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How I can backup(and restore) partition layout of the Disk along with file system types,UUIDs,labels,LVM partitions(Linux LVM) etc, plus with MBRs and VBRs etc but without actual files

I want to later restore it somewhere else and have identical filesystems and partitions and then restore files manually by my self

I need that layout backup to be small so I can't just make empty version of that partition and file systems and make raw image ...

Is there any way to do that?

2 Answers 2

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Looking at partimage is probably the best result; however, if you want to take it further; you probably need to construct something yourself. I don't know of any any tools that will exactly backup & restore EVERYTHING you want.

Partition table/block devices

Dumping MBR partition table:

sfdisk -d /dev/sd$X > $FILE

Restore MBR partition table:

sfdisk /dev/sd$X < $FILE

Dumping GPT:

sgdisk -b $FILE /dev/sd$X

Restore GPT:

sgdisk -l $FILE /dev/sd$X

Show your block devices as a tree

lsblk

Logical block devices

LVM (can recreate PV, VG, LVM structure):

vgcfgbackup ...

vgcfgrestore ...

Filesystems

Showing UUIDS & Labels:

blkid

Show xfs parameters

xfs_info /dev/sd$X$N

Show ext[234] parameters (look at the features line):

dumpe2fs -h /dev/sda1

Backup & Restore XFS metadata:

xfs_metadump -o /dev/sd$X$N FILE

xfs_mdrestore FILE /dev/sd$X$N

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  • blkid shows me UUIDs for partitions and filesystems but sfdisk does not include them, so they cannot be restored. This part is missing from the backup instructions here and it will prevent a system of restored files from booting. I'm in such a situation now.
    – ygoe
    Dec 12, 2020 at 8:59
  • @ygoe newer sfdisk absolutely does list and restore UUID for GPT partitions, I just verified with util-linux-2.36.1. It does not restore filesystem UUIDs, but those you could already change w/ tune2fs etc.
    – robbat2
    Dec 16, 2020 at 6:07
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I can only think of the dd command. The only problem would be changing the UUID (if used) on the /etc/fstab, which you can do on recovery mode if needed; or change it to a label/device before doing the backup.

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