I don't know what is possible, but would it not be
desirable to back
up the system [first]? [...]
And I don't know that backing it up is useful if
you can't restore it
onto the system easily.
If the only way to back it up is via network then it
may be necessary
to initialize things anyway.
If it uses a conventional disk, then I'd say the best way to back it up
might be to pull the disk and raw-image it. That also makes for easy
restores...at least, assuming you're trying to do a full restore.
/~\ The ASCII Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
X Against HTML mouse at
rodents-montreal.org
/ \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B