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.
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.
We use ghost. Just boot from the FD and connect via the network and restore the images
We are only using it to restore Linux images atm, it even works with vmware :)
Restored a ghosted image to vmware and it works a charme
Darren
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Paul Tansom wrote:
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 used the latest version of Drive Image at home and work, and both work well with Linux and XP. In fact I have a nice backup of my laptop burnt to a DVD. Perfect for the next time I have to reinstall XP!
Chris
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:08:37 +0100 (BST) Chris Glover chris@glovercc.clara.co.uk wrote:
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Paul Tansom wrote:
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 used the latest version of Drive Image at home and work, and both work well with Linux and XP. In fact I have a nice backup of my laptop burnt to a DVD. Perfect for the next time I have to reinstall XP!
I have used both dd and tar via ssh
Regadrs
Owen
** owen.churchcowley owen.churchcowley@ntlworld.com [2003-08-12 20:39]:
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:08:37 +0100 (BST) Chris Glover chris@glovercc.clara.co.uk wrote:
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Paul Tansom wrote:
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 used the latest version of Drive Image at home and work, and both work well with Linux and XP. In fact I have a nice backup of my laptop burnt to a DVD. Perfect for the next time I have to reinstall XP!
I have used both dd and tar via ssh
** end quote [owen.churchcowley] That's an interesting thought that hadn't crossed my mind. I'll have to read up on it a bit, but that should take care of NTFS. Of course the problem with any of these is where to put the resultant image so it can be accessed and how to spool it straight there in the absence of local disk space.
As an aside for anyone interested I had this one suggested to me:
looks to be very interesting.
On Tuesday 12 August 2003 21:30, Paul Tansom wrote:
That's an interesting thought that hadn't crossed my mind. I'll have to read up on it a bit, but that should take care of NTFS. Of course the problem with any of these is where to put the resultant image so it can be accessed and how to spool it straight there in the absence of local disk space.
Ghost can do that, it's the only way I have ever used it. You can have one machine running the Windows ghost software in listen mode (sorry can't remember what they actually call it) and then providing you can find a dos driver for your network card, the ghost boot disk can connect to the remote machine and stream images to/from it.
The way to get around the Dos driver problem is to keep a couple of really generic PCI and PCMCIA cards with the ghost disks in case you come across say a laptop with intergrated ethernet that has no Dos drivers.
I am totally confused about the Ghost licensing, but I suggest you review it as the way I understood it, If you booted machines from the Ghost boot disk then you only need licenses for as many machines as you want booted at the same time (plus whatever machine you are going to stream the image to) Installing the WIndows software is another matter, but why would you want to do that on more than one machine ?
I have also used PQ Disk Image, which I like quite a bit. As far as I can remember it can copy an image even if it doesn't understand it (although resize to fit won't work) Certainly I have moved ext2 and (I think) reiser images around with it. You can also buy it with Partition Magic. Both have the facility for creating boot floppy's.
One thing I prefer about Ghost however is that you can inspect/change the contents of an image without having to restore it somewhere first. They may have done that with PQDI now as it's been a while since I have used either.
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:30:14 +0100 Paul Tansom paul@aptanet.com wrote:
That's an interesting thought that hadn't crossed my mind. I'll have to read up on it a bit, but that should take care of NTFS. Of course the problem with any of these is where to put the resultant image so it can be accessed and how to spool it straight there in the absence of local disk space.
$ssh -A root@livecomputer RSH=ssh /sbin/dump -0 -f backup@storageserver:/tmp/dumptest3 /home/mightyg
instead of using dump which is optimised for backup for ext2 and ext3 (possibly other UNIX file systems have similar or work with dump, must check), dd a particularly ancient UNIX application can read raw partitions to and from files. Since everything is a file in UNIX this allows you to backup any systems inefficiently as partitions using UNIX pipes, this includes the popular Microsoft offerings.
#ssh root@livecomputer /bin/dd if=/dev/hda1 | backup@storageserver /bin/dd of=/tmp/dumptest4
This is unfortunately inefficient in it does not do 3rd party transfer and all traffic flows through the instigator. Its also not very graphical.
better is to make a named pipe on the livecomputer and issue four commands but I am going to sleep now. So I wont test the commands.
Regards
Owen
referance
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** 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)
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Chris Glover -
Darren Casey (Personal) -
owen.churchcowley -
Paul Tansom -
Wayne Stallwood