Copying a drive without imaging software?
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RobertPaul
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Copying a drive without imaging software?
So I've got a drive that's on its last leg ... I have a new disk ready to roll but I don't really want to shell out for Norton Ghost just to mirror the drive. I can't do it while Windows is running, since it's picky about not copying files/directories that are in use. I can't boot to a prompt since ... well, WinXP can't boot to a prompt. I can't boot to a Linux live CD since Linux can't write to NTFS.
Any suggestions? =\
Any suggestions? =\
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RobertPaul
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Re: Copying a drive without imaging software?
Actually, Knoppix has an NTFS write driver now. Its experimental, but it works. That and dd, and you are all set.RobertPaul wrote:So I've got a drive that's on its last leg ... I have a new disk ready to roll but I don't really want to shell out for Norton Ghost just to mirror the drive. I can't do it while Windows is running, since it's picky about not copying files/directories that are in use. I can't boot to a prompt since ... well, WinXP can't boot to a prompt. I can't boot to a Linux live CD since Linux can't write to NTFS.
Any suggestions? =\
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RobertPaul
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Re: Copying a drive without imaging software?
What does dd do that cp doesn't (besides being much more complicated, judging by the man page)?Roja wrote:Actually, Knoppix has an NTFS write driver now. Its experimental, but it works. That and dd, and you are all set.
Re: Copying a drive without imaging software?
cp copies, dd does binary imaging.RobertPaul wrote:What does dd do that cp doesn't (besides being much more complicated, judging by the man page)?Roja wrote:Actually, Knoppix has an NTFS write driver now. Its experimental, but it works. That and dd, and you are all set.
The difference is substantial. CP is for files, dd is for whole disk imaging. Its like comparing xcopy with norton Ghost - totally different.
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RobertPaul
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So just to clarify, since I don't fully understand the implications of dd... my brain is fried.
I've got a 40GB drive that's my main boot drive, and a 200GB drive that I want to be may main drive because the 40GB is about to fail. If I just dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/dev/hdb2 (where hda5 is the 40GB and hb2 is the 200GB) will I be able to boot* from from the 200GB? Will it affect the formatting/partitioning of the 200GB?
*Once I switch it over to Master, obviously!
I've got a 40GB drive that's my main boot drive, and a 200GB drive that I want to be may main drive because the 40GB is about to fail. If I just dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/dev/hdb2 (where hda5 is the 40GB and hb2 is the 200GB) will I be able to boot* from from the 200GB? Will it affect the formatting/partitioning of the 200GB?
*Once I switch it over to Master, obviously!
I recall windows has a volume shadowcopy system you may be able to use. That is what the standard windows backup system uses. You might want to look into that.
DO NOT write to an ntfs drive from linux. Even the developers who wrote the drivers for linux will tell you that. It is experimental and you may end up with corrupt files that you might not detect for months, and by then the original hd will probably be in the trash.
DO NOT write to an ntfs drive from linux. Even the developers who wrote the drivers for linux will tell you that. It is experimental and you may end up with corrupt files that you might not detect for months, and by then the original hd will probably be in the trash.
They tell you the opposite:agtlewis wrote:DO NOT write to an ntfs drive from linux. Even the developers who wrote the drivers for linux will tell you that. It is experimental and you may end up with corrupt files that you might not detect for months, and by then the original hd will probably be in the trash.
Are there any utilities on the knoppix disk to conveniently manage partitions , which points to: http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntf ... ml#example , which is titled "How to resize NTFS without data loss?"
In fact, their comment is: "Choosing a distribution including ntfsresize version 1.11.2 or later is highly recommended because they are able to resize all type of fragmented NTFS safely, there isn't need for defragmentation in advance at all."
I've done so dozens of times in the last year, to no negative impact.
- Chris Corbyn
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I'm sure the last time I compiled my kernel I stumbled across NTFS Write Support in there... They've been hacking to get this working for a good few years now.
Yeah... to image your drive just use `dd' from a linux boot disk... it will copy the boot sector too if that is on that partition and not the start of the disk itself. In fact, with dd you could copy *only* the boot sector if you really wanted to... this is done for allowing windows bootloader to boot linux but that's beside the point
Even if you copy the boot sector along with the partition you'll need to use fdisk to set the partition you copy it to as bootable though
If it really is about to completely pack in (as you might have noticed my recent post in this forum yesterday since my drive packed in) then I'd image it asap, start using a new drive and keep the old drive as a spare for non-critical stuff.
Yeah... to image your drive just use `dd' from a linux boot disk... it will copy the boot sector too if that is on that partition and not the start of the disk itself. In fact, with dd you could copy *only* the boot sector if you really wanted to... this is done for allowing windows bootloader to boot linux but that's beside the point
Even if you copy the boot sector along with the partition you'll need to use fdisk to set the partition you copy it to as bootable though
If it really is about to completely pack in (as you might have noticed my recent post in this forum yesterday since my drive packed in) then I'd image it asap, start using a new drive and keep the old drive as a spare for non-critical stuff.
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RobertPaul
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