a working OS (XP) and tried to use the chkdsk /F E: and it says that it could not locate the master tables and kills chkdsk. It also says it is not a NTFS partition either. This of course was on a Vista partition. Thanks- Dan -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: To dd or to rsync, that's the question...
On 09-12-01 17:12:12, Dan Thurman wrote: ... I tried ddrescue and it seems to work, except that there was 4 errors reported. When I went to look at the mount, it seems to indicate that the partition was not readable, perhaps left in some unknown state. Take a look at the ddrescue logfile. Are there any ddrescue options that I need to be aware of? The command I used was: ddrescue /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 info ddrescue Looks like you didn't make a logfile. I would have copied the entire drive, not just a partition. I tried to go into a working OS (XP) and tried to use the chkdsk /F E: and it says that it could not locate the master tables and kills chkdsk. It also says it is not a NTFS partition either. This of course was on a Vista partition. Again, RTM, esp. ch. 5. -- TonyN.:' mailto:tonynel...@georgeanelson.com ' http://www.georgeanelson.com/ -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
