http://askubuntu.com/questions/19901/how-to-make-a-disk-image-and-restore-from-it-later

How to make a disk image and restore from it later?

up vote 49 down vote favorite 30

I'm a new Linux user. I've reinstalled my Wubi from scratch at least ten times the last few weeks because while getting the system up and running (drivers, resolution, etc.) I've broken something (X, grub, unknowns) and I can't get it back to work. Especially for a newbie like me, it's easier (and much faster) to just reinstall the whole shebang than try to troubleshoot several layers of failed "fixing" attempts. Coming from Windows, I expect that there is some "disk image" utility that I can run to make a snapshot of my Linux install (and of the boot partition!!) before I meddle with stuff. Then, after I've foobar'ed my machine, I would somehow restore my machine back to that working snapshot. What's the Linux equivalent of Windows disk imagers like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost? Note: I found a similar question here. backup shareimprove this question edited Jan 15 at 21:34 Braiam 22.4k124084 asked Jan 3 '11 at 20:07 Torben Gundtofte-Bruun 2,30883969

Torben, under the Wubi folder (usually C:\UBUNTU, but may be some other drive & folder), you'll find not only the loopback disk images created for your Ubuntu install, but also some other important files (like the Wubi loader). Sorry if it's a guess, but I think it's an educated one. ;-) Maybe ('cause I really have never tried - sorry - but wouldn't hurt if you try it - I would) if you backup that folder while the system is in a good state, you can take Wubi back by replacing the good state over the non-functional one. –  Charles Roberto Canato Jan 3 '11 at 20:34 Please post this as an answer, because it sounds like a good way, specifically for Wubi installations! After my last fubar I installed a "real" Ubuntu, not Wubi, so this little trick will go into my drawer for next time I find myself in that spot. –  Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 3 '11 at 20:47 You can just copy the files and the master boot record (freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/…) and you'll be fine. –  con-f-use Aug 16 '12 at 11:45 What do you mean? Can you please explan. I need thoes packages and files also. –  BigSack Aug 16 '12 at 11:46 add comment

9 Answers

active oldest votes

up vote 29 down vote accepted	It's Clonezilla Live: http://clonezilla.org/ The tutorial for Clonezilla can be found here. shareimprove this answer edited Oct 6 '12 at 14:02 Mochan 1,19621130 answered Jan 3 '11 at 20:22 user8290
	+1 Safer way of doing it. dd is little dangerous to use. –  N Bhargav Jun 6 at 11:04 add comment

up vote 36 down vote

dd is the low level utility that you can use to accomplish this task, it essentially a low level byte-for-byte copy utility. If you want the "UNIX" way of accomplishing this, then read on. All references to the file system and hard disks are located locally on the virtual /dev/ filesystem. There are a multitude of "nodes" in /dev/ that are interfaces to almost all the devices on your computer. For example, /dev/hda or /dev/sda would refer to the first hard drive in your system (hda vs sda depends on the hard drive), and /dev/hda1 would refer to the first partition on your hardrive. The most straight forward way to make a raw image of your partitions is to use dd to dump the entire partition to a single file (remember the OS access the partitions /dev/sda1 through a file interface). Make sure you are on a larger partition or on a secondary drive and perform the following command dd if=/dev/hda1 of=./part1.image to backup(repeat for different partitions) dd if=./part1.image of=/dev/hda1 to restore You can use the exact same command to backup the entire hard disk (replace hda1 with hda). You can then use any compression program (gunzip, zip, bzip) to compress the file for storage. You can use this same technique to make rote copies of entire partitions to make clones of your computer. There is one limitation though, when restoring the backup, the partition needs to be the same size as the partition you took the image from, so this limits your options in case of a restore. However, you can always expand the partition after you've restored the backup using gparted or parted. The picture gets even muddier when you are trying to restore entire disk copies, however, if you are restoring the backup to the same exact hardrive you don't need to worry about this at all. However, if you want a "friendlier" utility ala norton ghost then this suggestion might not be for you. shareimprove this answer answered Jan 3 '11 at 20:44 crasic 1,3931718

2   I almost expected there to be a built-in tool for this, but I also expected that tool to be ... not-so-noob-friendly :-) This is probably a good solution, once I get more Linux experience. –  Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 3 '11 at 20:56 Also check out ddrescue. Maybe with SystemRescueCd. –  webwurst Jan 25 '13 at 9:30 Will dd work if I need to take a snapshot of a virtual machine and install it on another virtual machine? What if some files (like /etc/hostname) have to be different on both machines? –  Thomas Jan 29 '13 at 15:20 @Thomas for virual machine images you better use corresponding VM Manager built-in functionality e.g. Export image in Virtual Box. –  tommyk Aug 19 '13 at 12:07 Does the restoring hdd has to be of same size? What if I make image of a 80gb disk and dump it on a 100gb one? –  Bibhas Sep 18 '13 at 14:27 show 1 more comment

up vote 6 down vote

The "dump" and "restore" backup utilities in the Ubuntu repositories provide you with the ability to backup and recover an entire system's "system state". The "dump" and "restore" utilities can be installed from the repositories using: sudo apt-get install dump Below are links to the Man pages: ⠀Dump ⠀Restore In your case, you could backup the system to a portable drive: dump -0uan -f my_file / For recovery you would need to: Boot from your Ubuntu live CD/DVD/USB. Install the dump utility. Mount your hard drive. Restore (i.e. restore -r -f my_file /my_mount). Note: If you are restoring to a new disk you will need to install your bootloader (GRUB). More information can be found at Move linux to another hard drive (dump, restore, backup) shareimprove this answer edited Jun 6 at 13:17 karel 6,91171728 answered Aug 15 '12 at 6:20 Sparky 23623

How to restore from this if i fail to login to my ubuntu? –  BigSack Aug 15 '12 at 6:21 here is the process for recovering, or moving, a system using the dump and restore commands as above. linuxscrew.com/2007/08/13/… –  Sparky Aug 15 '12 at 6:33 @virtual.stack - the answers would sound much better if you may provide a little how to on taking and restoring backups , using this method :) –  tijybba Aug 15 '12 at 6:48 @tijybba - Sorry, I have updated the response. Please let me know if this is now clearer. Regards. –  Sparky Aug 15 '12 at 7:04 While I am a fan of dump, it is not an image based backup. –  psusi Apr 21 at 14:54 add comment

up vote 3 down vote	You can do exactly what you need using CloneZilla shareimprove this answer answered Aug 16 '12 at 11:46 Mitch♦ 37.1k860106
	Does it clone, my 320gb Hardrive on my 8gb pendrive? –  BigSack Aug 16 '12 at 11:49 1   It should. Since you said that your total installation size is only 500mb. –  Mitch♦ Aug 16 '12 at 12:36 add comment

up vote 2 down vote

There also Ghost for Linux, but Clonezilla is the better option - it's more up to date. The latest version of Ghost for Linux is listed May 2009, while Clonezilla's latest version was posted in November 2010. One minor limitation of Clonezilla compared to Ghost is that you can't resize the partition on restore, while Norton Ghost can. You probably won't need it, but Clonezilla also supports multicasting. shareimprove this answer answered Jan 3 '11 at 20:38 Scaine 6,24911543

add comment

up vote 2 down vote

Using "Dump" and "Restore" is one solution, as indicated by virtual.stack. However you might be interested in using Clonezilla if you have an external USB hard disk drive or a NAS. You just have to download an ISO image by clicking here (you can access the global download page here), burn it with "Brasero". Boot from Clonezilla Live CD and perform a backup (disk or partition to image) of your main hard disk drive (with your healthy Ubuntu). Please note that you can't backup the partition you have mounted as backup destination (quite logical). If your system is broken, you just have to boot again with Clonezilla Live CD and perform a restore of your system. Don't forget that Clonezilla makes snapshots, so if you have your data ("/home", "/etc", ...) on the same disk/partition as Ubuntu system, you'll get back the one from the backup and loose what has been done since that backup was performed... You can find a tutorial for Clonezilla Live here : How to Use Clonezilla - Tutorial You can also use "Back In Time (backintime-gnome)" (available from Ubuntu Software Center) or else (Déjà Dup, ...) alongside to get a backup of your data. You just have to include ("/home", "/etc", "/var", "/usr/local", ...) in the backup profile. Like that you can get back your healthy system with Clonezilla and then your latest data with "Back In Time" or else.