Creating Image

[Dan]

Jim Douglas wrote:

> I want to create an image of my current FC server for quick restore.
>
> I have a USB  drive.
>
> What command do I use to format the USB drive?
>
> What command should I use to create the image?
>
> What command will I use to restore?
>
> Jim

To create an exact copy of a partition, providing you create a partition 
of the exact same or larger size on the USB drive:
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/sda1 bs=16M
where /dev/hda1 is the partition you wish to back up and /dev/sda1 is 
the backup partition. To restore, simply switch the parameters used for 
of and if.
To create a file containing an image of the partition, use the same 
command, but for of=, simply name a location on a mounted partition that 
has enough room (and is ext3 or some other filesystem that can handle 
large enough files):
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/mnt/backup/backup1.bak bs=16M
Again, the reverse to restore it.
Note, read through man dd and be absolutely sure the command you are 
inputting is correct, dd can be a very dangerous tool. Also, do not dd a 
mounted partition.
-Dan