That is a great idea, but this addresses nothing about size limits. I still 
have yet to successfully copy anything over 2GB using dd. It always dies 
giving me a file size error. I'll try again, maybe dd has been updated?

I didn't know about partimage though.  Thank you very much.
I will be keeping this email!

Nathan

On Friday 19 May 2006 00:19, you wrote:
> Not sure if this will help or not, I'm only just beginning to play with
> Xen, but I had saved this from another post:
>
> from "Knoppix Hacks":
>
> Hack #48 - Clone Hard Drives
>
> Cloning entire partitions has long been a time-saver for sys admins.
> Instead of running through the same install process for tens or hundreds of
> machines, a sys admin can set up a single machine just how he wants it,
> then copy the hard-drive image to the next machine, saving hours of work.
> Plus, a broken machine can be reimaged and back to the "factory" state in
> minutes, reducing downtime. There are many different hdd-imaging programs
> you can purchase, but with a Knoppix disc, you can easily create partition
> images, partition-to-partition copies, and even disk-to-disk copies. This
> hack covers two programs: dd, which  is commonly used to create and copy
> drive images, and partimage, which combines the power of dd with an
> easy-to-use interface and the capability to save images over the network.
>
> dd
>
> Ask any Unix-sys admin about disk imaging, and, most likely, the first tool
> that he suggests is dd. Dd is a very powerful program that creates exact
> bit-for-bit copies of drives or partitions. You might have used this
> command previously if you had to create a boot floppy or an iso from a
> cd-rom.
>
> While there are quite a few different arguments you can pass dd to change
> its behavior, the two basic options are if and of, which specify the input
> file and the output file for dd to use, respectively. As with Unix, in
> Linux "everything is a file," so the input file of the output file is an
> actual file on the system--for example, drive.img, a partition such as
> /dev/hda1, or a complete drive such as /dev/hda. When you use Knoppix for
> disk imaging, you run completely outside any disks on the system, so you
> don't have to worry about files changing or being modified by your login.
>
> A direct disk-to-disk copy is a common use of dd. In this scenario, you
> have partitioned and configured one disk, hda, that you want to
> mirror--partition tables and all--to a second blank disk, hdb. It is
> important that hdb be the same size or greater than the size of hda when
> you copy the image; otherwise, only some of your files are copied, or, the
> worst case, the image does not mount. To perform the disk-to-disk copy,
> open a terminal and run the following command:
>
> [linux]$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb
>
> This command takes some time depending on size and speed of your disks, and
> unfortunately, dd does not provide a fancy progress meter.
>
> If you don't want to copy a complete drive, but just copy a partition from
> one system to another, you add the particular partition number you want to
> use. Similar to copying a disk to another disk, make sure that the
> partition that you are copying to is the same size or larger than the
> partition you are copying from. This command copies the first partition
> from /dev/hda to the first partition of /dev/hdb:
>
> [linux]$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1
>
> Like with a disk-to-disk copy, this takes some time to complete, although,
> generally cloning entire disks or partitions with dd is faster than doing
> file-for-file copies with tar or cpio.
>
> You also have the option to store a complete disk image to a file. This
> enables you to create a complete snapshot of a hard drive that you can
> reimage back to the drive to restore it to a certain state. This can be
> particularly useful in the case of computer forensics [hack #47], when you
> want to create a complete copy or multiple copies of a drive so that you
> can examine the drive without risking any data loss. To copy a disk image
> to a file, simply pass a filename instead of a device name to the of
> argument. Most likely, disks you want to image in this way are larger than
> your available Knoppix ramdisk, so you need to mount another disk to which
> to save the image. To create a complete image of the /dev/hda1 partition
> and save it in the root directory of a file system mounted at /mnt/hdb1,
> use the following command:
>
> [linux]$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1/hda1_drive_image.img
>
> Many people make a point of adding an .img extension to their image files
> as a reminder that the file is a complete disk image, but you can name the
> file whatever you wish. Even though dd doesn't list progress, when you save
> to a file, you can monitor the size of the file to see how much time you
> have left.
>
> The watch utility is particularly useful for this task because it performs
> a command every two seconds and shows you the output. To monitor the
> progress of this image, type the command:
>
> [linux]$ watch ls -l /mnt/hdb1/hda1_drive_image.img
>
> Once the operation completes, the complete contents of /dev/hda1 are stored
> in hda1_drive_image.img.
>
> You can also utilize ssh to save the disk image over the network to a
> different machine. If you don't specify an output file, dd outputs the disk
> image to STDOUT, which can then be piped through ssh to the remote machine.
> So, if you have an account on 192.168.0.2 to which you want to save the
> file, issue the command:
>
> [linux]$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda1 | ssh username@192.168.0.2 "cat >
> /home/username/hda1_drive_image.img"
>
> After you enter your password, dd copies the complete encrypted drive image
> over the network and stores it in hda1_drive_image.img.
>
> By storing a partition image in a file, you can use Linux's loopback
> mounting option to mount this file as though it were an actual partition
> and examine the files. For instance, if you have an image of an ext2
> partition, you can create a new mount point in /mnt and mount the file
