Bitcoin Forum

...and if so, what software did you use?

I'm thinking about doing a full upgrade/switcharoo of my little farm, i.e. update to the latest AMD blockchain drivers, switching o/c tool from Wattman to Overdriventool, upgrading Claymore version of dual ETH miner etc. (currently mining XMR on Claymore 9.7).

I'd like to be able to revert quickly and painlessly in case I hit difficulties (and wish to lose as little precious mining time as possible). No better failover than a ghost/image backup, is there...

I've had success with CloneZilla for cloning my desktop drive or generating an image. However, I typically don't use it for my dedicated rigs.


When I have Linux on a small flash drive, I use this USB imaging tool:
http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/

My main gripe with it is that when I restore a saved image to a replacement flash drive, the replacement needs to be slightly larger than the original one was, or else the tool throws an error. Otherwise, it's worked flawlessly.

Backing up regularly is especially important when running at 24/7 rig with cheap flash drives for boot devices. Cheap flash drives just don't have the longevity of hard drives. (Disabling the SWAP partition can help, if it doesn't impact system performance.)

I use linux  for most  and I have usb clones.


on my windows  I use this

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Dual-Bay-Function-Tool-Free-FD2002/dp/B00N1KXE9K/ref=sr_1_1?

well worth it.

I also use these ssds

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-120GB-SDSSDA-120G-G26-Newest-Version/dp/B01F9G414U/ref=sr_1_2?


for mining builds of windows

I use diskless netboot for ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DisklessUbuntuHowto). 

If I want to make a backup, I can just make copy the folder to another disk on the file server.  This allows me to make changes to files without having the keep worker node(s) turned on.

It should only take you about 30 minutes to rebuild a Windows 10 rig on an SSD.  It would probably take you about that long to restore from a backup. 

Here's the very quick steps needed to get a Windows rig setup to run headless...

1. Install Windows (depending on the version of Windows you may not even have to activate!)
2. Install missing drivers for mobo and video card
3. Turn off Windows Update service
4. Enable auto login
5. Disable sleep mode in power control panel
6. Enable RDP


That's all you have to do.  From that point on disconnect the monitor keyboard and mouse and RDP into the rig from the comfort of your couch.

I just do one more step.  I install  the Awesome Miner agent and then I rarely even have to RDP into the rig.  The Awesome Miner console will control the rig, download mining software, change my mining software and pools at will or on a profit-switching interval.

Acronis 11.5 Advanced

Best image making software you will find.
I've been using it professionally for years for multiple companies and private use, hasn't failed me yet :)

Agreed. It's not so scary to spend half an hour to configure mining rig on Win 10 from the very beginning if it is 5th rig, 10th or so on rig

no, I use nvOC, just backup a couple of config files.

I hear you about the time it takes to install Win10 and set it up. But the time it then takes to get the miners back on, fetching all configs, re-tweak all overclocking profiles (multi-AMD rigs are a pain there, not as straightforward as just using a few pre-defined nvidiainspector scripts)... You need to back up all that info and spend a lot of time to do these steps one by one.

One-click backup/restore would be very useful.
I've used Acronis in the past. Might just have a go at it again.
The hardware ones are nice, but I'd rather save the image to my NAS. Over CAT6 it'll be quick enough.

What do you think we're going to back up? We have 15 of the exact same unit so if anything ever went wrong with the operating system we would simply replace it with one from one of the other units. I assume that's what you're talking about but the operating at system is something that is very easy to replace. So why would I back it up?