Though I kept good notes, it took much effort to restore my current
debian linux system with all the apt-get's and other downloads after a
hard disk crash wiped out everything. With Windows I always had to be
prepared for system crashes and regularly used DriveImage to copy my
complete C-drive with boot sector and my complete D-drive (all my data
files) to CD's. In the early versions it was necessary to copy these
drives to .pqi files on other hard drives and then use CDWriter to copy
the .pqi files to CD's. The last version of DriveImage that I purchased
could write directly to CD's. Either way, when Windows crashed - as it
often did - I had only to boot to the DriveImage DOS disks and restore
the C and D drives from the CD's. It didn't take more than 20 minutes
to get up and running again.
Linux doesn't crash - at least mine hasn't in spite of all the times I
have rebuilt the kernel - but there is a big investment in time and
effort getting to where I am today. I believe Drive Image now
understands the linux file structure so I could boot to DOS and make
copies of my linux system.
Still, Debian Linux is so elegant there is very likely a better way. If
so, I haven't found it yet. If I have missed something obvious, please
point me in the right direction.
