rsync or dd to clone a hard drive?

Michael D. Setzer II mikes at kuentos.guam.net
Fri Oct 8 20:14:14 UTC 2010


On 8 Oct 2010 at 8:52, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:

Date sent:      	Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:52:27 -0700
From:           	"Daniel B. Thurman" <dant at cdkkt.com>
To:             	users at lists.fedoraproject.org
Subject:        	Re: rsync or dd to clone a hard drive?

Cut --

Good Questions..

> 1) How does 4GL compare with Clonezilla?

The one version seems similar to what g4l does with the cd running, where 
the bigger version has a database system that needs to be setup.

The one big difference is that g4l has a number of kernels on the cd image, 
since some hardware requires the latest kernels, and other hardware works 
with older version. So the user can boot from various kernels to find one that 
works with there hardware. I even have a method that can be used to add it 
to an ntfs partition to boot via grub4dos. 

As a side note, it seems at least for downloads the vast number of users are 
using windows for the download? About 200 - 300 per day.

> 
> 2) Why aren't "backup/restore/image/clone" programs such as (1) above
>     integrated into LiveCDs that have most the Linux core, GUI, Network,
> ...,
>     support?

I believe both the smaller version of clonezilla and g4l are included on parted 
magic live cd? The g4l script can also be downloaded, and if the support 
programs are there, it can be run from various cds. Have in the past made 
packages that included the script and some programs that distro live cds 
didn't include. Did that for knoppix and finnix, and these same ones worked 
with others. 

G4L can backup and restore LVM partitions, but currently can not mount 
them directly. It can use LVM partitions thru the ftp to store images on LVM 
partitions. 

> 
> 
> For the moment, I use rsync for linux copy/clones/moves from
> source to target partitions for the same hardware, and it works.
> 
>      I do these steps:
> 
>      (1) Boot with LiveCD
> 
>      (2) # rsync -ahHAX <source> <target>
> 
>          Notes:
>          (a) Optionally add 'z' argument if you want compression and
>              add 'v' if you want to see verbosity at the expense of transfer
>              speed.
>          (b) Abruptly stopped?  No problem, run the above command again.
>          (c) <source> and/or <target> can be remote devices but they have
>              to be mounted. The <source> ought not be an active running
>              OS, can be mounted to /mnt via LiveCD. The hardware for the
>              <source> & <target> ought to be exactly the same if one expects
>              the <target> OS to be bootable after transfer has
> completed.  I have
>              done this with (a) remote backup source to target and (b)
> between
>              two identical laptops transfers via LiveCD on both, and it
> works.
>          (d) I have not tried to create an rsync "image".  If it were
> possible
>              to create an rsync "image" with with FULL
> acls/permissions/..., how
>              would it be possible to perform an rsync "restore"?
>              I have not tried this.
> 

The disk and partition images are bit level backups, and so full filesystem is 
saved. Exception is NTFSCLONE backups of ntfspartitions, which are file 
only backups.  Also, since it is a bit level backup, pre-clearing of unused 
space makes the size of images much smaller. 

>      (3) Setting MBR on boot or / (boot integrated) partitions:
>          # grub
>               find /grub/stage1 (or /grub/grub.cfg)
>               root (hX,Y)
>               setup (hX,Y)
>               quit
> 

G4L can backup the MBR and partition table separately, or  include it in a full 
disk image.

>      (4) # touch /.autorelabel; reboot     (for SELinux)
> 

Bit level makes all this the same. 

Thanks for the questions.

In conclussion, G4L is a tool to do disk and partition images, as contrasted to 
file level backups.


> FWIW,
> Dan
> 
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+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor      
  Guam Community College  Computer Center                  
  mailto:mikes at kuentos.guam.net                            
  mailto:msetzerii at gmail.com
  http://www.guam.net/home/mikes
  Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
  G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+----------------------------------------------------------+

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