The system hard drive on my home server failed. I should have everything backed up. But it’s definitely annoying because now I need to find time to get a new hard drive (any one know of a good one that’s not likely to fail?). And while I have it backed up, I’m not entirely sure how to get from that backup to a working bootable drive. I’m thinking maybe install the os by hand and then rsync? It’s ubuntu, so I’d need all the apt package management stuff to transfer correctly. The other option is re-install everything by hand. I think the only things I had customized were apache, svn, media-wiki, backuppc, and the printer settings.
Recovering from back-up disk
First, what command was your back script running: tar, find | cpio, etc? If the cpio command was used, the backup may well be bootable.
Second, does ubuntu have instructions for a ram based recovery disc? The install disc often has a recovery option. You need to be running from a RAM disc so you can overwite system files on the primary disc.
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Anonymous Dad