Imaging a hard drive...is it possible

nbukis · 04-08-2003, 09:31 PM

Hey all, I was wondering how to image a drive using linux. My reasoning is I would like to copy a Windows (ntfs, fat/32) drive making sure nothing gets written to the source in the process. I know you can mount a drive as read only, but then how could I image or copy a drive? Is this possible? Thakns for the help....

Tinkster · 04-08-2003, 09:40 PM

Give dd a closer look :)

dd if=/dev/hda1 of=<your_image_file>

Of course hda1 is just an axample ;)

Cheers,
Tink

sardaukar_siet · 04-09-2003, 02:21 PM

There's also partimage, on www.partimage.org, that is great for your needs. If you have seen Partition Magic(tm), it's very similar. Check it out!

Proud · 04-09-2003, 02:24 PM

What's the problem with just mounting it with read-only permissions as stated?

sardaukar_siet · 04-09-2003, 05:26 PM

1. You may not have another partition to image from
2. dd creates a file of equal size (partimage bzips it as it goes, and only used space)
3. Partimage supports FAT and NTFS too!

nbukis · 04-09-2003, 07:29 PM

so using

dd if=/dev/hda1 of=<your_image_file>

will create an image file on my destination drive of the data from my source, right? But if it creates one large file, what kind of file is that? does it have to be "extracted" or should I say, what would the process be for taking that large file and making the drive an exact copy of my source?

For example (windows drive),would I be able to just jack in the copy and boot up the same as with the original....
Thanks every 1

sardaukar_siet · 04-10-2003, 08:19 AM

... a binary dump. Think of it as a BIN/CUE file of a CD. It has the entire contents of the disk in binary form, including empty space and all. To restore such a file, all you need is to dd it inversely, meaning

dd if=<your_image_file> of=/dev/hda1

I believe it's ok to do this, but I HAVE NO GUARANTEES! You have been warned.