In my present dual boot (Fedora Core 4 & WinXP2003 Server) desktop computer, I have redundant 100GB disk drives.

Every so often I boot fedora core 4 and

telinit 1
cp /dev/sda /dev/sdb

and then I reverse the connections to the drives so I boot from the newly created copy.

I just ordered two NSLU2 NAS controllers and two external 300GB USB drives on sale. I would like have a nightly job perform rsync.

I assume I'll have the option of either plugging the 300GB drives directly into the USB ports in the back of my desktop computer or using the NSLU2 NAS controllers.

With the new drives can I just say "telinit 1; cp /dev/sda /dev/sdc" to create a dual bootable image on my new disk that I can subsequently keep up to date with rsync?

If so, can I do that with the NAS controller or do they have to be plugged into the USB port on the back of desktop computer?

My guess is no. Instead I think I'll have to build new dual boot partitions on the disks.

If I do that, can I subsequently use rsync to keep my spare boot disks up to date?

I assume I'll be able to configure my computer to network boot over the NAS controllers too. I understand that the NAS controllers will have to be on my local network for this to be feasible.

Thanks,
Siegfried