3 computer crashes/rebuilds in 3 years – same machine – I finally snapped and did the VM thing

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OK – so 1.5 days down without pay. That stinks and is not going to happen to me again. I have always wanted to make a VM and run Windows inside my VM. 2 machines later and 3 crashes – I finally snapped and did it. I don’t have a blog with many links, but here is what I did… and it works. Again , I wrecked many a VM on purpose – fiddling and knew how quick a restore could be – so why am I not working like this on purpose for my own disaster recovery? A whole weekend went down the drain – but never again … here’s how…

  • bought a new ssd to replace the broken hybrid that came with my computer
  • added virtual box to my mac
    • built windows WM w. the windows 10 iso on my mac
    • why? Cause making the bootable windows 10 usb didn’t work. So installing virtual box on my mac – I can pick the .iso directly from my downloads folder. Not sure why the host comp did not see it. You CANNOT use boot camp assistant w. El Capitain to make a bootable usb
    • Holy smack the mac is fast – with a VM! Was quite impressed – I have NEVER installed windows anywhere from scratch so fast
  • installed ubuntu on my pc
  • copied VM vdi file to the ubuntu box
    • actually originally i had a vmware distributed file .vmdk files that I converted to .vdi – just do the .vdi file instead from the get-go
    • up and running in seconds
    • figured out the hard way to NOT to map usb devices
      • simply plug in usb and use the network to see the usb drives
      • installed all my windows software
    • installed Synergy – Mouse and keyboard sharing software from symless.com to share mouse/clipboard from mac to unix – (don’t install it on the VM – do it on the host – it works – the VM does not work)
      • buy the pro – it costs $19 – for all the machines in the world that you use.
    • got Novastor backup recovery software up and running
      • restored files
  • Now I am learning how to backup
    • ubuntu 
      • (there was a – missing before cvpzf seen here)

      • [bash]
        sudu su
        cd /
        tar -cpzf linuxbackup/ubuntu_backup_20170107_1430.tgz –exclude=/proc –exclude=/lost+found –exclude=/proc –exclude=/tmp –exclude=ubuntu_backup_20170107_1430.tgz –exclude=/mnt –exclude=/sys –exclude=’/home/ebley/VirtualBox VMs’ –exclude=’*.vdi’ –exclude=’/root/VirtualBox VMs’ –exclude=/linuxbackup –exclude=/var/lib/lxcfs /
        [/bash]

      • the text above in readable format is
        • sudu su
        • cd /
        • tar -cpzf linuxbackup/ubuntu_backup_20170107_1430.tgz –exclude=/proc –exclude=/lost+found –exclude=/proc –exclude=/tmp –exclude=ubuntu_backup_20170107_1430.tgz –exclude=/mnt –exclude=/sys –exclude=’/home/ebley/VirtualBox VMs’ –exclude=’*.vdi’ –exclude=’/root/VirtualBox VMs’ –exclude=/linuxbackup –exclude=/var/lib/lxcfs /
      • some warnings might be ok
    • my VM files (easy, medium, harder)
    • exfat backup format for the external drive
      • dang it – just do it with the commad line.  Length of LABEL (or UbuntuWin10 in my case) has to not be too long

        • [bash]
          sudo fdisk -l
          sudo mkfs.exfat -n UbuntuWin10 /dev/sdXn
          [/bash]

      • or follow these steps (would not mount automatically – but after a reboot and these steps it did)
      • it seems it is proprietary and owned my Microsoft – but it is compatible among all 3
      • have to download FUSE and exfat support
    • what snapshots are
    • why I SHOULD HAVE USED LVM
    • I knew all this stuff but I did it for the companies I worked for not because I knew precisely why “for me”. Now I have been bitten and am much much wiser “for me”. Now I am more than interested in the details AS I WILL NEVER SPEND MORE THAN 1 HOUR ON A RESTORE EVER AGAIN (hopefully)