Remove the data disk and plug in an empty backup disk (e.g. /dev/hdd).
Start a RESCUE System from the original DVD, CD or FLOPPY as distributed by SuSE.
Login as root.
Create a primary partition containing the complete backup disk, e.g. fdisk /dev/hdd
[m gived the list of commands, enter n p 1 (default) (default) and write
the new partition table]
Create a file system, e.g. mkfs -t reiserfs /dev/hdd1
Mount the backup disk, e.g. mount /dev/hdd1 /mnt
create a mount point for the root partition to be saved, e.g. mkdir /org
mount the root partition to be saved to /org, e.g. mount /dev/hda2 /org
Copy the mounted root partition (/org) into a tar-archive on (/mnt), e.g. cd /org
tar -cpvf /mnt/hda2.tar .
[go for a coffee, time to copy is about 30 minutes or more]
Copy the swap partition to the backup disk
[a restored system will complain about a missing sawp signature if you don't do this], e.g. dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/mnt/gda1.dd
For reference save the original disk's partition table, e.g. fdisk -l /dev/hda > /mnt/partitions
Dismount input and backup disk, e.g. umount /mnt
cd /
umount /org
Shut down the rescue system: shutdown -h now
Restore (may also be used to 'clone' system disks):
Shut down the running system.
Remove the data disk and plug in the backup disk (e.g. /dev/hdd).
If you are 'cloning' a system disk, you may want to replace the system disk of your computer.
Start a RESCUE System from the original DVD, CD or FLOPPY as distributed by SuSE.
Login as root.
Mount the backup disk, e.g. mount /dev/hdd1 /mnt
Look at the required partition scheme: cat /mnt/partitions
Create partitions on new system disk, e.g. fdisk /dev/hda
[m gived the list of commands, e.g. enter n p 1 1 129, n p 2 130 (default),
the type of partition can be changed with <t>,
(type 82 for linux swap, type 83 for Linux primary partition),
mark the correct partition as bootable and write the new partition table]
Restart the computer by a real hardware reset, boot the RESCUE system, log in as root.
Create a file system on the new system disk, e.g. mkfs -t reiserfs /dev/hda2
Create a mount point for the new system disk, e.g. mkdir /org
Mount the new system disk, e.g. mount /dev/hda2 /org
Mount the backup disk, e.g. mount /dev/hdd1 /mnt
Decompress and copy the tar-archive to the desired partition, e.g. tar -xpv -C /org -f /mnt/hda2.tar
[go for a coffee, time to copy is about 30 minutes or more]
Restore the swap partition (required swap signature), e.g. dd if=/mnt/hda1.dd of=/dev/hda1
Repair the grub bootstrap loader on the new system disk: cd /org/sbin grub grub> root (hd0,1) grub> setup (hd0) grub> quit