[Lilug] LiveCD disk backup software

[Akira]

Chris Knadle wrote:
> Personally I think backing up a "cloned image" that contains 
> everything including the partition table is a mistake.  Why?  Well, 
> let's say you want to get files back.  Oops -- now you have to 
> restore both the partition table and the ENTIRE image.  :-/  That's a 
> pain in the butt.
> 
> There are cases where cloned images make sense -- like putting cloned 
> images of the OS on computers in the workplace.  But I think they're 
> a mistake for backups because they don't allow you random access.

Norton Ghost Enterprise (now Ghost Solution Suite) has allowed access to 
individual files for some time now. The newer (the past 4 years or so) consumer 
versions of Ghost also allow you to browse the backups to restore individual 
files. I'm not sure if that functionality is available for ext2/ext3 partitions 
(which are supported by Ghost).

Even without the ability to do granular restores, it can be useful to have a 
base image so that you can very quickly restore to a point where all you need 
to do is restore the data from your latest backup.

--Akira