Best way to backup/image an Ubuntu install without using tar?

[Eeezee]

I like how easy it is to backup a system by simply creating a .tar, but this method doesn't remove files, it only overwrites them. If I have additional files that didn't make it into my backup, then those files aren't touched at all. This has some advantages, but I don't like it.

What I really want is an image, something I can use to completely start over with whatever backup I want, so that I'll no longer have ANY of the files that aren't on the image. Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

(I'm mostly just terrified that I'll screw up my installation and have to restore a backup, and I don't want a bunch of system files laying around that I may no longer use or need - besides, all of my important data is on a separate partition, so I can wipe my OS as many times as necessary).

Edit: I thought of a solution; I can make a .tar backup and just reformat the partition before restoring. Der

 

[SleepWalkerX]

You should work with dd. Here's a guide that tackles using dd in an efficient way.

http://www.linuxweblog.com/dd-image

 

[Nothinman]

You should work with dd. Here's a guide that tackles using dd in an efficient way.

Except that dd isn't safe on a mounted filesystem and the image will be the size of the entire filesystem instead of the size of the data. There are ways to make it better but it's just much simpler to use tar or cpio.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

You should work with dd. Here's a guide that tackles using dd in an efficient way.

Except that dd isn't safe on a mounted filesystem and the image will be the size of the entire filesystem instead of the size of the data. There are ways to make it better but it's just much simpler to use tar or cpio.

Yeah, I looked into dd and decided it's probably not the best way to do this. The images also require that the HDD have the same geometry; I'd like my backup to be potentially transferred to other disks

 

[Nothinman]

dd doesn't know anything about the geometry of the disk, it requires the target disk be at least as big as the source but that's it.

 

[silverpig]

I was gonna say just .tar and then wipe the partition before untaring, but you figured that out.

 

[degibson]

dd, source from a disk, target a file (on a bigger disk) -- pipe it through gzip or bzip2 if you like.

 

[sourceninja]

clonezilla is an option.

 

[Vadatajs]

rsync with the --delete option is probably pretty close to what you're looking for.