Possible to make a backup image of Gentoox install?

djdafreund · Post by **djdafreund** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 3:40 pm

Is there any way of somehow making a backup of a Gentoox install? After spending a long time setting everything up the way i want it (both kde and xcfe since i'll be going back and forth depending on needs.) and tried to ftp the files over to my pc to burn and backup, but it's not working that way (that might be a giveme to experts here already) as the one (-) big file i stopped after about 4.3gigs copying, realizing that wasn't going to work apparently.
But i do have a lot of time envolved in a bit a customizing it all (placements, theming, icons, programs installed, shortcuts on taskbar) and would really like to be able to save it all, and back it up. On a regular basic, also so in the event something gets messed up beyond my capabilities (still a newbie) i can always 100% restore it to working condition.

Post by **ShALLaX** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 4:44 pm

That is the only way - ftping the data back, then compress it.. then burn it

nobspangle · Post by **nobspangle** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:21 pm

if your install is native and your drive is unlocked, stick your drive in a PC and use acronis trueimage to make an image of the drive.

djdafreund · Post by **djdafreund** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 7:49 pm

Wow, got a response from both of my 2 most admired people here. Thanks guys for the help. I've spent about 18 hours over the past 3 days just learning and learning with gentoox/kde/xfce/linux in general. It's not as scary as i thought it was. Much different then windows in ways of course.
So what your saying is, even though my install is like 1.8-2gigs in size, when i try copying all the proper files (including the big one with a - in front of the size) i should let it finish ftp'ing the file, even after it's in the 3.2gig range in the process? I assumed it wasn't working correctly when i tried because (using FlashFXP) it was copying for some time and the filesize showing was at around 3.4-3.6gig in size, and i just stopped it thinking something wasn't working right because of that size of filespace. So that's normal to be that much bigger, and should just let it finish it's deal, and then make a image with compression afterwards and should be fine? If so, i'll try that tonight after work.

PS- Not using Native install. Got it on drive e, only because i have c,d,e,f on a 250gig hard drive, and won't seem to work (as mentioned by some posts) on drive f. Tried it myself using magic-f but froze (let it sit while i was at work-at least 6 hours) But i never use e but for gamesaves anyway, and have still 58% left on e: after everything is all configured and set up just the way i like it using Home version, so thats not a big deal.

vplayer · Post by **vplayer** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:06 am

Hi,

You could always do this, Since you have F drive which would normally be large with space. When you make a configuration change or update something on gentoox, Just copy those configuration files into a folder in F drive. That way if you have to reinstall gentoox and all other software, you can still copy ur configuration files and you should be back in track...

Hope that helps,

djdafreund · Post by **djdafreund** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:43 am

It's cool. I copied the files over and left it alone this time, and it finished at around 3.4gigs for the big huge file. Didn't think it was THAT big, even then, still good enough to burn all the files onto 1 DVD-R, so that's still cool. Thanx again. Shouldn've let it go the 1st time I guess, just didn't think it was that big of a file for the one.

nobspangle · Post by **nobspangle** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:47 am

there is a bug in the fatx filesystem where it incorrectly reports the size of the rootfs file, even though it looks like it is only 2GB it's actually closer to 4

djdafreund · Post by **djdafreund** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:16 pm

Cool. Thanx Nobspangle! I read in a post about that, because of the bug makes it report an error, but i didn't know the filesize was so big. Wow. Now it's time to try to remove most everything i don't use to get some more space. I'm down to 459 megs already, and haven't really installed much of anything yet. I suppose it would be fine if i don't try to remove any dependancies. Like maybe all the extra's/games/browsers/facier word editors and such that i don't need.

Trevante · Post by **Trevante** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 5:00 am

djdafreund wrote:Cool. Thanx Nobspangle! I read in a post about that, because of the bug makes it report an error, but i didn't know the filesize was so big. Wow. Now it's time to try to remove most everything i don't use to get some more space. I'm down to 459 megs already, and haven't really installed much of anything yet. I suppose it would be fine if i don't try to remove any dependancies. Like maybe all the extra's/games/browsers/facier word editors and such that i don't need.

Do note that removing stuff in Gentoox won't actually decrease the amount of space it uses on your harddrive as the rootfs file is actually a compressed harddrive image, meaning that it's set at it's specific size, unless you resize it (which I don't know how to do, maybe some linux gurus here know how to do that)

djdafreund · Post by **djdafreund** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:37 am

But i am assuming that it will automatically get bigger though when it has to? I wonder this because it seems the other day i had about 586megs left on my e drive, and today i have only 498 left, and i haven't played any games, or done anything (utility installs, games,emu's,xbmc) the past few days but work more on Gentoox (installed a few utils, and customized more stuff.) so i am assuming it was taking more space. I don't ever use my f drive personally for anything but Gentoox and game saves of course, as i have a 250gig drive i put in, and use f for everything (games,utils,media,music,movies,etc.) but am worried that the more i mess with Gentoox, the more screwed i might eventually be when i start to want to use it more, and install more stuff, would i run out of space? Or is the 4 gig image really mostly blank space? I see how that could be true statement, as 4gigs for an operating system thats less bloated then windows seems pretty high of a space figure. I would like to get some idea on this though so i know if i should plan ahead of time now on whether to re partition a G drive so i can move the files over to f before my f drive (down to 42gigs now after all my movies i copied on it.) is completely full, and will be difficult to move stuff around at that point in order to be able to partition things then.