On 10/8/05, Vaughn Treude wrote: > > On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 20:09, Kurt Granroth wrote: > > On Oct 7, 2005, at 6:10 PM, Vaughn Treude wrote: > > > A while back I posted a question about cloning a Windows XP > > > drive using > > > a Linux live CD such as Knoppix. The suggestion to use "dd" was a > > > good > > > one. I googled this command and found detailed instructions on > > > www.nilbus.com for doing this. In short, they > said to: > > > Use fdisk to create partitions on the new drive identical to > > > those on > > > the old drive (using the -u option to display sectors rather than > > > cylinders, which ensure that they'll be the same.) > > > Use dd to copy the 440 bytes of the boot partition. > > > Use dd to copy the contents of the other partitions. > > [snip] > > > > Heh, what a coincidence. I cloned a WinXP partition using dd on > > Wednesday for the first. It worked like a charm. > > > > The one thing I did different was in copying the MBR. Instead of > > copying parts of the boot partition (is there such a thing with > > Windows?), I copied the entire 512 bytes of the MBR. > > > > My procedure, then was: > > > > 1. fdisk -u /dev/hda > > 2. fdisk -u /dev/hdd > > 3. fdisk /dev/hdd (make partition with the EXACT same size) > > 4. dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdd1 > > 5. dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdd bs=512 count=1 > > > Hmmm, that's interesting. The instructions said to copy only 440 bytes > because the partition table lived in the rest. Since you did that last, > I'm surprised it didn't mess something up. Though the partitions were > the same, I don't know if the actual contents of the table could differ > at all due to disk geometry. If not, no problem. I will try copying > the MBR again, at least those first 440 bytes. > More likely though, it's something to do with that darned hidden > partition. It appears the system you cloned didn't have one. I have > been researching this issue and have found some venomous comments about > Compaq/HP's weird setup. The hidden partition contains not only > recovery info but it has files necessary for the boot. I know that's a > common thing in the Linux world, but at least for us, everything's > documented. I haven't yet found much useful info on this "feature". > Thanks anyway, > Vaughn > > > > A bunch of reboots later (this is Windows after all), and it popped > > up in my brand new drive. > > > > Kurt > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss I've had great luck with g4u (ghost for unix). I think it's NetBSD based. I've also heard about "Frisbee," from the University of Utah. But haven't tested it out yet. I use g4u at work, and it works well for cloning multiple machines. I'm pretty sure it still uses the dd command.