We all know the importance of backing up your data. Most of the time, we back up files and subdirectories into tapes, optical media, network-attached storage devices, storage area network and/or a spare hard drive. There are instances, however, that backing up an entire partition is more useful.

In my usual small server setup, I have the two major partitions, the root and the home. The /home partition is where user-data is. On each upgrade, I can modify the contents of the root partition whilst keeping the /home partition intact. However, backing it up is a must-have prior to modifying the root partition.

Backing up a partition is tedious -- until recently with the introduction of Partition Image. Here's a tutorial on how to use it to back-up and restore your HDD partitions.

So what are you waiting for? Back up that data partition now!