I'm attempting to backup a large NTFS partition with ntfsclone, saving the image file to a FAT32 USB external hard drive. The NTFS partition is about 18gb total with just under 5gb of data. Saving in the ntfsclone special image format is unsuccessful because of the FAT32 4gb filesize limit. Using ntfsclone with gzip compression...

cd /mnt/maxtor/backup/home/win2000

ntfsclone -s -o - /dev/hda1 | gzip -c > 050904.img.gz

produces a smaller file, but the compressed data is reported to be invalid when checked by the ntfsclone test option (this has happened repeatedly).

I have successfully backed up and restored NTFS partitions with less than 4gb of data using the ntfsclone special image format. For partitions with more than 4gb of data, is it possible to use the special image format and split the output into two or more smaller (less than 4gb) files? If so, what would be the command syntax for backup and for restore?

Thank you!

You can include the utility split with gzip. Another utility you can use is tar with out the need to use split. I suggest stopping at every gigabyte with FAT32.

My basic question is, can I use split without compression, i.e., split the ntfsclone "special image format" (which from what I read is the preferred format)?

Of course:
ntfsclone -s -o - /dev/hda1 | split -b 4000m -

You can use cat to join the files later. See http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...icle&artid=227