You are not logged in.

#1 2011-08-09 22:09:15

bsilvereagle
Member
Registered: 2011-03-29
Posts: 42

[SOLVED]Backing Up Extended Partitions

I need to restore my Win 7 install which will reset my drive to the state Windows was in when I created the restore image - pre Arch.
All of my Linux partitions (/home /swap /boot FAT32 data) are in an extended partition, /dev/sda4.
I can use dd to backup each individual partition to an external drive, but I think that is error prone. dd will not copy /dev/sda4 and the partitions it encompasses (sda5-sda8).
I stumbled upon

sfdisk -d /dev/sda4 > backup-sda.sfdisk

but I believe it just backs up the partition table and not the actual partitions and data.
Any insights or utilites that might be easier then dd'ing each individual partition and restoring that way? I'm worried about preserving swap, etc.

Last edited by bsilvereagle (2011-08-10 21:04:08)


Vaio F11: i7-720 QM  | 8 GB RAM | Nvidia GT330m
Windows 7 | openSuse 11.4 KDE | Arch Linux e17/KDE

Offline

#2 2011-08-09 23:27:07

firecat53
Member
From: Lake Stevens, WA, USA
Registered: 2007-05-14
Posts: 1,542
Website

Re: [SOLVED]Backing Up Extended Partitions

Sounds like a good job for fsarchiver! It will save whatever partitions you tell it to, then restore them to another partition when you're ready. It'll put all 4 partitions in the same file if you want.

Scott

Offline

#3 2011-08-09 23:38:47

bsilvereagle
Member
Registered: 2011-03-29
Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED]Backing Up Extended Partitions

Thanks Scott, that's exactly what I need.


Vaio F11: i7-720 QM  | 8 GB RAM | Nvidia GT330m
Windows 7 | openSuse 11.4 KDE | Arch Linux e17/KDE

Offline

#4 2011-08-09 23:41:51

ozar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2005-02-18
Posts: 1,686

Re: [SOLVED]Backing Up Extended Partitions

Ditto the fsarchiver suggestion... I've used it hundreds of times and never a single failure with the backup or the restoration effort.


oz

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB