Using linux to clone a Windows ME disk?

[Jerry Feldman]

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On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 12:34:45 -0500
"Hewitt Tech" <hewitt_tech at comcast.net> wrote:

> I realize you wanted to do this with Open Source tools but the
> Powerquest Drive Image tool will do this quickly and reliably. In a
> UNIX environment, I've cloned disks using dd but it gets complicated
> when you mix in Microsoft formats. Not only that but you probably want
> to make the new 60 gig drive a single large partition and although
> Drive Image will do that automatically, it probably would be more
> difficult with Linux based tools. It should be easier to copy a FAT32
> partition and use Windows ME than for example NTFS and any of the NT
> variant OSs.  I guess when you bought the 60 gig drive it didn't come
> with any utilities right? If you happen to buy a Maxtor or a Western
> Digital drive, both manufacturers include utilities that do what Drive
> Image does i.e. make a mirror of the partition and allow you to grow
> the target partition to the size of the available disk. You might want
> to check the web site for the manufacturer of the 60 gig drive to see
> if they have downloadable utilities.
Certainly that would be one way to do it, but Jeff already has all the
right tools. The Knoppix bootable Cd has qtparted which is much like a
partition magic clone. jeff can use dd if he allocates the partition on
the large disk to be identical to the small disk, then use a
partitioning tool to expand. But, the steps that I proposed do work fine
for fat, fat32, vfat and ntfs (W2K and Win XP). I tested it in the lab
at Northeastern last week. It uses the GNU parted library. The
MandrakeMove bootable CD also has an excellent tool. 

Also note that I left out formatting of the new partition. qtparted can
do this, or Jeff can use the mkfs(8) command. I see no reason to go out
and buy software that will only be used once, like Drive Image. 
- -- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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