Re: Some help with dd backing up into an iso
Hello, this is OP speaking :)
Thomas Schmitt:
> Hi,
>
> David Wright wrote:
>> Forgive me for asking, but have you read the OP?
>
> Yep. It's a daredevil situation. "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead"
I promise to be more cautious on my next life, maybe a cheetah laying in
the sun all day.
>> I can't see
>> the sense of backing up a filesystem to an image file and then, for
>> the sake of it, using the image file to overwrite the original filesystem.
>
> If all went well, then nothing changed on the filesystem.
Why overwrite an original system? The system is there for a purpose, to
provide you with the necessary tools to get other things done. The
system for the shake of the system is for tool-lovers who never get
anything fixed. If you see a clean sparkling toolbox you are either
looking at a lazy mechanic or someone who doesn't have the ability.
I sense there are many amongst this community who just idolize the tool.
> But yes, kids don't do this at home ... unless you have a good reason.
The idea is for the important things you do on a computer to be
organized and available despite of what the system is. If you can use 3
different systems to work and utilize the same data ... what's the problem?
>> What would constitute a pass, and what would distinguish a fail?
>
> The experimental setup seems sub-optimal for now.
> Maybe one should make a list of file MD5s before the experiment for
> comparing with the MD5s of the files afterwards.
That is on my todo list, the list of things I SHAll do if there is merit
to the experiment. For now all I want to avoid is building the system
from scratch, so I am backing up successful transformations. And I do
this with a minimalistic approach, which to me is openbox, as I
desperately need some gui stuff running. On my main system I have LXDE.
>> There was no indication that the stick had been used for something
>> else in the interim.
Not unless I run out of sticks :) But a stick is a cheap alternative of
destroying a flash-drive. Hard disks don't like certain living
conditions and are too bulky and energy consuming.
> That would be my valid use case, by which i tried to demonstrate that a
> block-by-block copy can be a suitable backup format under certain
> circumstances.
My use is about 96% backing up the image and only when things fall apart
will there be a restoring attempt. But what good would saving multiple
successive images be if none can be ever restored? At this early stage
I wanted to be able to shutdown, move to system B backup (in less than a
couple of hours) and return and do some more messing around.
>> Yes, yes, this is back to the technical details of making copies.
> But we are on computers. Technical details matter.
I remember, and do correct me, that back in the early stages of
installing debian I tried to install it on USB and it was denied. The
detail I don't remember was that whether I tried it on a second device
or did I try to install from a live installer to a partition within the
same. At some point I thought that grub would pick the HD installed
systems, the live one, and the USB installation. I don't know whether
it is the installer that can't handle it or whether Debian does not
allow you to do so. I have seen debian distros that do allow you though
and part of my experiment is to be able to wash off their stuff and
return to debian clean. Some seem more resisting than others.
But it is possible, and through such attempts I learn more and more
about the system itself. I am done playing with VMs, they seem as a
waste of time and resources to me.
>>> UPS
>> ...which cost EUR...?
I have one on my main personal system and it I can make UPSs better than
those in the market for less. I do see the point, if power fails
through the dd process the image is junk, but the USB didn't fail, it
just gets backed up when the good power people decide to send juice
again. I can live without the PC, my fish will not survive without
aeration for too long and I am too lazy or may be away to feed them with
aerated water.
> "There is no such thing as a free lunch"
Yes there is, if you know how to kick start the ecosystem it can be full
of free lunch, but don't tell your boss. Let him think he can terrorize
you by sending you to some hunger hell. Especially if he is in the
business of making rope you don't want to alert him too early.
> Have a nice day :)
> Thomas
The day is young, this fork of the subject is not part of the the OP's
true thread, of how best to get it done.
--
"The most violent element in society is ignorance" rEG
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