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When did you last verify that your backup could be restored?
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The worst part of valor is indiscretion.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by martyb on Monday November 23 2020, @04:06PM (5 children)
Serious question:
If you only have a single computer, how CAN you SAFELY verify your backup?
Background:
I booted my laptop (Win 7 Pro X64; DELL Latitude E6400 - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700; BIOS; 6GB RAM: 2GB + 4GB) from a USB stick running Linux. Used dd to do a full disk copy of the internal drive (1 TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD) to another drive in external USB enclosure (1 TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD). Took something like 6(8?) hours.
From all appearances, the backup was successful.
I installed the backup into another laptop (DELL Latitude E6410 - Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 540; UEFI; 4 GB RAM: 2GB +2GB).
Would not boot; kept trying to load, failing, and trying again.
Tried a few permutations of UEFI parameters with no luck. Intended to go back and try more permutations, but never did... too busy trying to actually accomplish stuff with original system.
Later...
Remembered I had deleted a file accidentally, but maybe it was on the backup?
Removed backup from E6410, put in external USB enclosure, attached it to original E6400... Not recognized?!
Tried hibernate/resume; still not recognized.
Tried Shutdown, power off, power on. Forgot my boot order was external USB before internal SSD. Boot failure: Windows was claiming I might have a fraudulent copy of Windows; needed to re-enter product key.
Doh!
Powered down, entered BIOS, changed boot order, resumed boot... Windows still claimed possibly fraudulent copy of Windows.
Gave up. Powered down laptop. Disconnected external drive. Powered back up. Still got complaint of possibly fraudulent copy of Windows. Needed to do some stuff so continued in this "limp mode"... then got a BSOD.
Every subsequent reboot attempt immediately gave a BSOD.
I'd been intending to move from Windows to Linux for a long time, so I have used this as motivation to get started -- still have a HUGE ways to go, but am chipping away at things and making slow progress.
When you have ONLY ONE computer, HOW can you safely verify your backup works?
I was fortunate to have multiple computers, but it leads me to ask:
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DECbot on Monday November 23 2020, @05:12PM (1 child)
I'm not a professional and my only backup is spare drive I dumped some files on a few years ago.... So, with those caveats out of the way, here's my suggestion on how it should be done. Have a storage solution for your backups (preferably off site and geographically distant to guard against natural disasters, fire, theft, etc) and a spare internal drive that you image your backups onto. So the procedure would look like:
This way, you know you have a good local copy of your data that you can boot from and a geographically remote copy of your data.
If your boot disk is not physically removable, then you made a mistake by purchasing a disposable computer.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:29PM
This procedure has the disadvantage of wearing out your physical connections. Anyway, why would you backup your boot disk anyway? The OS can easily be reinstalled; it's the data you don't want to lose.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday November 29 2020, @12:49AM (2 children)
Okay, many thoughts and speculations, so take with some grains of salt.
First kudos for doing a nice simple / complete drive image backup. I tend to do some that way, but I make the image a file on a bigger disk. It works better if you just dd the partition, rather than the whole drive. For example: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/mnt/windows1.img rather than if=/dev/sda
Some external USB drive adapters / enclosures are sssllllooooowwwwwww. I usually do what you did, but using a desktop machine with enough SATA and/or PATA ports. In fact, I have one cooking right now.
You backed up drive image from hardware 1, but expected that Windows install to run on different hardware. I've rarely had that work well if at all. One time I was determined to fix it, and booted in "safe mode", ended up going into "Device Manager", "View" and "Show hidden devices", then using Microsoft's "Autoruns" and Nirsoft's "DevManView" to uninstall ALL of the many drivers for which there was NO hardware in the present machine. Then again in "Device Manager", click once on the top-level computer's name, then under "Action" do "Scan for hardware changes", run Windows Update, do these things maybe many times, etc. After you clean up all the hair you tore out, you get your Windows install media, boot it, and run a "repair installation" and months later you have a partially running system.
I don't know the number, but Windows counts how many times it sees hardware changes, and at some point moronically thinks you've copied the install and are running it on new unlicensed hardware. I've gotten into trouble with it when swapping RAM, CPUs, hard drives, adapter cards, etc.
I think, but could be wrong, if you have an OEM Windows install, like Dell version running on Dell hardware, you might not see the stupid messages about not being "genuine" windows.
If your boot disk is not removable, you look for some automotive body tools and teach it a lesson. Alternatively you find a highway construction site and the computer "accidentally" falls under a steam roller. Then insurance buys you a new one, and you're more careful about buying one with a removable drive.
I don't know of a way to back up BIOS or UEFI settings. That said, there is an API for software to get at the settings, but you'd have to boot the system to be able to restore, or maybe someone has a utility you can run from a USB / optical boot. I understand most of BIOS/UEFI things well enough to set them, and many will work well with the defaults. Otherwise I might write them down, or take screenshots with a (phone) camera.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Saturday December 05 2020, @07:56PM (1 child)
Thanks for the response. Much appreciated!
I think there is a misunderstanding. Never once did I intend to boot from the backup. I was just trying to restore a file from it. Had the backup drive connect as an external USB disk. My intent was to locate and then copy a file from the USB drive to my internal drive.
For whatever reason, Windows failed to recognize that the external drive was attached when I first connected it. I could not find a way to access the files on the external drive.
Since my system had been up for about a month, I thought Windows might have gone sideways over time. Just need a reboot and I'd be fine. Right?
Unfortunately for me, Windows did what I told it to do when I tried rebooting. I failed to realize my boot order was USB before internal drive... until it was too late. At that point the damage was already done.
In all cases. the drives were attached to the same (original) laptop computer; no other machine was involved.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 05 2020, @08:34PM
Perfect plan.
That's where I thought you were saying you put a "cloned" drive into another laptop. I understand now. :)
So with drive connected external USB, Windows tried to boot, and somehow corrupted the drive? I can see where Windows would have tried to rebuild its kernel, but shouldn't have corrupted any filesystem structure.
Have you run simple "chkdsk" and/or other disk check tools, including scanning for bad sectors?
I have spinning rust drives failing left and right. I hate them. Esp. Seagate.