Tips on moving to Linux?

[Ral-Clan]

Hi Guys!

Thanks for all the help understanding Linux partitions.  Although I could have gone this way (and the info will be useful in the future), I instead did the simplest thing and just disconnected the 500GB "media" drive from my system while installing Lubuntu.

The Lubuntu installer then proceeded normally, allowing me to partition my 160GB "OS" hard drive.  So now I have a dual-boot Windows XP / Lubuntu system!  Yay!

I'm posting this from the Lubuntu OS right now.

So, now that I've gotten this far, the first thing I want to do is do a backup before I start trying to install custom drivers for my hardware and screw things up. But, I've never backed up a dual OS system before.  I am going to need some advice on the best backup strategy.

When I only had Windows XP - I used Nero Backitup to make an image of my entire C: drive to an external USB drive. Now that I have two OS partitions to backup, I'm not sure if Nero will be able to handle the Linux OS partition (as Nero runs within Windows).

Is there anything people really like?  Should I just image the whole 160GB drive in one bit image, or backup/image the each OS partitions separately?  If separately, is there a way to do this that will preserve the GRUB/MBR early boot utility or whatever (I don't really understand it yet).

Is there anything that will run from a live CD and backup to an external USB drive?

Thanks.

[CritAnime]

Your system should have a backup tool already installed. http://www.howtogeek.com/108869/how-to-back-up-ubuntu-the-easy-way-with-dj-dup/
 
it is built into the system so just nerd configuring. If not i beleive its easy enough to just grab from the "app store". Its what i use.

[ferrellsl]

Of course you can install Windows after Linux (the "after" part being my whole point) - if you're willing to create the necessary partitions from within Linux and manually restore and modify the Master Boot Record after installing Windows. But I wouldn't call that "Windows offering the same install options as Linux", so I jokingly told ral-clan he shouldn't blame Linux for not being user friendly.

Better now?

No, you're still spreading falsehoods.  Every system I have in my home had Windows installed first, and then I installed Linux.  No reformatting or creating new partitions or manually modifying the MBR was required.

[Mr_Bumpy]

Your system should have a backup tool already installed. http://www.howtogeek.com/108869/how-to-back-up-ubuntu-the-easy-way-with-dj-dup/
 
it is built into the system so just nerd configuring. If not i beleive its easy enough to just grab from the "app store". Its what i use.

I believe ral-clan was looking for a way to backup his entire OS partition, in which case he would need to use something like a Clonezilla LiveCD. However, the Nero Backitup software might support Linux partitions (I found some mentions online about it), but I'm not sure if your version will support ext4. You may need to check with the Nero Backitup documentation about that.

Anyway, I use Clonezilla personally, and it works great. You will want to follow the documentation when you do it for the first time, but after that, it's pretty easy to remember the steps.

[CritAnime]

Ah yeah. Sorry at work and its silly oclock in the morning. clonezilla is needed for backing up everything, and it's very effective because I too have used it. For some reason i thought he just wanted files.
 
Actually thinking about it. Setting up the inbuilt backup system as a redundent is not a bad idea. I use it and it's handy to keep. Even if he takes advantage of using a service like box or Ubuntu 1 to host the backup on the cloud.

Actually scrap using Ubuntu 1 as they are shutting that cloud service down (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/canonical-axe-ubuntu-one-file-music-services-grab-data-now) so stick to Dropbox or Box lol.

[cgutjahr]

No, you're still spreading falsehoods.  Every system I have in my home had Windows installed first, and then I installed Linux.

This is  now the fourth (and definitely the last) time that I tell you I'm talking about the other case where one is trying to install Windows after Linux.

Please read what you're replying to, it would have saved both of us quite some time.

[Madshib]

This thread is out of control.

Ral-clan - Good luck. If you need any assistance, PM me, maybe I can help you out if you need it.

[TheMagicM]

another great piece of backup software is Mondo Rescue.  I back up entire servers and my laptop to make a bootable set of dvds to restore from.

[Ral-Clan]

another great piece of backup software is Mondo Rescue.  I back up entire servers and my laptop to make a bootable set of dvds to restore from.

