System backup using <dd>
I have a 60GB HDD in Acer 2300, Ubuntu 12.04(non-PAE) beta. It is partitioned as sda1-58GB, and sda2-2GB, subbed into sda5 2GB swap file.
I want to use dd to backup sda1 to an external USB 1TB expansion storage drive, identified by DiskUtility as /dev/sdb I created a folder on the expansion drive to receive the dump: DiskDump04Ju15 I write: <sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb/DiskDump04Jun15> The return is: dd: opening `/dev/sdb/DiskDump04Jun15': Not a directory How do I use dd to create the image in another drive? Thank you so much, seabag |
First you say you want to backup sda1, but you're attempting to back up the entire drive - including swap. Can be done, but it pays to know exactly what you want to do with backups.
Next I suspect the external drive is partitioned, so the "of" should probably be referencing /dev/sdb1. Let's see the output from this Code:
lsblk -o +LABEL -l |
The output is: 2300:~$ lsblk -o +LABEL -l
lsblk: unknown column: +LABEL You are right about the sda ambiguity. I want to backup /dev/sda. Backin up sda1 would probably suffice since sda2 only contains a swap file. I have not partitioned the external drive. I have been using it to save files only. Am I in a mess? |
No mess - yet :p
I don't use Ubuntu, so try it as "lsblk -l" |
If you want to store the image on an existing filesystem on the external drive you will need to mount it somewhere (like /mnt/external/ or such) and invoke dd something like
Code:
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/mnt/external/DiskDump04Jun15/sda1.dd.img |
@ syg00 - output 2300:~$ lsblk -l
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda 8:0 0 55.9G 0 disk sda1 8:1 0 53.9G 0 part / sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part sda5 8:5 0 2G 0 part [SWAP] sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom sdb 8:16 0 1.8T 0 disk sdb1 8:17 0 1.8T 0 part /media/Seagate Expansion Drive |
@ descendant_command:
-2300:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/media/sdb1/DiskDump04Ju15/sda1.dd.img dd: opening `/media/sdb1/DiskDump04Ju15/sda1.dd.img': No such file or directory 2300:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1/DiskDump04Ju15/sda1.dd.img dd: opening `/dev/sdb1/DiskDump04Ju15/sda1.dd.img': Not a directory I think we are very close. I try to make a directory on the expansion drive: joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:~$ cd /media joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/media$ ls Seagate Expansion Drive joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/media$ cd Seagate Expansion Drive bash: cd: Seagate: No such file or directory |
I am getting confused about what is the difference between a folder, e.g. create a new folder, and a Directory, e.g. mkdir.
Is a folder a directory? Is it two names for the same thing? |
Quote:
Unix uses directories, as did MSDOS, then MSWindows started calling them folders, so now 2 names for the same thing. :) |
Question: Why do you want to back up with dd, would it not be easier to use tar (or maybe rsync); do you want copies of your files or your disk?
I suspect tar (& gzip) is what you really want to use. ;) |
Quote:
Code:
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/mnt/DiskDump04Jun15 bs=1M |
joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/media$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/sdb1/
dd: opening `/sdb1/': Is a directory joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/media$ cd /sdb1 bash: cd: /sdb1: No such file or directory joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/media$ cd /sdb1/ bash: cd: /sdb1/: No such file or directory |
@ Fatmac Thanks for the references! Also you have tweaked an idea: perhaps I should be doing all this from a live CD; that way I will not be mounted on sda1? What I am trying to accomplish is an image file of my computer, or at least sda1. This computer is ten years old, a broken XP, that was donated to me after a devastating house robbery. I wiped the disk and installed Unbuntu and I have no backup other than personal files like music and documents that I have moved into folders on the backup drive (2T, USB.)
It has taken a long time to set up 12.04-nonPAE. (I have gone through various ver. of Ubuntu) I have resolved several HW issues and I want to save this work in the event of a disk failure. I will put in a live CD and go through this routine again! :-) |
Things seem to be going from bad to worse. I have lost the ability to mount the external USB HDD. I tried and some syntax variations:
joseph@joseph-TravelMate-2300:/etc$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /media ntfs-3g: Failed to access volume '/dev/sdb1': No such file or directory ntfs-3g 2012.1.15AR.1 external FUSE 28 - Third Generation NTFS Driver Configuration type 7, XATTRS are on, POSIX ACLS are on Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Yura Pakhuchiy Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Szabolcs Szakacsits Copyright (C) 2007-2011 Jean-Pierre Andre Copyright (C) 2009 Erik Larsson Usage: ntfs-3g [-o option[,...]] <device|image_file> <mount_point> Options: ro (read-only mount), remove_hiberfile, uid=, gid=, umask=, fmask=, dmask=, streams_interface=. Please see the details in the manual (type: man ntfs-3g). Example: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows News, support and information: http://tuxera.com It did not mount; but what has happened is that lsblk now shows that the external drive is seen as sdc, no longer sdb! I feel like the shit is getting deeper. I just want to make an image file of sda1 onto an external drive. I did this a long time ago with Windows7 onto this same external drive. It was a three button event. There must be some way to do it in Linux. |
Yesterday I could mount the external HDD from GUI file manager. Today I cannot.
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