This is from a post found at http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1514&p=8519&hilit=backup#p8519

Re: What is best disaster recovery backup method?

Postby slycat » Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:53 pm
I've kept all the linux files on one partition and all the other goodies like media on a storage partition. My linux part is <5gb so my method is to backup my linux part to a tarball before I run "pacman -Syu", that way should anything go awry I can un-tar the contents back into the partition. Here's a quick script I made to save time typing it all each week:

Code: Select all
    #!/bin/sh
    #
    if [ $1 ]; then
    # various /etc/rc.d/* stop for samba/transmission/anything non-system running (for peace of mind)
    cd /media/Harddrive/Backups
    tar -cvpzf POGO$1.tgz --exclude=/media --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/sys --exclude=/dev --exclude=/mnt /
    # /etc/rc.d/* start all the same programs
    else
    echo Usage: pogobackup {MMDDYYYY}
    fi



I just call it (pogobackup 08152011) and normally gives me a ~530mb tgz or smaller if you run pacman -Scc beforehand and once it's done I update. I occasionally visit the folder and delete backups over a month old. I have once had to reinstall so I connected the drive to a working linux box and extracted the files to the drive and made sure to remake the excluded folders (media, mnt, proc, ...). I never had to do anything special afterwards making me believe the plug boots from /dev/sda1 specifically and not judging on UUIDs (proven if you ever had two drives connected at boot up where some people have problems when it finds the wrong drive first). This is the same method I have been using on my other linux box and has never failed me. It may not be the prettiest method but it works for me ;)
If you're fearful of hardware problems, just get a surge-protector or UPS.
Hope that clears stuff up :)