Partition Image is an extremely helpful Linux utility that can restore entire
disk partitions and save an entire Linux/Windows dual-boot installation. In this
article, I'll explain what it takes to install Partition Image, create a backup
of an entire disk partition, and restore the partition to its original
condition.What you need
The latest version of Partition Image is available from the Partition Image Web site. You can download Partition Image in either source code or binary format. To build Partition Image from source, several libraries must be preinstalled on your system. To avoid any problems with these libraries, download one of the statically linked binary packages. For this article, the static binary package for Red Hat 7.2 (the latest compatible package available at the time of this writing) was installed and used on a system running Red Hat 7.3.
To install the RPM package, use the rpm ivh partimage-static-0.6.1-1-rh72.i386.rpm command.
File systems
Partition Image is capable of backing up and restoring partitions using the following file systems:
- ReiserFS
A new journalized and powerful file system - ext2fs/ext3fs
The Linux standard file systems - FAT16/32
DOS and Windows file systems - NTFS
Windows NT and 2000 File System (experimental support) - JFS
Journalized File System, from IBM, used on Aix (beta support) - XFS
Another journalized and efficient File System, from SGI, used on Irix (beta support) - HPFS
IBM OS/2 File System - HFS
Hierarchical File System: MacOS file systems (beta support) - UFS
UNIX File System (Berkeley Fast File System: FFS and Solaris File System are supported)
Using Partition Image
To start partition Image, run the /usr/sbin/partimage command as root. The screen shown in Figure A will appear.
| Figure A |
 |
| The opening screen in Partition Image |
Figure A illustrates the typical Partition Image screen, which is made up of selection areas, text areas, check boxes, radio buttons, and legends. Of course, I’m not talking about Web-based windows, but cursor-based windows, so there is no pointing and clicking. To navigate around Partition Image, use the [Tab] key (to move from section to section), the space bar (to select a radio button or check box), the keyboard (to enter text), and the function keys (to save and exit).
The first step in backing up a partition is to unmount the partition using the umount command. To unmount a /home directory mounted to /dev/hda8, run the umount /dev/hda8 command as root. Once the partition is unmounted, it can safely be backed up.
Danger
Don't attempt to back up a mounted partition. Doing so could cause irreparable drive damage or data loss.
To back up a partition, perform the following steps:
- Select the partition to be backed up from the list of available partitions.
- Provide the name for the image file, such as /mnt/pc/homedir-backup.gz.
- Select the action to be taken. In this case, Save Partition To A New Image File.
The partition selection section will list all partitions without the /dev directory, which is fine because /dev is implied. When naming the file, it would be wise to consider a date-stamp name. That way, it will be easier to archive your backups (or restore the latest version). Once the correct options are selected, press [F5] to go to the next screen, shown in Figure B.
| Figure B |
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| The most important option in this section is the compression level. |
This screen allows you to specify the type of compression you’ll use. The compression level determines both the size of the image file and the time spent creating that image. Higher compression creates a smaller file but requires more time to perform the backup. In the example shown in Figure B, the Gzipped format is used, providing a larger file size than the Bzip2 format, which will allow the backup to perform more quickly.
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