virtualbox.org

I have a 20 Gig VDI file that contains a very incomplete version of Linux From Scratch that I want to backup; unfortunately, my DVD recorder maxes out at 8 Gigs.

If my Host OS was Linux instead of Windows, then I "think" I could just use the Linux TAR command to break the 20 Gig file into three pieces of 8, 8 and 4 Gig respectively. Instead of going through the trouble of installing cygwin or msys on my Windows Machine, is there some way I can use the TAR command inside my Virtual OS to TAR up my Virtual OS VDI? I suppose I can give my Virtual OS a shared folder that allows my Virtual OS to see itself, but I think that using my Virtual OS to TAR itself might cause recusive issues.

Thanks,

Shawn

It doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Under what circumstances could you restore this backup? Certainly not if your Linux was dead.

And anyway no: Linux can only see it's own partitions inside the VDI, it cannot see the complete VDI.

How about an external USB drive for backups? I suppose an external Blu-ray drive is also a possibility, though still an expensive one.