[ale] OT: Copying a complete hard drive

[Christopher Bergeron]

John, I've had great success with partimage on linux.  One thing to 
consider, is that you have to have an identical partition table (and 
MBR) to restore your system.  I usually do the following:

List the partitions into a text file:
fdisk -l > some_file_that_you_store_with_your_images.txt

Backup the MBR (just in case)
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=master_boot_record_backup_dd_file.img bs=512 count=1

Next run partimage and create your partition images... 

In the event that you lose the drive, you can just:
a) recreate the partition table using fdisk (and using the information 
in the text file you created [above])
b) restore your MBR (dd if=master_boot_record_backup_dd_file.img 
of=/dev/hda1),
c) and then restore the partition images from a bootable CD

I've copied entire Linux machines successfully with this method.  I'm 
not sure why WinXP fails, but I would bet it has something to do with 
licensing, secret spook codes or some similar voo-doo.


Best regards,
Chris Bergeron





John Wells wrote:

>Guys,
>
>Finally got this to work, although it wasn't very straightforward.
>
>I imaged the disk using partimage (partimage.org) and Knoppix.  I then
>booted the target laptop into knoppix, connected to the original machine,
>and transferred it over.  I took approximately 2 hours to restore 15 GB.
>
>However, Windows XP wouldn't boot.  The bootloader pulled up fine, but if
>I tried to boot in anything but safe mode, I'd get a blank screen.  If I
>*did* boot in safe mode, it would begin booting and list a number of
>drivers out of the multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partion(1)\Windows\System
>directory it was loading, and then it would just halt.
>
>As a last resort, I popped in the XP cd.  Instead of dropping to the
>recovery console, I pressed "Enter" to begin re-installing XP.  On the
>next screen, you have the option of choosing to try and repair a current
>installation.  I opted for that, and the system went through a (seemingly)
>full install process, with "Time remaining" indicators and standard in
>progress promotional material.
>
>When it was finished, I reboot, and voila...my system was restored.  All
>software from the original drive was in place and working.  All settings
>restored, etc.
>
>So, while it wasn't as easy as I had hoped, it still did work.  I'm not
>exactly certain what caused the problem initially, but glad the end turned
>out ok.
>
>Thanks,
>John
>
>
>
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