Linux Imaging Tools

Tech7 · 02-19-2014, 08:29 PM

I need to image a Windows system to back it up to an ex. drive. The drive that Windows is on is 700gb's. I am looking to image the drive skipping the free space so the file is smaller. I am just curious to those ecperienced what you might suggest for what program to use, and how I could use it to copy just the data portion of the hard drive....

I see the "ddrescue" has an option "-m maxxfer - maximum amount of data to be transferred" Is this the type of option I am looking for?

frankbell · 02-19-2014, 08:44 PM

Clonezilla is a popular choice for such tasks.

Tech7 · 02-19-2014, 09:03 PM

I was poking with the UBCD when you responded and found it had clonezilla built into the Parted Magic and I am giving it a run now. It never asked if I wanted the hole disk or just data though the websites description says it only copies the data. So will see thanks for the tip never used this before so excited to try it!

jefro · 02-19-2014, 09:31 PM

Any reason not to use the windows backup with system state?

CloneZilla and redobackup usually come in a single iso but can be found in other collections.

Commercial tools like Acronis and Norton can use the live state backups behind the scenes.

Tech7 · 02-19-2014, 10:41 PM

I do plan to get into the Windows tools as well, just trying to get several "bullet proof" backups, this is new out of the box but has windows pre-installed so figured I could image and set up backups at the factory state. Im just used to using linux so I figured I would start there. With some of the new "pre-installed" versions of Windows there is no cd, and a full restore would require a new activation which is a good 90$ or so..