Disk Imaging in Ultimate Edition 2.8

[Aardaerimus]

I have numerous Dell computers running Windows XP and I often have to scrub and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows.

Naturally, this process sucks and takes forever. It would be great if I could set up and update a machine and then just clone/ghost it. I anticipate that I will have to create an image for each model or hardware set, but that's not a problem.

Are there any built in drive cloning tools on the Ultimate Edition 2.8 live CD that would be sufficient to clone an WinXP NTFS drive?

Thanks in advance for any info!

[Aardaerimus]

Mmmm K... So, I just discovered DD. (Linux N00b, here)

Launched it yesterday afternoon, and it's still running this morning. Seems a wee bit primitive and inefficient, but if it works it'll be cool, even if impractical. I guess the detection of unused space is file system dependent, though.

[Aardaerimus]

Just logging my results for any other new-comers, like myself.

I found another article stating that a better way to clone NTFS drives was to use NTFSRESIZE and NTFSCLONE.

It is supposed to be way faster as it doesn't have to account for all of the unused space on the drive (which is a LOT, in my case - 250GB).

Sadly, I was unable to figure out how to make it work properly.

Linux DD, however, has been a champ. It's been incredibly weird and unpredictable, but I successfully cloned two drives in a row.

I simply connected a SATA drive of the same size, activated it in the BIOS, and booted from my Ultimate Edition 2.8 Live CD (USB) to the machine with my clean and updated "master" XP install drive.

Both local drives showed up in Ultimate Edition as 250GB drives, and I verified the contents and checked the IDs using

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l

Then used:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Now for the weirdness...
The first time, I let DD run over night... When I came in, it still hadn't completed in the terminal. I let it run halfway through the day, then I couldn't wait any longer because I had to distribute the PC. I was forced to shutdown before it completed, but for grins I let Ultimate Edition fire up prior to removing the attempted clone.

I ran the fdisk -l and it reported exact duplicates, so I got excited and mounted the drive. Lo and behold, all of the files were accessible, and matched the master drive. I still had doubts that it would boot, so I removed it and stuffed it into the other box and - voila - it booted! The other machine had different hardware from the master, but XP detected most of it, and what it didn't I had included drivers for on my master.

I decided to try this again, today, but I wasn't going to let it run all night. This time, I used a 250G drive with a Linux partition. Same steps.

I let it run for less than 8 hours, then shut it down and rebooted. In Ultimate Edition I attempted to mount the duplicated drive and was successful. The file structure matched the master, so I tried booting it and, again, it was successful!

I don't understand why dd is not completing, and I'm even more perplexed that the cloned drives are working perfectly. It would be nice to know if dd is actually completing successfully but not terminating it's process when done.

Anyone else ever experienced this??

[Pierre]

You can also use Gparted on any 'nix live_cd

right_click on the source-partition/drive to be copied -> left_click on copy

right_click on the destination-partition/drive -> left_click on paste.

[dougal]

As you said; it could be that dd is just not terminating. I have had OS installs that complete and go into a terminal loop when I am finished with the install CD/DVD but, when the pc is rebooted all is well.

I must admit I haven't tried either dd nor GParted as Pierre has suggested. Haven't had the need to at home but, I might just try it next time I get a spare drive at work. I used to have to reinstall XP frequently at work as all sorts of programmes or whatever would slow it down and the reinstall was quickest way to cure the problems but, since Vista and now 7, there is not the same drag as the system matures.

I still prefer Ultimate Edition 2.8 though. It is just so configurable compared with anything Microsoft has to offer and even runs some HP stuff that Windows 7 does not cater for even though it looks for and apparently installs drivers - they just don't work.

Ultimate Edition and HP - no problem. In fact Ultimate Edition and anything I have tried so far - no problem. Printers, scanners, eSata drives, cameras, mobile phones all seem to be mounted and work.

It would be interesting to hear if you try Piere's tip with GParted and how it goes.

[Aardaerimus]

It would be interesting to hear if you try Piere's tip with GParted and how it goes.

Ask an ye shall receive.

I tried GParted for the first time, today. At first I was ecstatic - the partition copied both fast and flawlessly. In less than an hour I had copied a 250GB partition, and I was able to browse the files on the new drive, as well as edit them...

... unfortunately, the drive was not bootable in the destination machine. I thought that maybe the MBR didn't copy right, so I ran the XP setup disk and did the MBR fix in the recovery console, as well as the fixboot to refresh the boot.ini.

After monkeying around with it for about an hour, I gave up and moved back to dd... Hopefully, it will sing, this time.