[SOLVED]Backing Up Extended Partitions

I need to restore my Win 7 install which will reset my drive to the state Windows was in when I created the restore image - pre Arch.
All of my Linux partitions (/home /swap /boot FAT32 data) are in an extended partition, /dev/sda4.
I can use dd to backup each individual partition to an external drive, but I think that is error prone. dd will not copy /dev/sda4 and the partitions it encompasses (sda5-sda8).
I stumbled upon
sfdisk -d /dev/sda4 > backup-sda.sfdisk
but I believe it just backs up the partition table and not the actual partitions and data.
Any insights or utilites that might be easier then dd'ing each individual partition and restoring that way? I'm worried about preserving swap, etc.
Last edited by bsilvereagle (2011-08-10 21:04:08)

Sounds like a good job for fsarchiver! It will save whatever partitions you tell it to, then restore them to another partition when you're ready. It'll put all 4 partitions in the same file if you want.
Scott

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    Last edited by dav7 (2009-06-24 04:10:59)

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  • Solaris 10: Mounting a extended partition

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  • Solaris 10 on extended partition?

    Hey all
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    Hey all
    I need your help in something, as I'm a Linux junkie
    but a Solaris noob. I'm currently working with an 80
    GB hard drive with Windows XP (ugh) installed on the
    primary partition and Linux (Fedora Core 4) on
    extended partitions. Needless to say I'm using the
    Linux bootloader.
    I'm downloading Solaris 10 at the moment. I read
    somewhere that you can't install Solaris 10 on an
    extended partition. Is that so? Because I was
    originally considering installing Solaris in Linux's
    place (not that I'm sick of Linux, but because of a
    lack of free space on my drive).
    If I have to install it on the primary partition,
    that means I have to get rid of Windows instead. Is
    that a risky thing to do? Because I can't afford
    losing the important data I have, which is all on
    extended partitions. And will there be any issues
    concerning booting Linux and Solaris?
    I also have this old 10GB hard drive lying around
    somewhere that doesn't work. Would it be the best
    idea to have it repaired and installing Solaris on it
    and keep the old systems?
    Please help me out
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    -AHi,
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