Hi, basically my question involves the dd command. My aim is to copy the entire contents of my usb thumb drive (e to a folder located in (c:myfolder). I have seen a tutorial on this site for dd, which is helpful but no matter what i have tried i dnt seem to be able to get it to work successfully. Im using a windows machine and i downloaded 'cygwin'. Could anyone help me out here?


Thanks

why for you try the using of unix native applications on the non unix computer?????


(i can speak English i just did that for dramatic effect)

i am trying to create an identical copy of my thumb drive for a C++ program im trying to create. It has to be a foresically sound copy and this is the only way i know how i could ossibly achieve this - however if you know of another easier way i would like to hear please!!

Using cygwin, you don't have a kernel. The cygwin shell sits on top of windows, so you use windows for access to devices. If you need an image of the thumb drive, then either plug it into a computer running Linux, or boot up with a live distro on the current computer.

ok then, im a little confused , sorry

is there a way to create a dd image of a thumbdrive is im using machines that run on xp as will my program to create an image of the usb device?

just use the windows gui???

and will that allow me to create the dd image of my device?



.............sorry but......how do i do that


my apologies for the simple questions - im appreciating the patients and help

There are unix utilities for windows (win32) and dd is included.

http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

IM confused now, ive downloaded unix uilties for win32 and its the same as cygwin isnt it?

I have never used these utilities and do not know how well they work.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils

Ok this is going to be in the form of a question as I'm not sure of this,
Wouldn't he want to use rawwrite in windows to do what he needs to do?

i've downloaded 'dd' from the rawwrite website. when i put in the suggested syntax from the site nothing happens at all? it just echos my command that i typed

Windows not only abstracts the hardware, it prevents users from accessing the hardware directly. Contrast this to Linux, which abstracts the hardware, but does allow users to directly hit the hardware, if they really want to.

Two different philosophies, and I'll argue in favor of either of them, depending on the mood I am in.

But the upshot, I think, is that dd is unlikely to work in a Windows environment since it hits the hardware at a pretty low level. I am not positive of that and I have never tried dd from cygwin, but given that cygwin hooks into Windows at a fairly high level using a dll, this is what I would expect.

I would suggest, as someone else suggested, that you make an image of the thumbdrive using a Linux system then copy the image over to Windows.

ok, but in my situation imaging the thumb drive on a linux machine is not an option (unfortunatly), i need to find away to image the thumb drive on the windows machine - maybe i should head away from the dd image idea - are there anymore options for creating an image?

i know every thing ive said has been shot down but

winrar??? winzip????