How to make a System Restore CD-ROM
by Cory Rauch 2007-02-07 Category: Linux-System

All computer hardware has a life expectancy, and sometimes that lifetime ends at the worst moments possible. Fortunately we are going to show you a way to backup your entire system to a bootable CD-ROM (or CD-ROMs depending on size of installation) for easy restore. We are going to do this using a nice little utility called 'Mkcdrec'. So let's get started.

Requirements

First you need to download the latest version of 'Mkcdrec' at:

http://mkcdrec.ota.be/project/download.html

NOTE: In this tutorial we are going to cover installation of the tar.gz file.

In addition, The bootable CD-ROM has some prerequisites that must be fulfilled for it to boot correctly. These include:

• SCSI or IDE based CD-ROM
• Kernel Source installed
• Check to see if the following drivers are compiled into the kernel (Usually the case on kernels bundled with newer distributions). If this is not the case you may need to re-compile your kernel.
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y (or m)
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y (or m)
  • CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y (or m)
  • CONFIG_JOLIET=y
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096 (or 8192)
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
  • CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y (or m)
• Or for SCSI based CD-ROM systems:
  • CONFIG_SCSI=y (or m)
  • CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR=y (or m)
• Mtools installed
• CD-ROM burner. (Note: A CD-ROM burner does not need to be on the system you are backing up. ISO files are generated during the backup procedure, which then can be transferred to another system to burn to CD.)
• Root access

Configuration

After downloading the mkcdrec software, go into the directory you downloaded it to and type:

Next, go into the mkcdrec directory and type the following:

This will run the mkcdrec software test to make sure you have all needed software installed. If this test fails to detect a required software package, please install these packages before continuing.

Then we need to edit the 'Config.sh' file found in the mkcdrec directory. The configuration file is well documented with comments and the mkcdrec website has a page describing each variable thoroughly. For most system you just need to edit the following variables:

• ISOFS_DIR=/tmp/backup - This is the locations used to store files collected during the backup procedure for writing to the ISO CD image. This can become quite large and a location with about 800mb or more is recommended.
• SCSI_MODULES="" - If your system requires external modules to be loaded by the kernel for your SCSI controller to function you must include them here.
• OTHER_MODULES="" - If your system requires any additional modules to be loaded by the kernel include them here.
• BURNCDR=n - If you want mkcdrec to burn the CD-ROM images upon completion make this yes, but you may not if you need to burn those images on another machine.

Running mkcdrec

Now we need to run the backup procedure, to do this type the following:

You will be given a menu. I recommend first trying out your configuration by choosing option 1 which creates just a boot CD-ROM and then burning a CD-ROM with the generated CD image. Then boot you system with the CD to see if it works.

After you have tested your configuration, run 'make' and choose option 2.

Mkcdrec will start the backup procedure. It took about 40 minutes on my system to complete so you may not want to sit and watch.

After the CD images is generated simply burn it to CD.

Running a restore

To restore a system from CD, simply boot your system with the generated system restore CD and type the following:

You can also clone a disk to another system by typing the following:

It will then prompt for a source disk and target disk to start the clone restore too.

Conclusion

Since all hardware dies someday back up plans are always good. I hope you enjoyed this article on creating a restore disk and please check back for our next article.

Other ImprovedSource Articles:
Boot Fedora Linux Faster: How I Modified Fedora To Boot In Under 25 Seconds
Linux Fastest Boot Time Challenge
Updating Your Ubuntu Server From The Command Line

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