This is to backup my laptop from boot cdrom - how does it look? File systems; /dev/sda1 - /boot /dev/sda2 - swap /dev/sda3 - /
So to backup; 1. Get MBR (grub and partition table): dd if=/dev/sda of=/otherdisk/sda-mbr.bin bs=512 count=1 2. Get /boot: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/otherdisk/sda1.bin 3. Get /: dd if=/dev/sda3 | gzip | dd of=/otherdisk/sda3.bin.gz Then too restore onto new disk; 1. Restore MBR: dd if=/otherdisk/sda-mbr.bin of=/dev/sda - no bs or count parameters required? 2. Restore /boot: dd if=/otherdisk/sda1.bin of=/dev/sda1 3. Restore /: dd if=/otherdisk/sda3.bin.gz | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda3 4. Setup swap partition: mkswap /dev/sda2 5. Boot system Caveat is the the new disk must be big enough to fit sda1/2/3.