I have a hard drive here that I'd like to make an image of, so I have an image to copy over if (when) the hard disk fails. The disk is 80G but there is only about 3G used.

My first thought was to use dd to create an image, but it wants to make me an 80G file, and even when compressed this is still way too big to fit on a DVD.

So my question: I only have 3G of data on this thing, is there another way to make an image of the drive that I can put on a dvd?

Partimage allows you to make an image of a partition without wasting space if the partition is not completely filled.

In my experience, the resulting image file is pretty much the same size (a bit smaller actually, due to compression) of the files that are actually present on the drive, regardless of the size of the partition itself.

Partimage would work just fine, but I wouldn't use compression if you don't need it. Might save you some headache.

Thanks for the suggestion. I used Partimage with gzip compresssion -- did the trick quite nicely. Cheers

Even though you're happy, I'll post a link to a thread that shows how to make an image without un-allocated space using dd, and a shareware application. For others who may trip on this thread.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=571924

The unfortunately side of Partimage and most other Linux native utilities, is they need to have file system knowledge to backup non-Linux partitions. Not to mention that one need to run Partimaged server on another machine if you want backup over a LAN to another hard drive. And you have to back up the MBR and partition table separately.

I use G4L (http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l) to create bare metal disk images, which will include the MBR, partition table and RAW sector data. I use it on Linux and Windows machines and it works very reliably. The only disclaimer I have to make is that I have used it between hard drives with the same specs (sectors, tracks, cylinders).

While G4L does have the advantage of being able to make images regardless of the filesystem used (since it ignores the filesystem and simply copies sector for sector), I don't know how much of an advantage it actually is in the real world. Partimage has very good filesystem support (EXT2/3, Reiser, XFS, JFS, FAT16/32, HPFS, UFS, HFS, NTFS), so unless you are working with some very exotic systems, you should have everything you need. You have pretty much all the bases covered to work on almost all Linux/Windows/Mac machines. Granted NTFS support is still experimental, but I have personally made images of probably 50+ NTFS volumes without a single incident.

As for the network support, you don't actually need to run the Partimage server if you want to put the images on a remote machine. You can just as easily mount a remote filesystem (SMB, CIFS, NFS, SSHFS, whatever your kernel supports) and chose that as the destination for the image file.

I couldn't get Partimage to restore successfully on some Dell 9150's with pre-configured HDs with some hidden partitions last year. Not to mention I have a large number of system to backup, which the procedure I was given for Partimage was to back up the MBR, PT, and each partition separately, which took over 6 hours elapsed time for each system over a LAN. Also, the security requirements (DoD NISPOM) imposed on me do not allow me to run the system unattended in an unprotected/unsecure mode. I found it easier and faster using G4L to backup 4 systems simultaneously to a NAS in less than 2 hours, and it will restore in less than 1 hour. Minimize recurring support, down time, and eliminate chances for human (me) mistakes. My self imposed bare metal backup requirement (in addition to daily, weekly, monthly file system) is every 6 months or whenever there is a significant change in the configuration or status of the system, which ever is less. Also, I need to create a bare metal backup for NISPOM forensic evidence in the event there is a compromise of the system.

To each his own.