[Dvdrtools-users] Backup of a partition with compression

[Ekkehard Kraemer]

Hello,

I would like to backup a partition (/dev/hdaX, not the file system) to a DVD. 
The partition is too large to fit on a single DVD, but with compression (gzip) 
it fits. It is then still larger than 2GB (close to 4GB).

I cannot use temporary disk space to store the partition before burning it.

I would like to use DVD+RW media on a Plextor PX-716A.

It is perfectly fine if I can get at the data from Linux only; compatibility to 
some other OS is not an issue.

Now I'm at a loss. I tried using the streaming mode of growisofs/mkisofs; that 
works insofar as I don't get error messages, but the file on the DVD cannot be 
read later (as it is > 2 GB, I assume). I played around with dvdrecord, but 
didn't get far (piping stuff into dvdrecord, it didn't seem able to work with 
media that had already been written to).

Can I use growisofs to supply my own stream of data without an ISO FS being created? 
I.e., can I somehow access the "builtin_dd" of growisofs, which seems perfectly 
capable to work with my combination of drive and media? Or is there some other way?

Thanks in advance,
Ekkehard