fedora equivalent of recovery disk

[Paul Allen Newell]

Purposely top-posting .... this came in right as I sent my abandon email 
... let me read and reevaluate.

On 12/17/2011 8:42 PM, g wrote:
> On 12/18/2011 01:55 AM, Paul Allen Newell wrote:
> <>
>
>> The "why" was that I don't understand what failed the first two times so
>> I really don't know what I did different the last time ... but as you
>> said, I got the image and that's what matters
> -=-
>
> 8-)
>
> many things do not work 1st time, and if we spent time trying to figure
> it out after 1st failure, we would never get around to 2nd or 3rd time
> and success. ;)
>
> what would be to consider, now that you did get it to work 3rd time, can
> you make it work a 4th and 5th time?
>
> think about that one. :-)
>
>
>> I was hoping that you'd tell me I was doing something wrong as I was
>> pretty certain the end result would be deal with the bios so I can boot
>> from USB or alternative from Google (which seems to be pointing me to
>> Plop). I checked HP's bios updates and didn't see any update which
>> talked about "adding USB boot support", so I'm going to try the Plop
>> method -- hopefully I will be able to get the confirm that the USB is
>> good before I reinstall original OS for hardware repair.
> -=-
>
> *note - booting from usb will/may fail*.
>
> my bad. i failed to mention before:
>
> '/etc/fstab' is wrong, as are files in '/boot/' and '/boot/grub/grub.conf'.
> these files deal with system being on hdd, not usb.
>
> therefore, these files will need to be backed up and changed to boot from
> usb.
>
>
> as for plop, i am aware of it from looking it up when it was mentioned
> in another thread. i do not know more than having look at 'features'.
> i looked again and read a little further. if you can follow what is
> written, you should be able to boot usb.
>
> do consider this, when you boot usb, all you are going to prove is that
> you can boot. you will not be checking all files. only way to do that
> is to run a file by file comparison. for the time that would take, you
> could do a fresh install and configuration.
>
>
> ok, to deal with bios upgrade.
>
> does you bios boot show screens or a graphic banner?
>
> does bios have ability to show 'detail' screens during boot?
>
> if so, boot in that mode to see what is there. some will give an option
> of 'other' or something to that effect.
>
> also, during detail boot, watch to see who wrote bios, and note the
> number and year. you may need to go to them for new bios if new hp bios
> does not have usb boot option.
>
> hp may not note that later bios has usb boot, but if you pull latest for
> your system, and install it, you may find usb is there.
>
>
> it may be too late to make a 'count' check of files of 'clone' type backup
> to original because of your having possible changes to your hdd files that
> will not show on usb. you could use 'rsync' to update usb, but do be aware
> that that may or may not cause problems.
>
> *normally*, when you use a clone type or any of all the other good ways
> of making a backup, it will be good. only time i have every had a problem
> is when there was a faulty hdd or memory involved.
>
>
> before and after i make full backups, i run
>
>    ls -lRA>  path.00xx
>
> in root directory of original and then backup.
>
> then copy source's file to backup's root directory.
>
> for some strange reason, file size of the 2 have seldom been same, and if
> not, to make a quick check, i run a line count with 'wc' on both files;
>
>    wc -l path.0001>  wc-l.path.0001
>    wc -l path.0011>  wc-l.path.0011
>
> then view files for counts. if both are same, and usually are, great. if
> not, try a word count with '-w'.
>
>    wc -w path.0001>  wc-w.path.0001
>    wc -w path.0011>  wc-w.path.0011
>
> then view files for counts.
>
> run 'man wc' if not familiar with command.
>
>
> _if_ they both fail, you can find where by taking a longer time checking
> using 'diff';
>
>    diff path.0001 path.0011
>
> run 'man diff' if not familiar with command.
>
>
> now, here is a 'farm out' way and thought to check you usb files.
>
> on usb stick, backup '/etc/fstab', edit file to show usb as '/'.
>
> in any directory, as root user, run;
>
>    rpm -V *>  rpm-V.0001
>
> to verify all files.
>
> then with usb mounted;
>
>    chroot /mnt/usb/
>
> then run;
>
>    rpm -V *>  rpm-V.0011
>    exit
>
>    cp /mnt/usb/rpm-V.0011 .
>
> and verify the 2 files against each other.
>
> run 'man chroot' and 'man rpm' if not familiar with commands.
>
> *note* you may have to use 'info' instead of 'man'.
>
>
> above just might be easiest of all ways to check all system files.
>
>
> hth.
>
> 'crash time', t-minus 2 hours and counting. 8-D
>
> later.
>