Making a Ghost-style backup image

From Wiki

Symantec Ghost is a very convenient way of taking a full backup of a computer's operating system and data in one operation. By using partimage, one can imitate this style of backup without need for Microsoft Windows or a Bart PE disc.

Backing Up

• Boot from a live cd or USB key; I'm using Ubuntu 9.10.
• Uncomment all repos in /etc/apt/sources.list
• Make sure partimage and nfs-client are installed.
• Mount some storage, such as an NFS share:

# mount san.spruce:/data /mnt
# cd /mnt

• Back up the MBR (master boot record):

# dd if=/dev/sda of=nc10-sda-mbr.img count=1 bs=512

• Back up the partition table:

# sfdisk -d /dev/sda > nc10-sda-partitiontable.img

• Now use partimage to back up the actual partitions. Remember, unlike Ghost, partimage only backs up individual partitions, not whole disks!

# partimage

• I prefer to split the files at 700MB in case I need to move them onto CD-R. It is helpful to give the files names like nc10-sda1-windowsxp.img, nc10-sda2-ubuntu-root.img as this makes it less confusing when it's time to restore.

Restore

• As before, boot from a live cd or USB key.
• Uncomment all repos in /etc/apt/sources.list
• Make sure partimage and nfs-client are installed.
• Mount some storage, such as an NFS share:

# mount san.spruce:/data /mnt
# cd /mnt

• Restore the MBR if needed:

# dd if=nc10-sda-mbr.img of=/dev/sda

• Restore the partition table if needed:

# sfdisk /dev/sda < nc10-sda-partitiontable.img

• Use partimage to restore the desired partitions:

# partimage

• Reboot and cross your fingers.