Back-up for the Eee PC with Xandros

(Revised version as of October 1st., 2008 with minor additions 3/29/09)

This describes a fairly easy way to make a bootable SD card or thumb drive that you can use instead of F9 in event of disaster, to restore your eeePC to the state of its last backup rather than starting from scratch with factory settings. Software will be installed on the backup device (SD/thumb) to use for backups, verification (compare) of backups, restore, and as an alternative boot device for advanced linux users.

In the notes below <return> means press the Return (Enter) key, and “click” or “double-click” means use the left-hand mouse button. The program has been tested using the 20G 901 model, the 900 model, and the 4G 701 model. The instructions in this wiki are written principally for the 900/901 models, but will apply to 7 inch screen models, although the wording in various on-screen boxes/buttons will show minor differences. All models must be running the original Xandros Linux during the making of the bootable SD card. Tests have not been carried out using 10 inch screen models, or the Eee Box, but it is reasonable to believe that these too can be backed-up using this program. E.& O.E.

If you are new to Linux, and these instructions seem a little complex, please do seek help, as the ability to do reliable backups is quite important. One way to make things easier and reduce the chance of the minor typos that can cause major problems, is to use copy/paste by opening a console (aka terminal) window from inside File Manage using the Ctrl-T key combo and using the Edit menu for pasting text there after copying it from this page. If you carefully follow these instructions, the worst likely outcome is an SD card you'd need to reformat (easy in cameras and other devices) and/or no backup of your eeePC. It might be prudent to also manually backup your important files to a different device, and/or use another backup program for every other backup.

You will need an empty SDHC card, (recommended minimum size of 8G for the 900 or 901 models and 4G for the 701 model), to receive the bootable system, plugged into the SD card reader socket on the right-hand side of the Eee. This SD card will also be used later in the backup procedure to receive the actual backup files.

• Note: It is helpful to know the device name of the SD card before beginning. To find that, you can insert an SD card with files on it and select it in File Manager. Then in the File menu select Properties, and note the line that begins “Mounted from:” to see if it is /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdc1 or something else.

First you have to make the SD card into a bootable SD card holding the backup program, then restart and boot from this to perform the actual backup of your data on to the same SD card. With some changes to these instructions USB fitting flash drives can also be used to hold either the program, or backups, or both, in a similar manner to how the SDHC card is used.

(can also be used with Easy mode - see footnotes)

1. Run Firefox browser and go to http://www.glost.eclipse.co.uk/gfoot/eee/eeebackup/
2. First read the “Readme” file, and then go back to the previous page and click on “Download”
3. Firefox will then ask you if you would like to save this file.
4. Click on the “Save File” button - depending on Eee model you may then have to indicate where the file is to be saved - which should be the desktop.
5. Close any open windows, and return to the Desktop, and you should find there a file named “eeebackup-0.32-setup.tar.gz”
6. Double click on that file which should result in you having a file named “eeebackup-0.32.shark.sh in a File Manager window.
7. Double click on this file, in File Manager.
8. This should produce an Installer box, headed “EeeBackup v0.32 Installer”, and below that the wording “Select device to install on:”
9. In the Installer box “sdc1” should be present if you are using a 900 model. The SD card you already have plugged in is normally “sdc1” in the 900, but do confirm that you are about to install correctly, then select this and click on “Install”
10. The Installer should now run in a window headed “setup.py”, and the first few lines should be

                unmounting /dev/sdc1
                mounting /dev/sdc1
                writing kernel
                building initrid
                writing initrd 

11. and the last lines should be

                done
                grub>quit
                done 

12. Close the “setup.py” window, and then close down the “Installer” box. Your SD card is now ready for use, unless any errors ocurred during the install process. Next you have to use this to perform the actual backup.
13. Restart the Eee with the bootable SD card you have just made still plugged into the SD card reader socket, and when the BIOS is starting press ESC a few times and select your SD card from the list of boot devices displayed, which will have, among other entries such as those for the internal SSD drive or drives, a line something like –

                USB:USB2.0 Card Reader SD0 or USB:Single Flash Reader or similar 

14. If the bootable SD card starts and runs correctly, you should see the following on screen –

                Simple Eee Backup System v0.32 - Main Menu
    
                Select an operation to perform
    
                  Backup
                  Compare
                  Restore
                  Help
                  Quit 

15. Select Backup, and decide on the type of backup desired and where the backup is to be saved - do not ever save a backup file to “sda” and it is best not on the 900 model to save to “sdb”, these being the two internal SSDs, - so do ensure that you are going to record the backup file on to the correct place. The backup of a 4G Eee 701 should be about 1.5G in size, and may take somewhere over 10 minutes, anything significantly less than this probably means that you have not done a full backup of your system. Models like the 900/901 having also a second 16G SSD will require a correspondingly bigger home for the backups, probably 8G or 16G.
16. If the type of backup you have chosen to make takes longer than about 10 minutes,(most do, except an MBR backup), the screen may go blank during the backup process – this is normal, as a form of screen saver kicks in. If you want to re-activate the screen without stopping the backup – press one of the no-action keys – CTRL is a good one. Other keys will stop the backup, requiring you to start all over again. The correct finish is signalled by a blue screen bearing the words “Alert” “Finished !”
17. At the end of the backup process you will get a blue screen - wait at least one minute and then press <return> to take you back to the program menus. Retreat back to the opening menu and either select “Quit” or “Compare”
18. The program allows you to compare a newly made backup with the original data, by using the Compare function - and it is recommended that this is done, but it must be done as soon as the backup is finished, or not at all.
19. An SD card of higher capacity than 8G may be needed if a backup of the 16G SSD content in the 900/901 model is required as well as the backup of the 4G SSD content, and these two backups have to be done seperately. It is probable that to fully backup a 20G 900/901 Eee containing a lot of programs and data, a 16G SD card will be needed. Tests using an Eee 900/901 model indicate that the program is usable with this model as well as the 701 model. For the smaller capacity 701 model a 4G SD card should be big enough to hold two seperate “sda” backups.
    
    

(tested using the 901 model with original Xandros Linux, but also probably OK with other 900 and 1000 series models)

1. In Easy mode, with an active internet connection, go to the Internet tab and select Web to start the Firefox browser.
2. Do items 1,2,3,and 4 in the Advanced desktop instructions above, having previously set Firefox to download all files to the desktop.
3. Close Firefox and return to the Easy mode. Select the Work tab and then File Manager
4. In “File Manager” select “My Home” and find in the right-hand panel the file “eeebackup-0.32-setup.tar.gz”
5. Continue with item 6 in the Advanced instructions above.
6. Note: To make item 13 above easier to perform, giving you more time, it may be necessary to disable “quick boot” and “quiet boot” in the Boot Settings Configuration section of the BIOS. Access to the BIOS is gained by repeated pressing of key “F2” when starting the Eee. Do BIOS alterations with care as errors can affect the continued operation of the Eee.

eeebackup program by gfoot, wiki article written by danMdan

See the backup Xandros thread in the forum and also further discussion at EeeBackup 0.32 released