Backing up Ubuntu

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I want to try out different distros but since ubuntu is working so well I want to back it up in case I'm not so lucky with other distros.

 

[ErikD]

Use dd to clone your HD to a spare?

 

[MRD]

You can use dd or just backup with cp -ax (or tar if you want). You can pipe either to gzip or bzip2 if you want to save space.

 

[Avg]

I just realized that I either need something that will boot on it's own, or runs on windows because, since it's my laptop I can't just add a spare hdd to back up the stuff to it and my main pc only has windows at this point. I have a enclosure for pata 2.5 drives which I can put the laptop drive in, but at this point I don't have an enclosure for 3.5 drives yet. I know of programs that will back up under windows but I'm not sure if they are compatible with linux since the one I used screwed up a previews image backup and couldn't restore it.

 

[MRD]

Well, you can always run a live cd like knoppix. That will boot on its own and will have all the standard tools.

 

[Avg]

Ok, so how does dd work, I see you said I can make it into a tar, gzip and bzip2 if I wanted to, so can I save that to a ntfs partition through Knoppix or will i need a fat32 of linux partition, I don't think I can save it to fat32 because it might end up bigger then 4gb which I believe is larger then what fat32 supports, I have a spare 100gb drive, I don't know what is in it but I could reformat it with something knoppix supports.