Clone or Backup Linux System

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_Cloning

Using cp

The cp program can be used to clone a disk, one partition at a time. An advantage to using cp is that the filesystem type of the destination partition(s) may be the same or different than the source. For safety, perform the process from a live environment.

The basic procedure from a live environment will be:

• Create the new destination partition(s) using fdisk, cfdisk or other tools available in the live environment.
• Create a filesystem on each of the newly created partitions. Example:

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1

• Mount the source and destination partitions. Example:

mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/source
mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/destination

• Copy the files from the source partition to the destination

cp -a /mnt/source/* /mnt/destination

-a: preserve all attributes , never follow symbolic links and copy recursively

• Change the mount points of the newly cloned partitions in /etc/fstab accordingly
• Finally, install the GRUB bootloader if necessary. (See GRUB)