I'm going to be messing with a laptop, so I want to take out the hard drive of it and make an image of it on my pc in case i mess it up.
Creating an image of a hard drive
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Creating an image of a hard drive
What software do you guys recommend for simply making an image of a hard drive?
I'm going to be messing with a laptop, so I want to take out the hard drive of it and make an image of it on my pc in case i mess it up.
I'm going to be messing with a laptop, so I want to take out the hard drive of it and make an image of it on my pc in case i mess it up.
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
I've used Ghost enough to trust it... I'd just go with that. Boot CD, GUI: easiest thing I can think of.
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
dd
All I've ever used, without fail.
All I've ever used, without fail.
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dd if=/dev/<disk_name> of=/path/to/image.img bs=16KRe: Creating an image of a hard drive
Hmm, what if I just hook up the hd to my ide in my tower and copy all of the files to another hard drive
same thing?
same thing?
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Yes and No - Read up for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_image
Notably:
Notably:
Also, images are backing up the actual file system data as well.An ordinary backup program only backs up the files it can access; boot information and files locked by the operating system (such as those in use at the time of the backup) may not be saved. A full disk image contains all these, faithfully replicating all data. For this reason, it is commonly used for backing up disks with operating systems, or bootable CDs and DVDs.
Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Sweet, good call.
So basically if I'm only worrying about files on the drive being saved, I don't need to image.
Hmm - I think I'll purchase norton ghost just to be safe.
So basically if I'm only worrying about files on the drive being saved, I don't need to image.
Hmm - I think I'll purchase norton ghost just to be safe.
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Why waste money - gparted works just fine and is open source.
EDIT: OR dd if you're in Linux as Chris mentioned earlier.
EDIT: OR dd if you're in Linux as Chris mentioned earlier.
Last edited by Benjamin on Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
It sounds like you really need to correctly image it
If you mess the drive up having all the files (most likely with different attributes/permissions) alone will be a treacherous path back to where you started. Having an image will be a godsend!
And I agree, just use a tried and test open source solution like parted or dd. There are other tools like testdisk that I have used to successfully recover files from a corrupt hard disk before too (FAT was corrupted but files were all still there).
And I agree, just use a tried and test open source solution like parted or dd. There are other tools like testdisk that I have used to successfully recover files from a corrupt hard disk before too (FAT was corrupted but files were all still there).
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
That's why I loved Windows 98! I have had a two hard drive setup for years and I used to setup 98 exactly the way I wanted it and then would copy everything (except the page file) to my D:\. When 98 would goof up on my C:\ I'd simply boot to D:\, copy everything to C:\, reboot on C:\ and I was up and running in literally only a few minutes.scottayy wrote:Hmm, what if I just hook up the hd to my ide in my tower and copy all of the files to another hard drive
same thing?
Too bad XP isn't like that.
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
That wouldn't work if you put the disk into another computer surely... it needs a MBR, which you simply can't get from copying files alone.
Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
So, I completely wasted my time making an image of the disk. 
All I had to do was run chkdsk /r and it fixed it (error was UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME).
HOWEVER, now it randomly shuts off. Obviously I think this is a heat issue, but the vents appear clean and dust free. So I'm thinking it may be one of two things
1) Failed/failing fan
2) OS failure to tell the fan to work and how much to work (is this possible?)
So other than cleaning out the dust what can I do? Is there such software that monitors cpu temp?
I'm not ready to buy a new fan (basically because getting inside of a laptop is a PITA) or install a clean OS yet.
All I had to do was run chkdsk /r and it fixed it (error was UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME).
HOWEVER, now it randomly shuts off. Obviously I think this is a heat issue, but the vents appear clean and dust free. So I'm thinking it may be one of two things
1) Failed/failing fan
2) OS failure to tell the fan to work and how much to work (is this possible?)
So other than cleaning out the dust what can I do? Is there such software that monitors cpu temp?
I'm not ready to buy a new fan (basically because getting inside of a laptop is a PITA) or install a clean OS yet.
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- Chris Corbyn
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Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Can you hear the fan going? A simple script like this should make your fan whirr pretty loudly after a few minutes:
If the fan has jammed/failed then you really need to fix that or you'll cause even more problems.
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<?php for ($i = 0; $i += ++$i; ) ;Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Oh yes, I hear the fan quite well, LOL.
Not sure if this is good (cuz I can hear it), or bad because it's severely overheated probably.
Not sure if this is good (cuz I can hear it), or bad because it's severely overheated probably.
Set Search Time - A google chrome extension. When you search only results from the past year (or set time period) are displayed. Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
Re: Creating an image of a hard drive
Take a look at its S.M.A.R.T. reports.
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