Hi Connie,

> On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, Michael Mansour wrote:
> 
> > Hi Michael,
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > i have some problems with my installation.
> > > 
> > > I use SL4 as a Server system with an LVM Storage for System and 
> > > Data. And now I want so backup the whole Hard drive to an image File 
> > > stored on a LAN-NFS-Server.
> > > 
> > > I should be possible to run a disaster Recovery, which means that I can
> > > restore the complete System with its old configuration.
> > > 
> > > Can I use TAR?
> > > 
> > > My Hard Drive has a capacity about approximately 140 Gbyte. When I 
> > > use "dd" the Image file has also 140 Gbyte, but only 51 Gbyte are 
> > > currently used.
> > > 
> > > Which command or program can I use for Backup only the 51 Gbyte 
> > > instead of 140 (I do not want to backup free space).
> > > 
> > > Thanks for help
> > 
> > There's so many possibilities for this, but I'd start by looking at
projects like:
> > 
> > * Mondo Rescue
> > 
> > * Ghost for Linux (g4u or g4l)
> >
> 
> Do these support LVM?

http://freshmeat.net/projects/mondorescue/

which states:

Mondo Rescue archives Linux and Lin/Win sytems to tapes or CDs, which may be
used to restore some or all of your OS and data in the event of catastrophic
data loss. The emphasis is on stability and ease of use. Currently, ext2,
ext3, (v)fat, minix, ReiserFS, XFS, and JFS filesystems are supported, as are
RAID and LVM.

Ghost for Linux:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/g4l/

These were the first two that came to mind, but I know there are others.

Michael.