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I am using Gentoo at work and I f***** it up multiple times by now. I have second hard disk which is not in use in my computer. Is there any way to backup whole hard disk in use onto a second and then if needed restore it. Of course if it's possible to automate it to backup every time I log in that would be awesome.

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    What have you tried and what problems did you run into? There are numerous clone/backup tools for Linux which provide a perfectly acceptable backup.
    – mtak
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 15:43
  • This is a huge subject with lots of options. Do you want to backup the filesystem only? Or the partition table also and make a bootable disk image? Is it acceptable to use the full size of the disk for the backup? Do you need to be able to restore or access single files from the backup?
    – virullius
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 16:09
  • I need to restore whole system as quickly as possible. I want a backup of whole drive. I have hard disk which is same size as the main one. I don't know do I have to make bootable image but I suppose that is something I need
    – Gamenoob
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 16:32
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    Basically you ave to choices: backup an image (dd but it will be a pain to recover individual files, and it will be slow (you are basically copying the whole disk each time, so a 1TB HDD is about 3 hours, and a SSD could wear out) or backup files (rsync or else) which is a lot faster (only the changed files are copied) but you won't restore a bootable image from that. Two really different uses. Personally, I have erased more files by mistake than lost complete drives.
    – xenoid
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 17:37
  • i just want to recover whole hard disk without installation process
    – Gamenoob
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 17:53

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You can buy disk-cloning hardware. Pull your hard-drive and plug it in as source. Put your extra one in as the target and push the button.

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  • You can use free software like Clonezilla to do this.
    – Vassilis
    Commented Jun 19 at 6:16

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