Backup script?

[Joe]

On my laptop, I have a pretty barebones installation of Windows 98. Once I get the battery replaced, I'd like to back my copy of Windows 98 up, byte for byte, and install Linux, but still have the disk image available incase I ever want to go back.

Tools: CD Drive, 1gb flash drive.

How can I back the entire hard drive up (around 6GB disk, about 500MB used), compressed, and put it on a flash drive, using a Linux LiveCD (obviously, basic tools). I don't want to assume I'll have an internet connection available, so I'd prefer only tools that pretty much any distro has (probably dd and tar).

Thanks!

[Chavo]

You want an image you can just load up to replace the entire drive contents or a backup that you can decompress on top of a working install?

[Sidoh]

Ghost is your best bet.  Disk to image, save the image back onto the disk (not sure if it lets you do that, but its worth a try) or onto the flash drive directly if you can find a way.

[rabbit]

A flash drive will probably be USB (I've yet to see a firewire one, but they exist, I'm told).  USB ports are usually /dev/sda#.

[Sidoh]

A flash drive will probably be USB (I've yet to see a firewire one, but they exist, I'm told).  USB ports are usually /dev/sda#.

And your point is?  Ghost isn't Linux.

[rabbit]

A flash drive will probably be USB (I've yet to see a firewire one, but they exist, I'm told).  USB ports are usually /dev/sda#.

And your point is?  Ghost isn't Linux.

My bad :\

[Chavo]

I'm sure Joe can't afford ghost though either

I haven't used it personally, but you might give g4u a shot

[Sidoh]

I'm sure Joe can't afford ghost though either

But he can afford visual studio?

You're killin' me uT!

If you have a floppy drive, Joe, download FloppyImage and I can see if I can get ahold of an image of the disk my school used to use.

[Joe]

I'm sure Joe can't afford ghost though either

But he can afford visual studio?

You're killin' me uT!

If you have a floppy drive, Joe, download FloppyImage and I can see if I can get ahold of an image of the disk my school used to use.

I used Visual Studio Express. $0 is pretty comfy for my budget.

I'd really rather use dd and tar, though. I don't want to depend on a Windows install in order to restore it.

You want an image you can just load up to replace the entire drive contents or a backup that you can decompress on top of a working install?

I want to be able to restore my entire system, bit for bit back to the hard drive (partition tables, everything), exactly as it is right now. Like, the whole /dev/hda.

[Sidoh]

I used Visual Studio Express. $0 is pretty comfy for my budget.

I'd really rather use dd and tar, though. I don't want to depend on a Windows install in order to restore it.

I'm positive you've pirated something of equal magnitude.

Ghost is not Windows!  It's completely independent of an operating system.  There are Windows utilities to extract files from an image file, but that does not mean you need to boot to Windows to restore anything.

I want to be able to restore my entire system, bit for bit back to the hard drive (partition tables, everything), exactly as it is right now. Like, the whole /dev/hda.

Then use Ghost.

[Joe]

@Piracy: VB6 and XP Pro.

@Ghost: Oh, I thought you meant Norton Ghost. Uh.. is that the disks you were talking about? Send them over, I guess. Both my laptop and desktop have floppy drives, but I may have to go buy myself some new disks. .

[Sidoh]

@Piracy: VB6 and XP Pro.

@Ghost: Oh, I thought you meant Norton Ghost. Uh.. is that the disks you were talking about? Send them over, I guess. Both my laptop and desktop have floppy drives, but I may have to go buy myself some new disks. .

I AM talking about Norton Ghost.

[Joe]

Oh.. isn't that dependant on Windows? And why do I feel like I'm asking questions that have already been answered!?

Anyhow, send themz.

[Sidoh]

Oh.. isn't that dependant on Windows? And why do I feel like I'm asking questions that have already been answered!?

Anyhow, send themz.

NO!!!

There are utilities that extract files from ghost images, but ghost boots off of a DOS floppy and has the ability to image a partition or an entire disk.  There's also some option to clone disks or partitions.

[Chavo]

Oh.. isn't that dependant on Windows? And why do I feel like I'm asking questions that have already been answered!?

Anyhow, send themz.

NO!!!

There are utilities that extract files from ghost images, but ghost boots off of a DOS floppy and has the ability to image a partition or an entire disk.  There's also some option to clone disks or partitions.

Rofl, watching someone explain something to Joe that he obviously doesn't get is funnier when you aren't the one trying to do it 

We use ZenWorks at work which does pretty much the same thing as Ghost, but lets us boot from LAN and pull images from a Linux file server.  Pretty nifty, you can put the images on a dvd too with a small script that automates all of it.

[Sidoh]

Rofl, watching someone explain something to Joe that he obviously doesn't get is funnier when you aren't the one trying to do it 

We use ZenWorks at work which does pretty much the same thing as Ghost, but lets us boot from LAN and pull images from a Linux file server.  Pretty nifty, you can put the images on a dvd too with a small script that automates all of it.

There are some hacks you can use to allow Ghost to do that.  Since you're booting on MSDOS, you can use NetBUEI to map a network drive (which could presumeably be from a samba server), which Ghost will recognize and allow you to use.  We did that for all of the lab builds.  It allowed us to build three or four machines at a time without worrying too much about time or network resources.

My old boss switched over to WinInstall at the beginning of this year, which is way cooler than Ghost.  That was, however, assuming that it worked as well as AttachMate said it would!  It was giving both of us a headache during the summer.  I'm not sure how it's behaving now, but I'll ask him when I go to his house next weekend.