Backup large file to multiple DVDs
 

I will do my best to describe my problem. I work for a school consulting company. We helped a school deploy about 1500 computers. The computers have windows XP but we have been using G4L for the restore partition on the drives. So far the software works great. We did however run into a problem in that many of the computers we deployed are missing the restore partition. The reason they are missing is long and convoluted and not really that important. What I have been charged to do is try and fix the restore partition problem. One solution that I had, which im not even sure if it will work, was to backup the recovery file, that g4l created, to DVD and write a basic script to recreate the partition and then copy the file over. This process would need to be as automated as possible since this disc will be inserted by the end user(the students). The backup file that g4l created is 5.9GB so it wont fit on just one disc and Dual layer discs are too expensive to use for this project, so the file will either need to be compressed again (not sure if that's a good idea or not) or split across two DVD's.

I have searched the forums here and I was not able to find anything to fix this problem. I was able to find some info on splitting files across two discs but im not sure how to use that to fix my problem. Thanks for the help.

Well, since you've found the split command, that's pretty much all you can do to break up a file into multiple segments. You CAN burn each one to a separate DVD, etc., but if it's only 5.9 GB, why not get a large memory stick, or external hard drive?

I got a 16GB memory stick for $29 the other day. Hard-drive enclosures for USB/Firewire can be found for about $15, and will take any old hard drive you've got, and make it an 'on-the-go' solution.

This might help:
http://dar.linux.free.fr/

I had originally thought to use a flash drive for this but because the computers we need to fix are scattered across the state it would make it difficult to use. We would have to ship the drive to each home where there is a computer, have them run it then ship it back to us to be shipped out again. With DVD's if they dont send us the discs back we are only out half a dollar or so.

I will look into DAR to see if it will do what i need it to. One thing i was just trying was to see if I can use g4l to backup the restore partition onto DVD then use g4l to restore the restore partition if that makes any sense. I just don't know if g4l will allow the restore file to be split across media, or how to get g4l to even restore from a DVD/CD.

Looks like DAR will do it, im gonna give it a shot and hopefully it works the way i want it to. Thanks for the help so far.

Ok I was able to backup the file with DAR and have it split so it will fit on two different discs. Im having trouble with the next step, I need to make a bootable Disc that when inserted starts the DAR program and un-archives the backup. I have no idea where to start, I don't mind doing a little reading on the subject but I have never had to do anything like this so I don't even know where to search.