[CALUG] SSH question

[James Ewing Cottrell 3rd]

It would seem that I missed his intent. I seem to recall the word 
"backup" and ran with that. Now that you have explained the situation so 
well, I think DD is a viable solution in this case.

But there is an easier, better one. Simply bring his own disk in and put 
it in the machine. Most have a place for two, but only populated with 
one. Install Linux on the second disk and overwrite the MBR with the 
LILO or GRUB entry. That way you have a dual boot machine.

Another way is to use Partition Magic to resize the Windows Partition, 
creating space for a FAT32 partition and space for Linux if a second 
disk isn't used. the FAT32 partition is used to shuttle data back and 
forth and is where Boot Magic can optionally live.

It may even be possible to do all this with an external USB disk if you 
can figure out how to boot it via the BIOS.

JIM

Bryan Breen wrote:
> James Ewing Cottrell 3rd wrote:
> ...
> 
>>I would pose the opposite question: why do you want to do this? Any 
>>speedup you might get are likely to be offset by the pitfalls you are 
>>likely to encounter.
> 
> 
> The original query was how to make an image of the drive in its current 
> state so it could be restore at a later date.
> 
> The concerns about the hardware being similar for the restore are 
> obviously not a concern - it is the same. As for it being unmounted, 
> that also was implied by the original question. The system to be imaged 
> is a windows install that Jason wanted to blast away and install his 
> flavor of choice of OS and be able to restore on the day he has to turn 
> it back in to his company.
> 
> If you know of a solution to reliably copy, and later write, NTFS file 
> systems (the one Jason has to and I have had to deal with), and ensure 
> they are identical (not just similar), I'm all ears. My understanding is 
> that the write ability for NTFS in Linux is an exceptionally larger 
> gamble than the bit for bit copy that dd provides.
> 
> 
> This discussion wasn't as much about "what's the best way to maintain 
> long term back up data?" as it was "what's the best way to make a remote 
> bit for bit snapshot to later be restored in full?". Similar ideas, but 
> quite different intentions.
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