Gnost - backup, restore, copy NTFS, ext, FAT partitions

[mfb]

Hi again,

(1) With both flash sticks inserted (i.e. the one you booted from and the one you want to copy it to) open a terminal and type
partview
then take a screen shot of the output window and post it here (or retype the details).

(2) Then in your terminal type
gparted
and advise (with screen shots or typing) how both the sticks (and, if applicable, any partitions each may have) are formatted.

My final instructions will be simple and I anticipate you will be pleased with the outcome.

[s243a]

[Edit] Project withdrawn due to lack of community interest.

-------------------------

Was there links in this post to the software. If so I don't think that lack of interest was a good reason to remove them.

[rcrsn51]

Gnost v3.8 is posted on the first page.

I will leave it for a month. If it does not generate enough useful response, I will withdraw it.

[mfb]

Hi rcrsn51,

Thank you for reinstating Gnost; although (to me) your instructions seemed complicated your screen shot looked pleasingly uncomplicated.

So here are my screen shots of my (easily actioned) test run - which yielded a perfect and quick result. So - thank you again.

My two previous posts in this thread (the penultimate post on page 3 and the first post on this page) were aimed at helping comcoco (prior to your reinstatement of Gnost); no disrespect to this thread was intended.

[rcrsn51]

Thank you for replying. But here is the real test.

1. Make an ext partition on another drive, like a flash drive.
2. Restore your image file back to that partition.
3. Compare with the original.

[davids45]

G'day rcrsn51,

I think I'm in a similar situation to Sylvander from a couple of years ago.

I have a ~12 year old desktop with original hard-drive that has the original XP.
I would like to have a backup for XP in case the hard-drive fails or the desktop fails.

Your directions (in the first post in this thread) for using gnost mention a Live-CD and a USB drive but the image could also be stored on "another partition on your main hard drive".

The XP partition (sda1) is just over 20GB 'used'. How big would you guess the compressed image would be? I only have 8GB thumb drives on hand or a 1TB backup USB drive that could do with some fiddling around.

However, the old desktop has been partitioned over the years to include a ~170GB data partition (ntfs, sda5) which has about 100GB free space. Could this ntfs partition be used for/as the backup?

Does the backup need to be an empty partition - reading your guide suggests not?

Also this computer has a dozen or so Pups installed in various ext partitions on this sda hard-drive. (Please see screenshot of GParted report for sda.)

There's also a small sdb drive in the desktop with more Pups, but also a defunct XP ntfs partition of about 10GB I could use for a image recovery test - if I get that far .

Most are pretty old Pups on this desktop now as this is not my main computer. I could add a newer one if gnost needs a later kernel (e.g. one starting with a 3 or 4).

But could I run gnost via the /opt files copied from one of these Pups to sda5 and save the sda1 XP image to the sda5 data partition?

Then I could copy off the XP image file to a separate device, now knowing how big the image file is.

And has anyone reported success in moving an old XP to a newer computer with gnost - I'm not sure precisely what Sylvander's hardware details were? Your warnings for trying this were not encouraging .

Thanks for any advice.

David S.

[rcrsn51]

I have a ~12 year old desktop with original hard-drive that has the original XP.
I would like to have a backup for XP in case the hard-drive fails or the desktop fails.

Your directions (in the first post in this thread) for using gnost mention a Live-CD and a USB drive but the image could also be stored on "another partition on your main hard drive".

If you are worried about hard-drive-failure, then saving the backup image on the same hard drive is a BAD idea.

The XP partition (sda1) is just over 20GB 'used'. How big would you guess the compressed image would be?

I haven't checked my own XP images, but I'm guessing 12-15GB. The lzop compression in Gnost is optimized for speed over size. I doubt if 8GB is enough.

or a 1TB backup USB drive that could do with some fiddling around.

This is your obvious best choice for a backup drive, assuming that it is reliable. A drive that needs "fiddling around" is not.

Does the backup need to be an empty partition?

Definitely not. The whole idea is that you can keep many backup images on the same drive.

Also this computer has a dozen or so Pups installed in various ext partitions on this sda hard-drive. (Please see screenshot of GParted report for sda.)

That's what Gnost does. They are small enough to back up to your flash drive.

Most are pretty old Pups on this desktop now as this is not my main computer. I could add a newer one if gnost needs a later kernel (e.g. one starting with a 3 or 4)

.
Gnost doesn't care about the kernel, only that the lzop compression tool works in the Puppy on which you are running Gnost.

If this is a problem, just boot the computer off the CD of a Puppy where you know Gnost works. I keep the lzop PET on the backup drive with the Gnost files so I can install it on-the-fly.

