Image for Linux: restoring to re-sized partition

Okay, here is something I ran into yesterday after restoring from my openSUSE images originally created separately for the "/" and "/home" partitions, using IFL:

I decided, before committing the restore process to use the option to re-size both the / and /home partitions, simply because I felt the / had to be a bit larger and the /home a bit smaller. No problem, as the IFL disk allowed me to change their sizes. The restore of both partitions completed successfully according to IFL. However, after re-booting to openSUSE boot menu choice, it failed to load to the login screen, instead taking me to a sort of failsafe terminal mode, listing a bunch of line-by-line details of the boot process. The first error it displayed was that of file system errors in the / partition, recommending I run FSCK without some options, can't remember what they were, while the last problem it reported was that of the / part being read only, and it recommended I run "# mount -n -o remount,rw /" to correct this issue. This latter recommendation, however, did not work from failsafe mode, so I instead decided to try the recommendation run FSCK, no options. After answering y (yes) to about half a dozen prompts, I re-booted and openSUSE works as expected This fixed whatever happened when IFL resized the partitions, especially the /.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this in case some else runs across it, and also if someone might know of a way to prevent this (file system errors) from happening in the first place when restoring with IFL.

 

wat0114,

In case you haven't, would you mind emailing TeraByte Support about this issue?

 

Yes, will do. I'm not even sure if this is an IFL issue or openSUSE one, but since the images were that of a perfectly good working install, it most likely is an IFL issue. Thanks for the advice.

 

I am by no means a Linux guru, but I believe this is a common occurrence if you re-size an EXT3/EXT4 or other Linux partition. They don't behave like Microsoft FAT/NFTS partitions.

Let us know what Terabyte says though.

 

They are ext4 partitions, so maybe that's it. Otherwise, I'll let you know what Terabyte's response is.

 

wat0114,

For what it's worth, I have Ubuntu with Ext4 file system and I resized the partition with Bootit BM and also restored images (with resizing) using IFD and IFL. No problems.

 

Interesting. Terabyte asked me to try some command and send logs to them, or try uploading an image they can test. However, the way my day's going it won't happen 'til tomorrow at the earliest.

 

I agree. I've never used BootIt BM, but I've resized ext3/ext4 partitions with GParted several times without any problems. So I sincerely doubt valnar's assertion.

wat0114, did you use special restore options?

 

Very technical answer. j/k

GParted rules!

 

No, and I didn't see any special options either, at least nothing noteworthy.

As for Bootit BM, I’m extremely disappointed with it. It seems, at least from my point of view, not to work properly and even buggy. It sometimes won't allow me to type in a name (no response from the keyboard) for a new partition, sometimes does not not wipe the partition, and sometimes does not create the filesystem, at least with regards to when I choose Linux native. There's something clearly not right with it. Maybe it doesn't like my hardware, perhaps the ssd drive? GParted or partition Wizard works far better for me.

Getting back to the original problem, I tried once again to reproduce the problem, and I could by shrinking the /home partition by only 300 mB, but the image would not successfully restore Terabyte want me to spend time re-creating the problem and sending them logs or even an image of one of the partitions. I really don't want to spend my time doing this. I figured reporting the problem to them in detail should have given them enough of a head start to research it themselves, although I suppose in fairness they really can't be expected to do so unless they have my exact hardware profile.

 

Sorry to hear that. Are you using the latest version? 1.02c

 

No worries and yes, I'm using the latest version. Components of this package I like a lot, especially the IFW and IFD. Even the IFL works fine as long as I don't touch the target partitoins the images were created from, but then Clonezilla, which is free, works equally as well.

**EDIT**

almost forgot, I resized the /home partition to a larger size than the original, using GParted and IFL did successfully retore the image to it. Earlier when I resized it smaller than the original, using IFL the restore process stoipped part way and displayed an error, something to the effect of "partition reduction unsuccessful".

 

I've never tried that with IFL but the problem you're mentioning is the same with Clonezilla.

 

However....

See, I'm not so crazy after all.

 

valnar, if you carefully read my Clonezilla link you'll see that this is not related to ext3/4 as you suggested. This is a general Cloenzilla and, possibly, IFL problem.