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I intend to back up my Ubuntu system to a USB stick before attempting to dual boot it with Windows 7. There are a few things I want to know:

  1. What file system should I use? Presently, the USB stick uses FAT32, but the backup file would be larger than the 4GB that this allows. I am hoping to maintain compatibility with Windows. Some people suggest exFAT, but this apparently has poor support with Ubuntu and disk utilities.
  2. What backup utility and kind of backup should I use?
  3. I will probably back up a full system image and, separately, all the directories that contain whatever I would have modified during use of Ubuntu (such as documents and installed packages). What directories should I back up in order to achieve this?
  4. Is it possible to restore a backup image of Ubuntu after installing Windows 7 and maintain all my data and packages?
  5. I also plan to later update Windows 7 to Windows 10. Should this influence any of my choices?
Fabby
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Dodo
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  • Have you considered looking into something like berryboot (for the Raspberry Pi), which allows you to boot from multiple operating system choices, update and upgrade them, then saves them to your USB or SD card? My hard drive is failing me, and this seems like a ready option since all my important files are cloud synchronized via vpn to my personal cloud server. – Brent Ferguson Dec 31 '20 at 14:32

1 Answers1

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When you ask multiple questions, you need to find one expert versed in multiple areas which becomes more unlikely the more questions you put into... well, one question! ;-) However, someone asked me to help you out, so I'll go for it:

  1. Use NTFS: none of the fuss, all of the advantages (for a certain definition of fuss )
  2. Just use CloneZilla, but read its manual before you start! (Hint: use the disk to image option and take default options)
  3. Good! Back up your / partition without the /home as you already have a déjà-dup backup of that (you do have a data back-up, don't you???)
  4. Yes, but it will erase the Win7 install.
  5. Meh... The Win10 upgrade might erase your boot record again (which the Win7 install will do also: one response: Boot Repair )

Happy backing up! ;-)

Community
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Fabby
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  • Should I try installing Ubuntu into a separate partition after upgrading to Windows 10, and then transfer the files rather than using the image? – Dodo Sep 25 '15 at 23:54
  • Under "normal" circumstances, a boot-repair will be good enough... (definition of "normal": last time I tried...) – Fabby Sep 26 '15 at 00:16
  • To be 100% honest: I did a boot from the Ubuntu LiveDVD and did an 'update-grubinstead of aboot-repair`, but both should give you a similar experience depending on your own technical experience... ;-) – Fabby Sep 26 '15 at 00:18