But could I run gnost via the /opt files copied from one of these Pups to sda5 and save the sda1 XP image to the sda5 data partition? Then I could copy off the XP image file to a separate device, now knowing how big the image file is.

That should work. But if you have a "separate device", why not use it in the first place?

And has anyone reported success in moving an old XP to a newer computer with gnost - I'm not sure precisely what Sylvander's hardware details were? Your warnings for trying this were not encouraging.

This is a Windows issue. It is fussy about moving to a different hardware platform.

[davids45]

G'day rcrsn51,

Thanks for the point-by-point reply.

I've tinkered with my 1TB USB drive to give myself a 75GB ntsf partition with over 40GB free. So that should hold the image of the ~20GB XP.

Just for the experience, I've already copied the sda1 XP into this from the old desktop, so the USB-to-old-desktop connection is good.

And I'll use a Live-CD of a recent Pup for my first try with gnost.

I'll report back once completed , or compromised .

David S.

[rcrsn51]

I've tinkered with my 1TB USB drive to give myself a 75GB ntsf partition with over 40GB free. So that should hold the image of the ~20GB XP.

I don't understand. Why format it as NTFS? Gnost is a Linux app. The preferred format for storing backup images is ext.

Just for the experience, I've already copied the sda1 XP into this from the old desktop, so the USB-to-old-desktop connection is good.

???? Copied it how? From XP? From another Puppy? File-by-file?

And I'll use a Live-CD of a recent Pup for my first try with gnost.

If you were already booted in Puppy, why not use Gnost with it?

[davids45]

G'day rcrsn51,

I ran your gnost following your first-post instructions and all went well by the looks of things.

The image file came out as ~17GB from the ~24GB XP partition so it's about a 70% compression.

I didn't use your lzop pet, just what came with the PrecisePup on the CD. Busybox was mentioned during the image process so I expect it may have been quicker with your lzop - something to try next. It took about 15 minutes which is not a worry for me.

Regarding your questions in your last post:

The ntfs backup: My 1TB Usb drive came formatted in ntfs. I re-formatted this single partition into four; three new ext partitions and a remnant of the original left as ntfs. I have hardly used this remnant over the last few years so it was still pretty much empty and seemed a good place to put the first-try image. I did note an early comment of yours so thought I could add to the test 'extensiveness':

You can also use an NTFS partition as the backup location, if your USB drive is already formatted that way. (But this alternative has not received extensive testing.)

I still have the option to format this remnant ntfs to ext if it seems necessary. And knowing roughly how big the XP image is, I can now look around for other places to store the image.

The old XP partition old copy: was done with Rox from a Pup on the old desktop. I was not expecting it would be an effective back-up should XP have failed but was all I knew at the time. I'm now more hopeful with Gnost.

Use a Puppy already on the old computer instead of a Live-CD: now I feel the live-CD method works (still to reverse the process, image-back-to-XP-to-working-computer), I will next try from a Pup on the old desktop itself which should be simpler. Your lzop pet should be installed to the old-computer Pup to be used for this next test?

I'm thinking of trying to shift things around on the small 80GB second drive on this old desktop (sdb) so I could set up a clean ~30GB ntfs partition and try the image installation to this (with the main hard drive disconnected for this re-boot test).

All being well, I've a relatively new laptop with Windows7 that I could next have a go with. I'll need to get the necessary .msi for Win7. Its image should also be storable on my 1TB Usb as this Win7 "drive C" is also about the same size as the XP.

Thanks for on-going assistance,

David S.

[davids45]

G'day rcrsn51,

A bit more testing use of your gnost pet.

I made an image of my laptop's Windows 7 "C:" drive which is sda2 on this computer - there's a small sda1 ntfs partition which I'm not sure if I need to also image? Nor do I really know what this sda1 does. Puppy is much simpler to set up and use!

I had reformatted the ntfs partition on my back-up 1TB usb drive to ext3 and this took the W7 image without problem, while running the laptop from one of its installed Pups.

Your lzop pet also was used to good effect.

Image reduction again about 70% of the C: drive size.

I don't know when to use the ms-sys pet - is this for the restoration process only?

And I still need to work out how to do a restore with the various computers here.

Nonetheless, all good so far.

David S.

[rcrsn51]

Thanks for testing.

Concerning NTFS: when doing something as important as system backups, I personally would not trust NTFS, especially when the partition has been used by both Windows and Linux systems, and you are building very large files. I am going to modify the comment about NTFS in the first post.

Regarding the ms-sys tool: This is strictly for RESTORING a Windows partition to a DIFFERENT drive, where you need to rebuild the MBR.

Of course, the only true test of a backup system is the ability to restore it when needed. You now have a variety of partitions to work with. You could easily back up one of your small ext partitions and restore it to another empty ext partition. Then compare the results.