I currently have the following setup:
2TB HDD
/dev/sda
:/dev/sda1
: (NTFS) Windows 7 Boot Partition: 100GB
1TB HDD
/dev/sdb
:/dev/sdb1
: (EXT4) Linux General/Backup Partition - 1TB
256GB SSD
/dev/sdc
:/dev/sdc1
: (FAT) Windows 7 Loader Partition - 100MB/dev/sdc5
: (EXT4) Main Linux Boot Partition - 255.9GB
Here's what I'm going to do. /dev/sdc
, the SSD, will be combined with other SSDs in a RAID-0 configuration. /dev/sda
will be combined with other drives into a RAID-6 configuration. /dev/sdb
will most likely become entirely NTFS for Windows space.
Is there a way that I can copy /dev/sda1
, /dev/sdc1
, and /dev/sdc5
to files on a filesystem in order to then create partitions out of them? After configuring the arrays and setting up GPT on each virtual drive, is there a utility I can use to create the partitions from backup files?
Better yet, is there a way to compress down these partitions on the FS so that empty blocks are not copied so I only have to store what's actually there?
Essentially, what I'd like to do is to make an optimized backup of these partitions, then install them where they need to go, then expand them as need be to fill the disks. I know how to expand partitions, but is there a relatively easy way to back them up and flash them back?