| Christopher Barry on 25 May 2016 16:38:00 -0700 |
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| Re: [PLUG] Backing up recovery partitions to a USB device, making bootable |
Agreed. You can even pipe this through netcat to another host. https://www.ndchost.com/wiki/server-administration/netcat-over-ssh a nice comparison of netcat vs. ssh for this type of thing. If your on your secure home lan, netcat's the way to go. Sending it a cloud host, use ssh. -C On Wed, 25 May 2016 15:28:52 -0400 "Paul W. Roach III" <paul@isaroach.com> wrote: >Why not just dd if=/source/partition of=outputfile.img > >You could store that image anywhere (dvd, external disk, crashplan, >whatever) and if you ever need it, you just create an empty partition >and do dd if=outputfile.img of=/new/partition > >On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 8:31 AM, Keith C. Perry ><kperry@daotechnologies.com> wrote: > >> I also use a different approach for myself and clients. When I get >> a new type of system in I take an image of it with qemu-img and put >> it aside. I build up the system and before I deploy it I sysprep it >> and then take a another image of it with qemu-img. >> >> The advantage here is that now I have a generalized **portable** >> windows system image that I can use to restore a system when it has >> become compromised or in the worst case becomes locked by >> ransomeware. >> >> This is process I do once a year for myself on my netbook (a dual >> booted system with Windows and Linux). This same image can be used >> in virtualization as well- good for testing things in a sandbox. >> >> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ >> Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. >> Owner, DAO Technologies LLC >> (O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 >> (M) +1.215.432.5167 >> www.daotechnologies.com >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Steve Litt" <slitt@troubleshooters.com> >> To: plug@lists.phillylinux.org >> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 9:02:15 PM >> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Backing up recovery partitions to a USB device, >> making bootable >> >> On Tue, 24 May 2016 20:34:16 -0400 >> Greg Helledy <gregsonh@gra-inc.com> wrote: >> >> > My new Dell 2-in-1 naturally didn't come with any recovery CDs. >> > What it did come with are two partitions at the "end" of the 128 >> > GB SSD. Both are NTFS, one is 450 MB with a label of WINRETOOLS >> > and one is 10.79GB with a label of Image. >> > >> > I want to get these off the SSD and onto a USB drive to free up >> > over 11 GB of space before I partition the drive yet more and try >> > to squeeze another OS onto it (the SSD came with a total of 5 >> > partitions). >> >> [snip the known problem that Windows sux] >> >> > I guess I need to put a bootloader on the USB? I looked into doing >> > that with System Recovery CD but the directions focus on chroot, >> > under the assumption that you have a working linux install on the >> > drive you want to install GRUB on. Is it possible to install GRUB >> > on a drive that doesn't have linux on it? How could I do that? >> > >> > Or am I doing this wrong, is there a better way to make the drive >> > bootable? >> >> I'd take a different approach in two different ways. >> >> First, I wouldn't trust a USB drive with something as important as >> restore partitions long term. I'd burn them to a DVD, kept out of the >> light, well protected from humidity and extreme temperatures. It's >> cool to copy them to USB on the way to burning to DVD, but make sure >> no bits are flipped in the transition (md5sum or similar). >> >> Second, the technique I'd use to back up the restore partitions would >> be that I'd boot System Rescue CD, >> ( https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage ) using CD >> or DVD media, to achieve the backup. I'd use ddrescue to back up the >> two restore partitions, and also back up the partition table, which >> would be the first 512 bytes of an MBR booting disk (/dev/sda), or a >> larger amount of a UEFI booting disk. I have a program to tell how >> much to back up, but the program's not ready for prime time. My >> experience tells me that 10MB would be more than enough, and since >> you'd be restoring from scratch anyway, no worry if it overwrites >> stuff. >> >> I'd also put some instructions on the restore DVD telling how to >> restore from the restore partitions. On some computers you just >> press a physical button. On others, you go into the "bios" and >> select "restore from restore partition". On others, you need to have >> a running Windows OS, which of course would present you with a >> buried shovel. >> >> With the stuff stored safely on a DVD, the restore would be to boot >> to a System Rescue CD CD, lay down the backed up first 10MB >> of /dev/sda, then then ddrescue the backed up partitions back to >> their newly made counterpart partitions on /dev/sda. I'm pretty sure >> that would work although I only did it once, a long time ago. >> >> I'm not guaranteeing that would work, but that's what I'd do. >> >> SteveT >> >> Steve Litt >> May 2016 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century >> http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21 >> ___________________________________________________________________________ >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- >> http://www.phillylinux.org >> Announcements - >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce >> General Discussion -- >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> ___________________________________________________________________________ >> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- >> http://www.phillylinux.org >> Announcements - >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce >> General Discussion -- >> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> -- Regards, Christopher ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug