Clone partition - PC-BSD Forums

btomza · #1 04-29-2010, 09:02 PM

Hi,

I am new with PC-BSD. Recently I installed PC-BSD 8 all works very well. So I want to clone some partitions to make a backup. I am seeing G4U it shound OK, but I am not sure, do you think that G4U is a good choice? could you recommend any better?

Thanks!

kmoore134 · #2 04-30-2010, 02:29 PM

Sure, g4u may work just fine, just depends upon what you want to do

Also, if you want "mirroring" take a look at the "gmirror" command which is standard in PC/FreeBSD

btomza · #3 04-30-2010, 05:17 PM

Hi!

Thanks by your comment. I will look "gmirror".

Specificly, I want create an image from a partition to restore in the future if I will be necesary.

When I install PC-BSD I create 4 partition, they are "/", "/usr", "/var", "swap", and "/data" (I don't remember exactly but I think that the partitions type is UFS-S (except swap of course)). So I would like create a image, for example, from: "/usr" and "/data" to restore in the future (in the case that I will broke something).

I used G4U to clone a disk, and it works very well, but when I want clone a partition; I had doubts. For example I use the G4U command "parts [disk]" to show the partitions but I only saw 2 not 4, maybe I don't know how to identify the partitions (so maybe I need read more about it) or maybe G4U don't identify the partitions correctly.

What do you think? maybe it doesn't make sense and I need take a new way.

Thanks!!

kmoore134 · #4 05-03-2010, 05:46 PM

I don't know enough about G4U to know how its partition stuff works, but
its probably just seeing the BSD primary partition, and then backing it
up, which includes /, /usr, /var, swap and /data :P

gmirror is an option, also maybe look into "life-preserver" in
applications -> system

It will let you do an rsync backup of the system to a remote server as well.

kderocks · #5 06-09-2010, 07:38 AM

Try using CloneZilla:
http://clonezilla.org/
Use the Debian-based version. The Ubuntu one breaks a lot. It can also save a part. to image and gzip/bzip2/lzo/lzma it.

thnewguy · #6 06-10-2010, 01:32 AM

I hope it's not sacriligous to talk up another OS here, but I have also used Clonezilla in small office environments and it works really well. The latest versions have great step-by-step options for backing up partitions or entire drives and I think they currently support FreeBSD file systems.

kderocks · #7 06-10-2010, 06:17 AM

It can also use dd to copy and could clone/image/compress any filesystem (even a cd if you want)

Fatmice · #8 06-10-2010, 08:49 AM

dd doesn't work very well with live system. Better to use dump.

kderocks · #9 06-12-2010, 12:40 AM

I mean ISO/UDF data/video/music discs, not bootable ones.