[d3fiant]

Looking for some advice on what, if any, people are using to create images of their linux/xbmc setups for bare metal restores. Problem is I have a tendancy to tinker with my build and keep fookin it up and the build process takes a while because of the tweaks.

Im using a revo r3610, lucid 10.4.1 desktop , xmbc dharma as well as sabnzb, sickbeard and couch potato, all installed on an internal 320GB disk. No media is installed on the revo.

I use acronis true image for my w7 box and would like something similar. I'm no linux guru but willing to learn if the best solution is a little involved

[linuxluemmel]

If you are booting with the Acronis-CD it should be possible to create a image from
the disk. I used Acronis many-times to create a linux image from a pc.
If you are using ext3 or xfs as fs acronis should not have any problem.

[vikjon0]

Yes, acronis is the best of the commercial alternatives, Norton ghost the most know, at least on enterprise level.

If you are interested in open source alternative, clonezilla is the best known and the one I use.

[Gryph]

I personally do a simple tar archive, but that involves a bit of tweaking with grub when putting on a new drive.

In an old job where I was building some high end digital cinema storage servers ... I used CloneZilla for it. Very similar to Ghost, make one backup and then deployed on multiple machines. Worked an absolute treat!

Have a look at: http://clonezilla.org/

[d3fiant]

Thanks all for the feedback, think I will give clonezilla a go, I already know acronis so its always good to learn something else

Unfortunately the old motto 'if it isnt broken, mod it' is causing me too much grief to avoid this

[vikjon0]

It is not that hard...just download the liveCD
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/#use

http://clonezilla.org/download/sourceforge/
There is several versions, the normal is debian based and alt. Ubuntu based. For some reason deb did not work on my asrock but lucid alt is working perfect.

The easiest solution is to boot on CD/USB stick with a another hd connected but it is also possible to put the ghost on a network location.

Then as a separate step you can create a recovery disk (iso or for USB). Very nice except for the kind of heavy interface.