Arch Linux

FrancisArcher_60

Member

Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 58

Triying to restore a physical disk image into a VM

I followed the wiki to use the dd command to made a disk image where I have my usual Arch installation. I booted an Arch ISO from USB drive and I created the image with:

dd if=/dev/sda conv=sync,noerror bs=64M status=progress | lz4 -z  > /path/to/backup.img.lz4

With this I didn't have problem, I have the disk image. But now I wanted to test it. Using Oracle VirtualBox, I created a Arch VM and booting install medium to restore the disk from the image:

lz4 -dc /path/to/backup.img.lz4 | dd of=/dev/sda status=progress

Now the issue is that booting the exiting SO in the VM result in the black screen with the 'Booting...' constantly without start the SO. At least I know that the partitions were created, I tried to mount them in the install medium in the VM but I have these error:

[  128.253108] EXT4-fs error (device sda2): ext4_find_extent:938: inode #8: comm mount: pblk 30965759 bad header/extent: invalid magic - magic 0, entries 0, max 0(0), depth 0(0)
[  128.287108] jbd2_journal_init_inode; Cannot locate journal superblock
[  128.287161] EXT4-fs (sda2): Could not load journal inode
mount: /mnt: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda2, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

Is this related with .vdi format? I need to convert my image or something to restore it in a virtual disk? Also in /dev/, the partitions appears with a pound: sda#, sda1#, sda2#, this matters?

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,644

Re: Triying to restore a physical disk image into a VM

Your image might be corrupt if there were read errors: https://superuser.com/a/1075837/195171

Use ddrescue instead of sync noerror.

Also the disk must not be mounted, in use, written to while dd is running, otherwise inconsistencies / corruptions will inevitably occur.

FrancisArcher_60

Member

Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 58

Re: Triying to restore a physical disk image into a VM

How can mount a partition of a USB drive that are running the live ISO?