I'm completely new to Linux, but I've got Mandriva 2007 up and added Partimage. However when I try to make an image of hdb1 I'm getting -

Error - Cannot create temp file [./pi878f5c20.tmp]. Please check there is space enough and you have access rights.

I am in Mandriva's Safe Mode and issued the command umount / before running partimage.

You can't make an image of a system that is in use, you need to run partimage from another OS . A live cd is good for that.

Thanks, I suspected as much so also tried the Mandriva live cd, but that doesn't have partimage on it.

What else could I use?

BTW, as this is my first encounter with Linux I'm a bit surprised and disappointed there is no equivalent of Norton Ghost, which has no problem at all imaging an active system in Windows.

That's news to me as it always rebooted to make the image.

The GPARTED and System Rescue livecds are small and have partimage along with other goodies.

Ghost from version 9 uses a technique called Volume Shadow Copy, so no more rebooting necessary.

Thanks for the tips, I'll go find em.

I now have the System Rescue CD but am having difficulty getting Partimage to do what I want it to do - it's just me not knowing enough about the file system.

I want to image my Mandriva system partition on hdb1 to my external drive on sda1 and have tried a variety of names for the image file to create, such as /sda1/mandriva, /dev/sda1/mandriva, and although most appear to work in the sense that a file is being created somewhere, it isn't being created on sda1 and anyway always stops after 2GB saying disk full and asking for a new path. The disk isn't full of course.

The second problem I have is that I have not been able to find how you change any of the default options - those with a *.

Any help will be much appreciated, as Partimage assumes you already know all this stuff

You meed to mount the external HD

Open a terminal and issue these commands

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

This will create a mount folder and adding the external HD to it, you can cd to the folder and check or use Midnight Commander.

When running partimage the save to line will be

/mnt/sda1/whatyouwanttocallit

enjoy.

it may be useful to check the disk first

fsck /dev/hdb1

As for default options, use the tab key to change position and the space key to select/deselect. It sounds like you have been saving it to an existing folder on the live system so your memory and swap is filling up giving the error.

I think we may have met somewhere else

Thanks for that, I'll try it when I can get the wife off MY comp

have the same prob
can't write or change anything in the given fields

The whole procedure, using SystemRescueCD

On bootup be sure to select the correct keyboard

At the prompt type startx, and right click anywhere to get the menu up. Click Partimage.

In the Partition to Save/Restore section use the Up/Down keys to select

Use Tab to move to Image File to Create/Use. Type the path and filename for your image file

Tab to Action to be Done, and if the * isn't in the selection you want use Tab to get to it. Space bar selects that action

F5 to write the image.