Backing up HD with Linux partition

I would like to know if anyone has successfully backed up a HD that has 2 partitions, a Windows XP Pro partition and a Linux partition, and is using the Grub boot loader and was able to use (boot) the backed up drive without having to do anything else to the drive.
When i backed up my "C" drive, a message came up that said since I had a Linux partition, I had to do something in order to boot from that drive. I can't remember the exact message. So I'm wondering if something went wrong with my current drive and I simply replaced it with the backed up drive, if it would boot normally, just like my current drive. I'm thinking that since it's an exact copy of my durrent drive that it would bootup just as if it was my current drive. Maybe somone that has done this could comment if I have this scenario right. Thanks.

 

Artmoe,

I have backed up (created an image of) a drive that contains both WinXP and Linux partitions, and I have restored the Linux partition but not the entire drive. The computer booted fine after the restore. I have not had the need to restore the entire drive. Other people have reported problems with grub after restoring Linux partitions/drives, so your concern is a real one.

I did a little research the other day and made notes on how to restore the grub if the computer fails to boot due to a grub error. This is something you may want to do because seemingly inconsequential changes to the WinXP installation can trash the grub.

BTW (1), you asked if anyone has been able to "to use (boot) the backed up drive..." My answer to this precise question is yes! I assume, however, you meant to ask if anyone has successfully booted to the *restored* drive. Perhaps I don't understand your question.

BTW (2), did you create the image of the entire drive from within Windows? I assumed this wasn't possible (or advisable), so I booted to my TrueImage CD to make the drive image.

Modred

 

It is not only possible but works very well as long as the partition structure of the drive isn't changed during restore. I haven't touched my bootable recovery CD in months, except for one occasion when I needed to restore the drive's mbr (only) after an experiment went bad. Piece of cake, as they say.

 

Hello artmoe,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I am sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that after the image is restored files may not placed to the exact same sectors they were residing on the original hard drive which may "confuses" Linux loaders such as GRUB or Lilo. Therefore, you will need to re-activate Linux loader. Please have a look at this post about how to re-activate GRUB and this thread about re-activation of Lilo.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov