rsync, dd (was: Re: [libreoffice-users] query re. LO crashing ...)

On Wed, 5 Dec 2012, Tom Davies wrote:

> Hi :)
>
> If rsync is available on Windows then it might not be so easy to 
> charge people so much for apps that do back-ups.  Unless no-one knew 
> about it of course. 

kind of like with LO....

anyway, there are Windows versions.

> I tried a back-up utility that looked great until i used it to 
> restore a bootable Windows and found the Windows boot-loader was 
> completely lost because things were not in exactly the right place. 

in my experience Windows7 puts some kind of 'metadata' file at some 
exact location in the middle or towards the end of the 'boot' 
partition; it screws up if it doesn't find it exactly where it expects 
it. thus one has to be cautious about resizing a Windows partition 
with non-Windows software.

> Someone suggested using dd but to grep it through some archiving 
> tool.  I did fix the Windows restored drive but by installing 
> Grub2.  Grub2 survived the back-up and restore process but it felt 
> like i was cheating because the whole purpose was to restore the 
> machine to exactly the way it arrived from the store. 
>
> I'm going to ask about grepping a dd through an archiving tool on 
> http://www.linuxquestions.org
> to see if they can give me a good idea of how to actually write the command. 

it's easier just to google it (I always forget the syntax); lot of 
useful pages but perhaps this is a start 
<http://wiki.eeeuser.com/backup_restore>.

the thing about dd is that it is _exact_ so suppose you have 30g on a 
100g partition; dd will copy all 110g including 'empty' space. this 
also means you cannot restore to a partition that is smaller than 
100g.

this is good for that Windows 7 issue since everything is exactly in 
place. I'd be more inclined to shrink that partition using Windows, 
thus avoiding the metadata problem, and then back up, etc.

> Regards from
> Tom :) 

F.

> > ________________________________
> > From: Felmon Davis <davisf@union.edu>
> > To: users@global.libreoffice.org 
> > Sent: Tuesday, 4 December 2012, 19:23
> > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] query re. LO crashing ...
> >
> > On Tue, 4 Dec 2012, anne-ology wrote:
> >
> > >        rsync  ???
> > >
> > >        I think i are sinking fast ...
> > >
> > > sink  vb sinks, sinking, sank ; sunk, sunken
> >
> > you are probably just joshing around but 'sync' has nothing to do with 'sink'; one is germanic, the 
> > other is greek.
> >
> > 'syn'+'chronos' as in 'synchronize'.
> >
> > sometimes the spelling of words, like the syntax of directory paths, matters.
> >
> > (and 'syntax' has nothing to do with 'sin' or 'taxes'!)
> >
> > 'rsync' is a great utility; I assume it's available for Windows but I don't know but there's 
> > certainly equivalent stuff.
> >
> > F.
> >
> > -- Felmon Davis
> >
> > Advice is a dangerous gift; be cautious about giving and receiving it.
> >
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--
Felmon Davis

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.  -- Franklin
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