From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 19 07:43:39 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F91D16A4CE for ; Wed, 19 Nov 2003 07:43:39 -0800 (PST) Received: from ei.bzerk.org (ei.xs4all.nl [213.84.67.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3343743FDD for ; Wed, 19 Nov 2003 07:43:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mail25@bzerk.org) Received: from ei.bzerk.org (BOFH@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ei.bzerk.org (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id hAJFhtxM040614; Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:43:55 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mail25@bzerk.org) Received: (from bulk@localhost) by ei.bzerk.org (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id hAJFhtqp040613; Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:43:55 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mail25@bzerk.org) X-Authentication-Warning: ei.bzerk.org: bulk set sender to mail25@bzerk.org using -f Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:43:54 +0100 From: Ruben de Groot To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20031119154354.GA39475@ei.bzerk.org> Mail-Followup-To: Ruben de Groot , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Keith Spencer References: <20031119053350.67878.qmail@web12002.mail.yahoo.com> <441xs44dwt.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <441xs44dwt.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i cc: Keith Spencer Subject: Re: Can I bakup like this...?? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:43:39 -0000 On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 09:43:30AM -0500, Lowell Gilbert typed: > Keith Spencer writes: [...] > > a) Throw another drive in the box > > b) Createthe same or at least minimum size partitions > > as the active drive > > c) Cron job to "dump" or tar or ??? the partitions > > dd(1) is the easiest way to make sure that the disk will work just > like the other one. It requires a same-size-or-larger second disk. I consider dd a very lousy backup method. Any writes to the first disk while dd is running will likely result in corrupted filesystems on the second disk. Performance is bad as well, since dd will copy every single bit, not just actual data. A better approach would be to follow a) and b) above, newfs(8) the partitions, make the second drive bootable using boot0cfg(8) and then periodically use dump/restore, tar, pax, cpio or even rsync to backup your first to second disk (I've used them all and can't really recommend one over the other so suit yourself). Ruben