> under Knoppix with the following command:
>
> [linux]$ sudo mkdir /mnt/temp
> [linux]$ sudo mount -o loop -t ext2 /mnt/hdb1/hda1_drive_image.img
> /mnt/temp
>
> Now you can browse through the file system at /mnt/temp just as if it were
> the actual partition. This also works for browsing through ISO images, such
> as the Knoppix CD image, or any other CD images you might have.
>
> To reimage /dev/hda1 with a file you have saved, simply issue the dd
> command in reverse:
>
> [linux]$ sudo dd if=/mnt/hdb1/hda1_drive_image.ing of=/dev/hda1
>
> If you have saved your image over the network, you can also reimage by
> reversing the command by typing:
>
> [linux]$ssh username@192.168.0.2 "cat /home/username/hda1_drive_image.img"
> | sudo dd of=/dev/hda1
>
> With these commands, you can easily image and reimage machines just from
> dd, but if you want a more graphical experience, Knoppix has included a
> utility, partimage, that provides you with an easy-to-use GUI and still
> gives you many options without  any command-line kung fu.
>
> Partimage
>
> While partimage can be run from the command line directly, this hack also
> covers partimage's interactive mode, which it executes when you run
> partimage with no options. Partimage requires root privileges, so under
> Knoppix, type:
>
> [linux]$ sudo partimage
>
> When launched, the first option you see is to choose which partion you want
> to save or restore. Like its name alludes to, partimage is only for the
> purposes of saving and restoring partition images. Partimage also attempts
> to guess which filesystem the partition is currently using, which makes it
> easier to see which partitions you want to image on a multi partition,
> dual-boot system. After selecting the partition to save, move the cursor
> down to select the image file to save to. Knoppix has limited ramdisk
> space, so you must save the partition image to another partition on the
> system. Make sure that partition is already mounted and then type in the
> full path of the file you want to save--for instance,
> /mnt/hdb1/hda1_drive_image.img. Once you enter the filename, if you are
> saving to the local machine, you can simply hit F5 to move to the next
> screen.
>
> Partimage also provides an option to save the partition image over the
> network to another machine. This requires the other machine to be running
> the partimaged sever, so you need either another machine running Linux with
> partimaged installed, or you can use another Knoppix disk booted on that
> machine to run the server. If you choose to run partimaged from Knoppix,
> you must create a password for the root user, because partimage prompts you
> for a username and password before connecting to partimaged. On the remote
> server, open a terminal and type sudo passwd to enter in a new password for
> root. Then you can run the partimaged server in interactive mode (which
> lets you see connections as they are created along with their progress):
>
> [linux]$ sudo partimaged
>
> Partimaged supports connections from multiple clients at the same time, so
> you could potentially image multiple systems at the same time over the
> network and save to a single file server.
>
> After the server has been configured, on the partimage client, check
> "Connect to server" and enter the IP address or hostname of the partimaged
> server in the next field. Keep in mind that when you save to a remote
> server, the path and filename you enter are the path and filename you have
> used on the server, not on the local machine, so make sure that path exists
> and you  have enough room for the image. When you hit F5 to continue,
> partimage attempts to connect to the remote machine and prompts you for a
> username and password. If the partimaged server is running on Knoppix as
> well, enter root for the username and the password you have set up, and
> then choose OK.
>
> Once you've authenticated, you are presented with some compression and
> file-splitting options. Partimage can compress partition images using gzip
> and bzip2 algorithms, which are progressively slower but provide
> progressively smaller images. By default, partimage also splits images into
> files that are less than 2GB. This is a safeguard in case you are saving to
> a filesystem that doesn't allow files to be larger than 2 GB. If you want
> to burn the images to a cd-rom later, you can also modify this option to
> save the image to 650 MB or 700 MB files. Once you have changed these
> settings to suit your needs, hit F5 to move to the next screen, which
> allows you to type a description of the saved partition. By default,
> partimage presents you with information about the partition. Hit Enter to
> start the image-copying process.
>
> One nice thing about using partimage over dd is that the progress bars tell
> you how far in the process you are, how much time has elapsed, how much
> time is remaining, and information about how large the image is and how
> much free space you have available. If you saved to a remote server, you
> can also monitor the progress from there. Once the process finishes,
> partimage displays how long the process has taken and then exits.
>
> To restore an image using partimage, the process is quite similar: specify
> the partition to which you want to restore to, and specify the image file's
> path that has already been created. Check "Restore partition from an image
> file" instead of "Save partition into a new image file."
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Nathan
> England
> Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 9:06 PM
> To: Phoenix-LUG,
> Subject: OT: vmware
>
>
>
> I have a virtual machine that I want to get out of the virtual space and
> onto
> my laptop. I have read you can ghost the image from the vm to the physical
> machine, but I don't own a new enough version of ghost to make a bootable
> disc with network support to ghost it to my physical partition...
>
> Is there any better way to do this? I'm considering booting knoppix and
> tarring it | untarring it to the partition...
>
> Nathan
> --
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