I am supposing this will not work - simply using dd to copy the booted disk /dev/sda for example to a file on an external hard drive. This would not be a good back as too many system file would be missed. right?
I am supposing this will not work - simply using dd to copy the booted disk /dev/sda for example to a file on an external hard drive. This would not be a good back as too many system file would be missed. right?
Right. You can’t get a correct image of rw mounted filesystem.
Is there an easy way to create a very minimal linux that runs out of memory or that would live in a very small partition, that would be capable mainly of dd ing the working partition to a file on a USB?
OH - what about one of the many bootable install ISOs and Ventoy?
You can boot off usb stick. Or grab a copy of clonezilla and boot off that memory stick with all the tools you’d want for drive or partition copy/restore
Indeed. Clonezilla is cool but comes with a considerable learning curve and lots of text to read. Rescuezilla, based on Clonezilla, is easier.
thanks for this, hadn’t heard of Rescuezilla before. I’ll have to take it for a spin.