rsync, vs Partimage, vs other backup

[Don Quixote de la Mancha]

I don't have any command line examples to give you, but I once used
PartImage and GParted to successfully migrate a three disk RAID 0 NTFS
filesystem on a Windows Small Business Server 2003 to a RAID 5.

My friend set up the RAID 0 in eager anticipation of blazingly fast
storage I/O, only later to realize that he had made the most important
computer in his whole business three times more likely to fail
unrecoverably.  He asked if I could change it to a RAID 5 somehow.

I used GParted to resize the filesystem so that it was definitely
smaller than the eventual RAID 5 would be.  I then used PartImage to
image the NTFS filesystem into a file on a large FireWire drive.  I
used the RAID controller's BIOS to reconfigure the RAID 0 to be a RAID
5, then used PartImage to restore the filesystem from the FireWire
drive onto the RAID.  Finally I used GParted once again to grow the
filesystem to use all of the available space.

And it actually worked!  I was so dumbfounded.  Our Dear Friend
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 did not appear to notice
anything had happened at all.

As an added benefit, my friend was left with a full backup on that
FireWire drive.

Mike
-- 
Don Quixote de la Mancha
quixote at dulcineatech.com
http://www.dulcineatech.com

   Dulcinea Technologies Corporation: Software of Elegance and Beauty.