# Gah! How to back up my Windows partition from within Ubuntu?



## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

To make a long story short, my computer's partitions got messed up, and I've been running off the Ubuntu LiveCD for a few weeks until I can reinstall.

However, I have the Windows partition mounted, but I don't know the easiest way to back *parts of it* up. I've been having problems with the external hard drive, so I was going to resort to FTP, but I can't even get all the files into one directory.

kBackup looked like it would work well, but after setting everything up and running a backup, all I get is a folder in the folder I specified with some text files containing _Ubuntu_'s settings, and a "files.tgz" containing an empty folder.

I really want to get my computer back up and running. I've been on the LiveCD for quite a while. Help?

Thanks,
choicefresh


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Not sure I understand the desire to get all files into one directory. Why not just backup the directories (and maybe some individual files) that contain the data you want to keep?

However you do it, the easiest way that comes to mind is to copy to USB flash drive. The practicality of that, of course, depends on the amount to be backed up and the size of any flash drive(s).


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Or burn to DVD.

But if you really want to copy the whole partition, Clonezilla can be used inside Ubuntu, and the included partitioner may do it, too (Gparted).


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## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

TerryNet said:


> Not sure I understand the desire to get all files into one directory. Why not just backup the directories (and maybe some individual files) that contain the data you want to keep?
> 
> However you do it, the easiest way that comes to mind is to copy to USB flash drive. The practicality of that, of course, depends on the amount to be backed up and the size of any flash drive(s).





Elvandil said:


> Or burn to DVD.
> 
> But if you really want to copy the whole partition, Clonezilla can be used inside Ubuntu, and the included partitioner may do it, too (Gparted).


You both misunderstood me. I'm only trying to backup the necessary files and folders, but I want them all in a folder called "backup" so I can keep track of them.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi choicefresh,

What kind of problems are you having with your external HD?

Why I ask is that since you are using a Linux Live CD, with the output of the "sudo fdisk -l" command from a regular user account or "fdisk -l" from the root account, you can understand the device names of your NTFS drive etc.

Knowing that information, if you identify the directories you want to backup in Windows, it is a simple matter to backup the directories from the mount point in your Live CD to the external drive (assuming it is also mounted) where it would be easy to make a new directory "backup" and use the if=<pathname of NTFS directory> of=<pathname of external drive directory>.

Note: Try a simple example first to understand how to use the dd command from the Live CD root account, and ask any questions you have in this thread before you do it if you are uncertain after reading the dd man page: i.e. $ man dd

-- Tom


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## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi choicefresh,
> 
> What kind of problems are you having with your external HD?
> 
> ...


You can read information about the external hard drive here. As you can see, my problem still hasn't been solved. It doesn't even show up in fdisk -- I don't know if it's my USB that's broken, my external hard drive format that's unrecognizable, or a different problem completely, such as out of date software on the LiveCD, which is a real hassle since I can't upgrade it without restarting.


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## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Use *PCLinuxOS*.

Although I use Ubuntu, the PCLinuxOS LiveCD has better detection of USB devices and will automount your drive for you. It also has K3B should you decide to burn your backup to DVD.
But go ahead and copy the files you need to over to the external drive first. It should be relatively painless.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi choicefresh,

I do not know what you meant by "fiddling" before you moved some files onto the drive.

It is no surprise that you may be having problems as before using a new drive, it must be formatted with a partition, and in the process a file system installed onto the drive so that whatever is written can be read afterwards.

If your fiddling met those requirements, then it should be working, otherwise, I'm afraid you may have to start over with the new drive and do the above steps before moving (i.e. writing) any files over to the new drive.

-- Tom


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## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi choicefresh,
> 
> I do not know what you meant by "fiddling" before you moved some files onto the drive.
> 
> ...


I first moved some files over to the external hard drive, since I thought it was working. Then, I plugged the external hard drive into a different computer running Windows, but Windows said it needed to format it, so I formatted it to NTFS. After that, Ubuntu stopped detecting it at all.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Does the other (or any) Windows PC say the external disk is good? I think I read somewhere above or in your other thread that you had removed the disk w/o finding the "Safely remove hardware." Usually this is not an issue, but if there was something in the cache that was critical to the disk functioning ...

If a Windows will accept the disk then make sure you do the "Safely remove" bit and try Ubuntu again.

How much data do you need to backup? If it's, say, less than 1 GByte you're spending way too much time on this--buy a flash drive or use a couple CDs.

You talked about FTP. Over the internet or over your LAN to another computer? It may not be ideal but seems to me you could do individual folders to get the job done and then at the other end put them into one folder.

Just trying to give some ideas that may allow you to get your main job done.


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## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

TerryNet said:


> Does the other (or any) Windows PC say the external disk is good? I think I read somewhere above or in your other thread that you had removed the disk w/o finding the "Safely remove hardware." Usually this is not an issue, but if there was something in the cache that was critical to the disk functioning ...
> 
> If a Windows will accept the disk then make sure you do the "Safely remove" bit and try Ubuntu again.


I'll try again, when I get a chance.



TerryNet said:


> How much data do you need to backup? If it's, say, less than 1 GByte you're spending way too much time on this--buy a flash drive or use a couple CDs.


If I can get it all in one folder, I can check the size. It shouldn't be too big, since I've decided not to back up the movies I've downloaded.



TerryNet said:


> You talked about FTP. Over the internet or over your LAN to another computer? It may not be ideal but seems to me you could do individual folders to get the job done and then at the other end put them into one folder.


Over LAN would probably be more reliable.

I'll try the hard drive again in Windows and get back to you.


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

choicefresh said:


> ...so I formatted it to NTFS. After that, Ubuntu stopped detecting it at all.


You probably need the ntfs-3g driver.

Read-write NTFS driver for Linux
The ntfs-3g driver is an open source, freely available read/write NTFS
driver, which provides safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista filesystems. Almost the full
POSIX filesystem functionality is supported, the major exceptions are
changing the file ownerships and the access rights.

The purpose of the project is to develop, continuously quality test and
support a trustable, featureful and high performance solution for hardware
platforms and operating systems whose users need to reliably interoperate
with NTFS. Besides this practical goal, the project also aims to explore
the limits of the hybrid, kernel/user space filesystem driver approach,
performance, reliability and feature richness per invested effort wise.

The driver is in STABLE status. The test methods, the test suites used and
testimonials can be found on:

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/quality.html


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## choicefresh (Oct 17, 2008)

RootbeaR said:


> You probably need the ntfs-3g driver.
> 
> Read-write NTFS driver for Linux
> The ntfs-3g driver is an open source, freely available read/write NTFS
> ...


ntfs-3g comes preinstalled with Ubuntu.


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