[Sussex] partitions and the like ??

[Steve Dobson]

John

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 06:51:35PM +0000, John D. wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-12-29 at 20:58 +0000, John D. wrote:
> <snip>
> > So, I need to backup before anything else :-P ?
> > 
> > Actually there's nothing that I can't afford to loose if I screw up,
> > just the inconvenience of re-applying the customisations etc, Ok that
> > certainly sounds like extremely sensible advice.
> > 
> > With that in mind, if I read correctly, I can be root and then do the 
> > 
> > # cd /home
> > # tar cvfz /home-backup.tar.gz
> > 
> > bits ? Plus as I don't follow all the stuff that is included in "man
> > tar" does the cvfz /home-backup.tar.gz actually make the backup and
> > place it in the root partition (presuming that I've read things
> > correctly) ?
> > 
> </snip>
> 
> Ho hum, this linux lark is sometimes rather tiresome.
> 
> bash-2.05b# cd /home
> bash-2.05b# tar cvfz /home-backup.tar.gz
> tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
> Try `tar --help' for more information.
> bash-2.05b# tar -cvfz /home-backup.tar.gz
> tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
> tar: /home-backup.tar.gz: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
> bash-2.05b#
> 
> I can't do that!, I haven't really got much of a clue as too how I'd
> backup /home to cd anyway.

When creating a TAR file you need to tell tar(1) which files/directories
to backup.  By adding a "." as the last argument you tell tar to back
up the current working directory and all it's children.

> I seem to have cfdisk in the system:-
> 
> 
>            cfdisk 2.12i
> 
>                               Disk Drive: /dev/hda
>                        Size: 120000000000 bytes, 120.0 GB
>              Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 14589
> 
>     Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type          [Label]
> Size (MB)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     hda1        Boot        Primary   NTFS             [^B]
> 21056.72
>     hda2                    Primary   Linux ext3
> 1052.84
>     hda3                    Primary   Linux swap / Solaris
> 1579.26
>     hda5                    Logical   Linux ReiserFS
> 20974.47
>     hda6                    Logical   Linux ReiserFS
> 75335.34
> 
>      [Bootable]  [ Delete ]  [  Help  ]  [Maximize]  [ Print  ]
>      [  Quit  ]  [  Type  ]  [ Units  ]  [ Write  ]
>                    
> 
> but I'm not sure why it's not showing the fact that I previously
> "scrunched" up the /hda6 file system

That is because you "scruched" the file system, not that partition
in which it lives.
 
> bash-2.05b# df /home
> Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hda6             42111064   1395076  40715988   4% /home
> bash-2.05b#
> 
> I checked on Rupert S's suggestion of QParted, but I get this
> 
> bash-2.05b# emerge QParted
> Calculating dependencies
> emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "QParted".
> 
> bash-2.05b#

That's for an gentoo expert, but I don't think you need QParted for 
what you are trying here as you backup of the /home partition first
will bed used to resore the files.
 
> I sort of realise that the inconvenience of re-installing all the stuff
> that's in the /home so obviously need to follow the wisdom of Steve D
> and John Crowhurst - but how ?

# cd /home
# tar cvfz /home-backup.tar.gz .
                               ^ Note the dot, it's important
# cd 
# umount /home
# cfdisk
     Selecte hda6 
     [ Delete ]
     [ New ]
         Type:      Logical   (it may not ask this as you already have three
                               primary partitions and the fourth is assigned
                               to the area holding the logical partitions)
         Size:      35000     (Or whatever size you want)
         Placement: Beginning 
     { Down Arrow; to select Free Space }
     [ New ]
         Type:      Logical
         Size:      The rest of the disk
     [ Write ]
# mkfs -t reiserfs    /dev/hda6  (Check the device names are the same as 
# mkfs -t msdos -F 32 /dev/hda7   the ones seen when you ran cfdisk)
# mount /home
# cd /home
# tar xcfz /home-backup.tar.gz   (no dot need this time)
# mkdir -p /mnt/msdos
# mount /dev/hda7 /mnt/msdos

That should do it for you.

Note: I have assumed the device names and that everything works, check, check
and check again.  It at all unsure don't continue, but report back.

Steve