How can I perform a complete backup / restore of my netbook (no cdrom)?

1

I have a lovely Asus 1215n and its battery died so it's time to send it to repair since I have my warranty.

I have different partitions and operating systems on it and I would like to do a full backup and get the chance to easily restore it. One partition is Ubuntu 11.04, another is Windows 7 ultimate and the last one is Windows 7 Starter restore.

I think I can backup in a lot of different ways but I think about restoring... I'd be forced to use a USB pen to boot.

And I'd need to use a backup file (made with acronis, ghost, or anything else) saved on my desktop pc using LAN.

Any kind of software suggestions or best pratices to achieve a full backup and restore with minimum administrative effort?

Pitto

Posted 2011-05-22T12:36:58.713

Reputation: 1 766

Answers

2

You can use Clonezilla Live, which is free and open source.

It is actually meant for CDs but can also be installed on a USB stick (see the link for more details and a manual).

You can make a backup of the whole hard disk or individual partitions and store that backup either to a USB disk attached to the netbook or also to an SSH, SMB or NFS server in your LAN, so I think all your requirements are met.

You can even restore from a remote server using the same USB stick. Clonezilla is very well documented, but the menu is fairly easy to understand, so you should have no trouble using it even if you haven't seen it before.

slhck

Posted 2011-05-22T12:36:58.713

Reputation: 182 472

So you think that using that clonezilla live it'll recognize my ethernet card? I am downloading it right away :) – Pitto – 2011-05-22T18:18:49.583

@Pitto Yes, it runs a stripped down version of Linux and therefore should be able to detect almost every hardware. I've used it on many machines and didn't have any issues so far. I personally haven't used the backup-to-network feature yet, so make sure you take a look at the documentation :) – slhck – 2011-05-22T18:20:40.660

Such a loooooooooong backup but I did it! Thanks :) – Pitto – 2011-06-08T10:11:10.733

Glad it worked out for you! :) – slhck – 2011-06-08T10:54:31.010

Asked: 2011-05-22T12:36:58.713

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Active: 2011-05-22T13:32:02.050