[Box Backup] System Backups?

[Martin Ebourne]

Joe Krahn <krahn at niehs.nih.gov> wrote:
> OK, it seems that boxbackup is not really a system backup tool, but a
> "user data" backup tool, based on the fact that it recommends NOT to
> backup the root directory. Is it intended NOT to be for full system
> backups? Or is it just not that far along yet?
>
> Here's my wish list:
>
> 1) Full system backups, including disk partitioning info, and filesystem
> configuration data. (An advanced version of this could take advantage of
> redundancy across systems, where the level zero backup is also a diff
> against some reference system).
>
> 2) A utility for doing a full or partial restore from outside the native
> OS (i.e. a mini-Linux recovery CD that can do full backups and restores).

Rather than wait for Box to support all of these features, maybe you'd be
better off with something that was designed for what you want.

I can personally recommend Mondo Rescue which does everything you list above
and much more. It is specifically designed as a disaster recovery solution
where you can backup to a bootable cd/dvd. When you boot off the cd it has a
'nuke' option which will recreate all of the partitions and data exactly
where it left off, leaving you with a working system once again. It supports
live backups, backup of windows partitions, and can even back up to nfs
drives in case you don't want/have cd access.

Although it can do user data backup that is not where it targets and I've yet
to see a program better than Box for that task. I find a dual backup system
using mondo for system disks and box for data works very well.

Cheers,

Martin.