root volume backup and devices

Hi, 

What's the best practice dealing with devices when backing up the root
volume?

I used to use the following switches to backup my root volume:

  -P dev -P proc -P sys --no-mount-points

I.e., I thought udev would populate /dev on boot up so I didn't back it
up. However, I got

 Warning: unable to open initial console

from the restored system and the boot froze. 

Having gone through all the possible reasons in http://kerneltrap.org/node/2205
did I realize that my /dev directory should be backed up & populated.
In fact, what's really important are the null, zero, console and tty[0-9]
devices. 

So if there is no good way dealing with devices, can I use '-P dev' to
exclude them all at first then include back those important devices? 
If yes, how?

Thanks

-- 
Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply)
  http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/
  http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/


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