[ale] HELP! Mint machine is booting from the wrong hard drive

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote:

>>> and
>>>> plugin.
>>>
>>> My backups and restores address all of this on Linux - 30 minute
>>> restores.
>>>
>>> If you **need** less, then you **need** HA and clustering.
>> 
>> I could certainly live with 30 minutes.  Can you elaborate on the
>procedure and software you would use to backup and restore a personal
>(but important) linux machine which accounts for all these settings and
>parameters?  Assume the machine has totally crashed and you have to
>start with a new blank hdd.  Assume the machine is running Mint /
>Ubuntu / Debian if possible, since that's what I know.  (Well, I don't
>personally know Debian.)
>
>http://blog.jdpfu.com/2009/10/24/linux-home-backup-with-rdiff-backup
>is a few years old and I've changed the script I use since then. It
>should get
>you started.
>
>

Hi JD,

I reviewed the data you sent in this and another message regarding implementing a backup strategy.  I appreciate you sending that, and am keeping it for reference.  Thanks to others as well.

For my purposes, I've decided that my cloning procedure is still the setup that meets my needs the best.  To fix the booting from the wrong drive problem, I bought this 3.5" Internal Tray-less Hot Swap Rack from Frys.

http://www.frys.com/product/5650831?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I installed the rack in a 5.25" drive bay.  This allows me to slide a bare 3.5" SATA drive into the slot whenever I want to from outside the case and also to remove it whenever I want to.  This particular rack is not too sturdy nor expensive.  I figure that if I'm gentle with it, it should last a while.  Also, it's not the full height of a DVD drive, and the toolless mounting system of my case lets it slide up and down a bit within the computer chassis.  If you were screwing the rack in, that wouldn't be a problem.

I like the idea of my backup drive being removable in case the pc gets any malware or has an electrical problem, then the backup drive won't be toasted.  I'm not trying to hot swap, but only inserting and removing a drive with the power shut down.  This is better than a USB enclosure because I get full speed transfers.  This computer doesn't have usb3 ports.

So, my backup procedure is:

1) shut down the system
2) insert the backup drive
3) boot clonzilla
4) clone the main drive
5) shut down the system
6) remove the backup drive
7) boot up normally

Since there is only about 15 GB of data used on this drive, time to complete is < 15 minutes.

My restore procedure is:

1) shut down the system
2) remove the failed drive
3) put the backup drive in its place (if the backup drive has similar performance to the main one)
4) boot the system as normal
5) restore specific more recent data files from online backup which saves files every 6 hours
6) get a new backup drive and burn it in
7) make a new backup data set

There would be a short period of time in this scenario where I would not have a backup.  As an alternative, I could clone the backup hard drive to a new replacement drive.

Time to complete this is about 15 minutes for the initial drive installation and maybe 45 minutes for individual data file restoration.  At this point, I would set my online backup software not to delete any files online that it didn't find on the main drive.

Sincerely,

Ron



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Ron Frazier
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