Hi all,

I'm a tech with a client who has a Win 2003 server that we want to do a disk image of. Normally, I'd use Acronis True Image, and be happy to pay the $80 for three seats. But Acronis says that to correctly clone Win Server 2003, we must use the server version of their software which costs $700! Yikes!

I tried Clonezilla a while back, and it didn't work well - don't remember what the problem was. But I'd like to find a lower cost way to clone my client's drive. I know I can use the 'dd' command when booted from a Linux live CD, and then there's the Trinity Rescue Kit, Partimage, and all the rest.

Neither I nor my client mind paying reasonable fees, but $700 seems absurd... Can someone recommend a disk cloning program or procedure that they've actually used successfully on Win Server 2003?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

To image the server disk if you have a Gnu/Linux (any distro) running you don't need to pay anything. Here is one simple solution:

1. Detach the server hard disk from its box then attach it to the Linux box as a slave or an external hard drive through USB port. Then boot the linux box, see if the attached disk is enumerated by the linux system, issue this in the terminal--
view the listing if the hard disk is there and under what name, usually it comes as "/sdc" or "/hdc". Seeing it is there (you should have a ready space in separate partition big enough for the image right?) you can start copying the image block by block.

2. With all those in ready issue this in the terminal--

no need to apply switches, but you can control the size of blocks handled, read manual of dd command
When command is done it will report the total number of blocks read from disk copied and written into the image file.

Actually that is the same simple thing done behind most commercial software purporting to be cloning programs; they use dd command or its equivalent.

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Another way is to use "rsync", either taking hold of the disk as a slave, a USB external or as a mounted drive or volume visible in a network host. rsync is more intelligent as a copying/backup application, and it has an option to compress the backup files (not a disk image though). rsync has never failed me so far in using its backed files in times of recovery need.

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All of those are free under Gnu/Linux. You can save your $700, for it is something that you can solve without spending any amount. (Only the idiots and the lazy are punished to pay such a foolish price.)

Hope it helps. Good luck.

mm

BTW-- if you are not yet familiar with the "dd" or "rsync" command you can always come back for help and guidance, there are plenty of people to help you up, much of those who are more knowledgeable than me.

Thanks again.

They missed the entire section of the 70-29x series then. NTbackup is the suggested way with help from technet site if needed for services and servers running on it live.


Clonezilla should have worked, so knowing the fault may have helped us.

All sorts of other ways. dd disk to disk, dd to some ftp, http, nfs or iscsi storage, dd over telnet or netcat, partimage, fog server, drbl server.

Almost any properly shutdown, error free drive windows 2003 can be cloned to an exact hardware. To clone to a new hardware then requires you to understand a bit more. By the eula you may need to purchase more product or licenses from MS. Might need sysprep or other tools to image this across platforms.

General rules tend to say run checkdisk and defrag the drive prior to any clone.