[PLUG] help with backups/restores/grub

[Tim]

> That /boot/grub/menu/.lst is a typo. Your  /boot/grub/menu.lst is what
> my system uses. I don't know why the  menu.lst file is updated by grub.
> That is the output of  the setup (hd0) command. I didn't specify it. I
> don't think I can.  

Have you tried rebooting since?

> You mentioned that the way I did the  backup is a little odd. I found
> the syntax online in an Ubuntu forum and slightly modified it to fit my
> system/drive configuration. I have two SATA drives (data and backup) in
> addition to the primary SATA drive which houses two ext3 partitions (/
> and /home) plus a swap partition. I only want to back up the primary
> SATA drive with all requite files to restore. Thus the EXCLUDES
> statements. They also suggested the other EXCLUDES.  
> 
> If you have any pointers or alternative command  sequence to backup my
> whole system  (minus the  two secondary SATA drives) I would be very
> grateful 


Well, I just wouldn't use tar for backing up a whole system.  Unix
filesystems have lots of special files that don't play well with the
relatively naive file copies that tar does.  Examples include hard
links, device files, named pipes/sockets, and probably a number of
others I haven't thought of.

To back up all system files, you'd be better off with using backup
software.  AMANDA is a venerable system for this purpose, though it
may be complicated for your basic needs.  There are dozens if not
hundreds of other solutions out there.  Just run over to freshmeat.net
and type in "backup" in the search form.

Now, with that said, I admit that I use tar for backups.  However, I
am *not* worried about backing up my whole system.  If you're using a
stable Linux distribution/release, you shouldn't have to worry too
much about updates that actually break your system.  I've never had an
update completely bork one of my systems to the point of needing a
reinstall and I tend to run bleeding edge releases.

A final option, if you're really wanting your system in *exactly* the
same state that it was at some point in time, then boot your system
off of a boot disk and run dd to read sector for sector over to
a file on your backup drive.  This grabs everything, including your
boot sector and even Windows partitions if you have them lying around.
You'll need to research the syntax, but it's not too tough.

HTH,
tim