Re: [rdiff-backup-users] still the problem to backup linux system to windows

[Dominic Raferd]

Wei, Xiaohai wrote:
> I want to backup a whole linux system to windows for restoring the 
> system from windows to linux later.
>
> I successfully installed native rdiff-backup on windows xp and it can 
> backup linux data to windows folder.
> But it seems failed if there is symlink in the linux system. Error 
> information attached at the end.
>
> I want to know:
> 1. I want to backup all the information of the linux system to windows 
> and so i can restore the OS(not only data) to linux later. I think the 
> information includes user/group/permission etc. At first i want to use 
> rsync to do so but found rsync can not do it. and I found that 
> rdiff-backup will use meta-data to keep such information, so I assume 
> it can do so. correct me if I am wrong.
>
> 2. If i can get what I need with rdiff-backup, what should I do?
>
> Thanks, James
I don't believe rdiff-backup is able to do this on its own; rdiff-backup 
suits a situation in which you want to backup data (not whole system) 
and to do so repeatedly (e.g. day after day), and be able to recover 
data from earlier backups as well as from the latest one. Even if 
rdiff-backup can backup your whole system it cannot easily restore it. 
To restore a system you need to be able to boot up in a temporary OS, do 
the partitioning and formatting of the (new) system disk etc etc (and 
then copy all the system files and data), rdiff-backup is not designed 
to do this.

If you want to backup a whole linux system for easy restoring, then I 
suggest you look at a package designed for this purpose. I use mondo 
http://www.mondorescue.org - and it doesn't need Windows. You can create 
a backup on a flash drive, take this to a different machine, boot it and 
restore your old system to the new hardware. It offers differential 
backups, but not the 'history' magic that is rdiff-backup's special trick.

I suggest you use both: mondo to backup your system (excluding your own 
data files, because these may be too big for a flash disk), and then 
rdiff-backup [over a network to another machine] for your data files. 
mondo only needs to be run occasionally, rdiff-backup you should run 
frequently (e.g. as daily cron job). When disaster strikes, use mondo to 
recover your system and then rdiff-backup to recover your data. And of 
course if you need the data from one week or one month or even one year 
ago, rdiff-backup will oblige.

HTH

Dominic