I have a computer-based device used in my Ophthalmology office that uses a Compact Flash card as its primary hard drive. This device, and the CF card, are Linux based, and so the card has Linux partitions on it.

I need to be able to clone this CF card, using a Windows computer, onto another CF card, to replace one that has failed in one of these devices.

Neither Windows XP nor Vista is able to do anything with it. I use Casper to clone Windows hard drives and partitions which are FAT32, NTFS, etc., but it does not recognize or work with Linux partitions.

I need a simple, hopefully free or inexpensive, program that I can install on a Windows XP or Vista computer, which can clone the good Linux based CF card (which would be connected via a USB Reader, or a built-in Media reader) onto a brand-new unformatted CF card that I would buy, and similarly connected.

I've done some googling, but being completely unfamiliar with Linux, I'm quite uncertain as to which might do what I want, and don't want to spend hours trying out different apps.

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

DLCPhoto

Dd has a windows version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix)

If you have a cd/dvd drive, try one of the many live cd's for this.

Dd has a windows version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix)

If you have a cd/dvd drive, try one of the many live cd's for this.

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C'mon Tink, you can do better than that ... ;-)

@DLCPhoto, you don't need a windoze solution, you need a Linux solution you can use on your windoze machines. They are called liveCDs and can be booted, and run, without affecting your base windoze system.
Go to distro.com and pick one - knoppix is good. Has a disktop that should feel familiar to a windoze user (these are free by BTW).

Next we need to know what you mean by "clone". If your current CF card is 2 Gig and you buy a 4 Gig, are you happy to have your new card look like 2 Gig ?. Is it the boot device ?.

Lots of questions, most easily accommodated, but we need more info.

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Thanks for the replies and suggestions. A Live CD sounds like it should let me do what I need.

As for the cloning, I imagine the Device in question wouldn't care if the CF card is 2, 4, or 8gb in capacity, as long as the underlying partitions and file contents are maintained.

I know when I copy a drive using Casper in Windows, I can alter the sizes of the various partitions the drive contains, but the contents of each remains identical (other than the amount of free space).

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There is a dd for windows. It works like normal dd.


You can also consider acronis.

For free and simple I use g4u but there are plenty of other live cd's and floppies that will work.

Be careful with any dd command. Since g4u uses dd for both source and destination you have to watch out you don't move that CF to your hard drive.

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Thanks, and good point. If I do this on my home PC, I might just disconnect the data cables to the hard drives, which is quite easy to do on this system, and use a bootable CD, just to make sure!

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Well, I downloaded the Knoppix 6.2 ISO, burned it to a CD-R, disconnected both of my internal Hard Drives (just to be absolutely sure I didn't screw anything up on them), and booted from the Knoppix CD.

After completing its sequence, it showed an "Adriane" Menu System, with entries 0-13 (also, with the voice-reading apparently enabled by default, which is kind of annoying).

The options were WWW, EMail, etc... and included File Manager, Shell, Graphical Programs, Setup, etc. I have explored these various options and don't see anywhere that I can do a cloning operation.

I tried the Graphical Programs, and it opened up a Windows-like interface, which again I explored, not finding anything that looked like it would clone a drive.

It was able to detect the 2 CF cards I inserted to test it out - one in the built-in Media Reader, and the other in a USB connected external media reader - so that part looks compatible.

So I'm at a loss as to how I can accomplish what I want once I've booted up with Knoppix.

Where do I go from here??

I also remembered I have "UltimateBootCD", Version 4.11 I think, if that would be of any use.

Thanks for the help I've received so far - hopefully we're in the home stretch in terms of getting my CF cards cloned.

Sadly knoppix is not what is used to be.

You can select a better live cd for your task such as partedmagic or really almost any other top utility distro. I think ultimate boot cd has all the tools too.

I would think that an old ghost would work if you put the cards in a fully supported ide to cf adapter. That is what I'd do first. (get an ide to cf adapter that is fully seen as a hard drive) That way you can us almost any program to clone the disks.

Paragon partition Manager or 'Paragon Festplatten Manager'.

http://www.paragon-software.com/buy/eshop/home/

Update:

I tried Ultimate Boot CD 4.11, but either the relevant utilities wouldn't boot properly, or the CF cards weren't recognized.

So I next downloaded Ultimate Boot CD 5.02. This worked out better. I ran Parted Magic from this CD, which booted into a nice Windows-type interface. I saw the Ghost 4 Linus was one of the options, so I ran this. It opened properly, and was able to recognize both of my (FAT32) CF cards, so the pieces all seem to be in place. And one of the options was a direct disc clone, where I could select one CF card as the source, and the other as the target. So hopefully this will work.

I'll next get the actual linux-based CF card I want to clone, a new blank one, and hopefully I'll be good to go.

I just realized that while my FAT32 test CF cards have only a single partition on them, the Linux one I want to clone had 2. I might have to manually create the appropriate partitions on the new CF card if Ghost 4 Linux doesn't take care of it automatically.

Will post back when I try this all out - probably on Wednesday.

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