[NTLUG:Discuss] backing up a full disk image to external disk

[David Stanaway]

Using the dump utility for the filesystem might be a better option.

What filesystem are you using?

If you want to re-sync the data from time to time, perhaps rsync.

Another option is to create a filesystem on the external filesystem and
do incremental dumps.

EG, with an xfs filesystem, you could create a full dump
 and then run differential dumps using xfs_dump to a file on the
external filesystem



Ed Leach wrote:
> What is the best way to backup a full disk image to an external hard 
> disk that is bigger than the disk being backed up?
> 
> On my desktop I have two identical internal hard disks. I just boot to a 
> live distro and do a dd from one to the other.
> 
> This time I need to backup an 80 gig laptop hard disk to an external 120 
> gig disk. Do I create an 80 gig partition on the external disk and then 
> do something like:
> 
>    dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb1
> 
> I think there is a better way but don't know what it is.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ed
> 
> 
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