** Paul Tansom paul@aptanet.com [2003-08-12 16:28]:
Anyone got any experiences with disk imaging software? I've used Norton Ghost in the past (didn't like it at all, but that was quite a long time ago and to be honest I can't really remember why - may have been the fact that you had to license a copy for every machine you used it on, so to clone 9 machines from a master required 10 licenses - as I said, it's a while ago now). Currently I'm using Drive Image from Powerquest, but as that doesn't support (spit) XP I'm going to have to upgrade.
I've been looking at Norton Ghost (v8), Powerquest Drive Image (v7) and Active Disk Image. So far the last one is favourite as it is compact enough to fit on a floppy and doesn't mess around with GUIs and Windows installs. I'm also a little confused as to the suitability of the other two which talk about automated backups from Windows etc.. In particular Drive Copy looks to be the appropriate product from Powerquest, but Drive Image is the one that supports XP.
I've just remembered the PartImage software for Linux, so I'll have to dig the URL out and take a look, but thought I'd ask for practical experiences since I have a brief respite before laying out any dosh.
** end quote [Paul Tansom]
I'm going to clarify this as on reading it back I think my train of thought wandered between my immediate need for the software (Windows) and my required specification (Linux support as well) as I typed!
I'm looking for imaging software that is platform independant - so can work with Windows and Linux partitions. Drive Copy v4 that I have sepecifically states 'not XP' which is my immediate requirement - presumably referring to the updated NTFS filesystem rather than an XP install on FAT; although think it through now it may mean that it won't install on XP (who cares, I don't run it), but will manage XP partitions from a boot disk.
Ghost and Drive Image both appear to be heavily Windows based, although seem to be able to support boot disks - I guess mainly intended for restoring. Active Disk Image works best in that it is a DOS based application that runs of a boot disk, but only in terms of a Windows environment, and will support my immediate requirement, but does not support Linux filesystems so is not a good long term investment (unless they take my email to heart and do an updated version).
The Parted/PartImage/PAUD option is not looking hopeful in that the is no NTFS support for my immediate requirement, so a combination of solutions is looking likely for now.
As a quick summary on the Linux side of things for those interested:
Ghost support Ext3 (presumably Ext2 as well, but it doesn't list it) Partition Image supports Ext2 (but doesn't list Ext3 or others) Active Disk Image doesn't support any Linux filesystems PartImage supports ext2/ext3, reiserfs (as well as jfs and xfs) Parted supports ext2/ext3, linux-swap, reiserfs (not jfs or xfs)