Good because Clonezilla fails for some reason, despite the fact that I'm following all online tutorials to a "T".

[persia]

Canonical is working on a touch friendly Ubuntu.

[CritAnime]

Just out of curiosity doesn't CloneZilla as a last ditch attampt also use

Code: [Select]

dd if=/dev/source of=/dev/destination if it's normal backup system fails? Or did I dream that one lol.

[Mr_Bumpy]

Good because Clonezilla fails for some reason, despite the fact that I'm following all online tutorials to a "T".

Where does it fail? Are you backing up to an external hard drive? Are you using the i386 or amd64 version of the Clonezilla liveCD? I've had problems before with the amd64 version on my laptop. Otherwise, the i386 version works perfectly on both of my systems.

[Bif]

This is  now the fourth (and definitely the last) time that I tell you I'm talking about the other case where one is trying to install Windows after Linux.

Please read what you're replying to, it would have saved both of us quite some time.

Take at least some solace cgutjahr that I understood what you were talking about. I felt for you getting trashed by the same camp you were trying to stick up for in multiple posts :confused:. Indeed sometimes people must just scan a few keywords in a paragraph and not be clued in to what they are responding to :rtfm:. I was guilty of something similar on another board recently that looked like someone was rewriting quotes of mine and I went off, boy did I ever feel stupid and bad and apologize profusely after I went back and read everything correctly . I'm just going blame that on gettin' old and dense in the head ...

[Ral-Clan]

Where does it fail? Are you backing up to an external hard drive? Are you using the i386 or amd64 version of the Clonezilla liveCD? I've had problems before with the amd64 version on my laptop. Otherwise, the i386 version works perfectly on both of my systems.

Hi,

It fails somewhere after reading the first Windows XP partition....says something about partclone failing.  Tried running it twice.  Followed online tutorials to do this.

It's a x86 version.  Backing up to an external hard drive.  I thought it *might* be an issue with the external drive having not enough space, but I had zip compression turned on, so it shouldn't have been a problem.  I'm backing up a 160GB hard drive to an external USB 160GB hard drive with about 90MB free.  But the source 160GB hard drive containing my OSes is only really filled up about 30% (about 56GB of data)....so it should all fit.

[Mr_Bumpy]

The only thing I can think of is perhaps you need to run a chkdsk on the NTFS drive. Have you booted into Windows since resizing the partition? It will usually run chkdsk automatically when booting when it discovers the partition size has changed.

[Ral-Clan]

The only thing I can think of is perhaps you need to run a chkdsk on the NTFS drive. Have you booted into Windows since resizing the partition? It will usually run chkdsk automatically when booting when it discovers the partition size has changed.

Yeah, I ran a chkdsk before re-partitioning, and once I partitioned, I booted in Windows XP and it automatically ran a chkdsk.  I've booted into Windows several times since (and before trying to back up with CloneZilla).

Since Clonezilla didn't work, I tried my old backup software, Nero Backitup Essentials (a basic OEM version that came with my DVD-writer and runs in windows or from a bootable recovery CD).  It's always worked well when backing up my Windows XP partition.

It also seems to recognize the file system on the linux partition (it shows a graphic diagram of the disk structure and identifies the Windows partion as NTFS, the Linux partition as ext3 or something (I can't remember)).  It also identifies another undesignated 3GB partition on the disk (not sure what that is).

I've used it now to backup both the Windows XP and Linux partitions individually, and then the whole drive (imaging the drive).

Before backing Linux partition it does warn that since the partition doesn't have a Drive Letter, it can't lock the partition during backup. However it will still proceed and does successfully verify the backup image file against the real partition.

As I said, I've also used it to "image" the whole 160GB drive (Windows XP / Linux / undesignated partitions) all together.  Since Nero Backitup is a Windows program, and I'm booting from the Windows XP partition, it warns again that it won't be able to lock the Windows partition as it is in use.  But again, it backs up the whole drive.  I know in the past when I've had to restore my Windows XP setup from these backups it has worked fine.

Nero Backitup Essentials is pretty easy to use and even allows the making of a bootable live restore CD (which I've done and had to use in the past).

So I hope I'm covered.