Generally speaking, how do I restore an entire OS installation
(including user data) to a new HDD/SSD?
reddit / BSD

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chicagonpg · 2019-09-20 21:06

I would like to know as well.

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masta · 2019-09-20 21:18

In the past I've used `dd` to backup an entire OS image, and I've used
`dd` to restore that same image to other hardware. Good luck.

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jdrch · 2019-09-20 21:19

> `dd`

Thanks, but that's not very helpful if the source drive has failed.
Especially since `dd` isn't incremental; thus making a backup system
using it rather expensive.

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masta · 2019-09-20 22:59

Ok, welp you can use ufs dump and restore, those support snapshots,
and to some extent CoW features. Also `dd` images can be compressed.
If you want advanced features, setup an rsync server, with side cache
of hardlinks a la Apple time machine. Good luck.

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Kernigh · 2019-09-21 03:55

I have never done this; I prefer to reinstall the OS and restore my
user files. You might encounter some problems:

* You may need to partition your disk, put new filesystems, and mount
them before you can restore a backup there.
* If you try to overwrite the running system with a backup, then you
will get errors like "text file busy".
* If your backup is missing some metadata, then your restored files
might have wrong permissions (like programs not being executable), or
special files like /dev/tty might not work.
* If you had files hiding under the mount points of other filesystems,
you might forget to backup or restore them. I'm not sure, but I
suspect that some systems need files in /dev before mounting the /dev
filesystem.
* After you restore the backup, you might need to reinstall the
bootloader, as with OpenBSD's
[installboot(8)](https://man.openbsd.org/installboot).