Bit Copy Of A Mixed Use Hard Drive - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2019, 05:22:35 pm
content: The hard drive on my workshop machine is used for both MS Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux, because of this there are six different partitions on the hard drive including UEFI, NTFS and ext3. I would like to make a bit copy of the entire 250 Gb drive for disaster recovery purposes, in the old days I would have used something like Norton Ghost but I am not sure if this program can cope with a mixture of partition types.The two operating systems don't help here, Linux has trouble reading UEFI formatted drives and MS Windows refuses to recognize an ext3 partition.So, what can I use to make a bit copy of everything on the drive in one go?

author: andycsmith
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2019, 05:34:40 pm
content: you could tryhttps://www.clonezilla.org/,the latest version handles UEFI and should cope with Linux as its Linux based software. I use it for taking images of windows PC's.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2019, 05:37:48 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on November 08, 2019, 05:22:35 pmEh?!You have Linux. Use dd.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2019, 05:38:47 pm
content: Code:# dd if=/dev/hda of=backup.raw conv=sparse iflag=direct &only if your current directory is on a different disk, of course.

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 01:47:47 am
content: Yep, and also if you want the image to be as small as possible, first run zerofree on the Linux filesystems (and equivalent on the Windows filesystems) and, then when you dd, pipe the output through xz or your favourite compression program.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 07:54:29 am
content: I tried using dd overnight, everything was copied across except the two EFI partitions so the search for an answer continues.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 08:49:54 am
content: Quote from: German_EE on November 09, 2019, 07:54:29 amI think you're searching for a question..If you use dd to copy a raw block device, everything will be copied. UEFI or not.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 09:23:08 am
content: Quote from: Monkeh on November 09, 2019, 08:49:54 amAbsolutely. dd cares not what is on the disk. It could be complete garbage (encrypted) or blank, it will still image it, bit-for-bit, start to finish.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 11:00:40 am
content: I wouldn't make images of a disk containing any filesystem which is mounted read-write at the time. This is asking for an inconsistent snapshot which may fail to mount or cause data corruption down the line after restoration.I have no idea what you mean by UEFI format and EFI partitions.There is the new UEFI GUID partition tables, Linux of course supports them or it wouldn't even mount its own partition. There are some individual partitions for UEFI use, I know nothing about their contents because my household is UEFI-free but you can certainly image them by reading /dev/sdxN regardless of what filestystem format they contain.Quote from: German_EE on November 09, 2019, 07:54:29 amMaybe it's time to ask what exactly have you done and how you know what is copied and what is not.

author: wilfred
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2019, 11:32:39 am
content: Be sure to verify your copy to another HDD will work by booting from it. The last thing you'd want is aggravation when you have dire need of it to work.And I agree dd should be suitable.