[SOLVED] Exact duplicate of entire HDD

[cyclouno]

No actually; this will become a multi-step process:

1) Create the image
2) Compress it to occupy less space (You will get space savings of _at least_ 50%), as well as split it into 4 GB chunks.
3) Get hold of the "System Rescue CD" and create a customised bootable rescue CD following instructions from their site
4) Copy your hdd image to DVDs
5) Keep the whole thing as a backup set.

One additional advantage if you're copying to DVDs; you can create archive files of 3.7Gb instead of 4 Gb; create iso's of each archive; then use a program called DVDisaster (it's in the repos) to create an error correction codec (ecc) that will make sure the DVD is accessible even if it is scratched or damaged (to a reasonable extent). You can then copy these iso images to DVD.

Simply loving it.. will try it & let you know.. btw did you read my question reg.. if my harddisk will be automatically partitioned to it's original sizes while I restore the Image contents??

Obviously I ain't talking about HAL !! It's just my sys - my backup / my sys - my restore..

[ByteJuggler]

Simply loving it.. will try it & let you know.. btw did you read my question reg.. if my harddisk will be automatically partitioned to it's original sizes while I restore the Image contents??

Yes, that's correct, that's what will happen. After the cloning onto the new drive, you will be left with unpartitioned space on the drive, equal to the difference in sizes between the old and new drives. You can then use that as you see fit, e.g. by expaning the last partition into that free space, or by creating a new partition.

[ByteJuggler]

What would be the steps to copy a hard drive to a bigger drive. I'm finding my 80G that came with my system is too small and thus are wanting to upgrade. You say it has to be dealt with seprately..how so? Basically I want to go from 80GBs:

40G ******* XP~~
-----------------
1G /swap
17G /home
17G /

TO:

125 ******* XP~~
-----------------
1G /swap
120G /home
4G / <-- making that smaller Linux says I'm only using 2% of 17Gs so...no point in keeping it that big

How would I do this without borking any of the info, can the 'dd' command do this or would I need a different way?

You can use the "dd" command. Simply image the entire source drive to your new drive. Then swap around the drive id's (remove the old drive, put the new one in its place, and reboot from it.) You'll have free unpartitioned space left over equal to the size of the new - old drive, which you can deal with as you see fit. (E.g. by creating another partition, or by expanding the last existing one into it etc.)

[prshah]

What would be the steps to copy a hard drive to a bigger drive.
How would I do this without borking any of the info, can the 'dd' command do this or would I need a different way?

In this case, I'd recommend you use partimage; it is GUI, far easier, safer and more convenient to use than dd.

sudo apt-get install partimage

, then press Alt+F2, and give the command

partimage

[cyclouno]

Yes, that's correct, that's what will happen. After the cloning onto the new drive, you will be left with unpartitioned space on the drive, equal to the difference in sizes between the old and new drives. You can then use that as you see fit, e.g. by expaning the last partition into that free space, or by creating a new partition.

BTW "dump" & "restore" commands are faster with the snapshot parameter???

[Maverynthia]

Partimage doesn't appear to be part of the LiveCD I have. I also have no space to save the images. I simply want to copy them anyways :/

Is there just no way to make a clone of a HD and resize as well?

Gparted only leaves the space at the end, which you can't resize for anythig at the front of the drive...

[kushykush]

How about guidance on copying the Ubuntu installation (partition) to another partition on the same or different hard disk. I tried copying my perfectly fine installation (partition) to another partition on a different hard drive through Ubuntu CD ("rescue a broken system option). However, it did not copy my partition. Gave me errors and asked me to debug, which, of course, I cannot.

Is there a direct way of copying your clean, working installation (partition) to another hard disk on the same computer? I know it will disrupt the GRUB. However, I can deal with it later once I am able to copy my installation.

[prshah]

How about guidance on copying the Ubuntu installation (partition) to another partition on the same or different hard disk. I tried copying my perfectly fine installation (partition) to another partition on a different hard drive through Ubuntu CD ("rescue a broken system option). However, it did not copy my partition. Gave me errors and asked me to debug, which, of course, I cannot.

Is there a direct way of copying your clean, working installation (partition) to another hard disk on the same computer? I know it will disrupt the GRUB. However, I can deal with it later once I am able to copy my installation.

Copying the entire (working) partition to another partition using either "dd" and/or "partimage" or any of the other methods here should work just fine. If the copy fails, post the error messages for a clue.

You can also use "remastersys" to create a live CD / backup CD of your (customized) installation, and use that.

Besides this, you will probably get a lot more responses if you use a new thread rather than recycle this old one.

[kushykush]

Thank you PRShah!
Could you tell me exactly how to make the backup CD. And once that is done, I can copy it on another partition??