Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost like any software for Ubuntu?

[sikander3786]

Hi Buddies.

I run a small Hardware and Software store in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. When I installed Ubuntu Hardy for the first time on my PC, most of my customers were mesmerized to see the cool effects of Compiz Fusion and Emerald. And all the Applications were either superior or at least all of them were equal to Propriety one's. Most of them wanted to have Ubuntu installed on the PC's they were going to purchase

Now the problem was that installing all the additional software and configuring it was going to take at least 4-5 hours/PC as Ubuntu doesn't come with Compiz, Emerald, VLC, Kaffeine, Cairo-Dock, Propriety Codecs etc out of the box. I have not much of man power to do all this work and I can't and don't want to charge extra money for installing Ubuntu so i had to limit my Ubuntu PC sales to 2-3 PC's/week.

Now the demand is rising and I am not upto it so I want to have something like hard disk copier/imager which copies each and everything from one hard disk to another just like I use Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost for Microsoft Windows.

Any help will be appreciated.

[ottosykora]

Clonzilla might be the thing you are looking for, it comes also on iso files, so you can boot from it later.

[phillw]

There are a couple of others -- pybackpack is one i remember http://andrewprice.me.uk/projects/pybackpack/

There's a discussion going on over here --> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1302283

Regards,

Phill.

[sikander3786]

Thank you both. I will try out all the options and let you know about the progress.

[iqtedar]

Could you please tell me which store it is because we are interested in making a purchase of a large number of PCs to run on open source software in our schools. We are in Rawalpindi (Khanna East). We are currently using Macs but they are too expensive so we are experimenting with Ubuntu that we can run on cheaper hardware. I'm not leaving my contact details for now because I'm not sure whether this is within the site's terms and conditions so I will check.

[sikander3786]

Sorry for the late reply. Actually I was offline for the last 3 weeks. Well you can contact me at <snip> and I will forward you all details afterwards.

Regards.

[l3ecl]

Bump. I have the same problem and am interested in a solution. Has anyone found one? I Messaged OP and he says he still has to reconfigure every new install.

[darkod]

Bump. I have the same problem and am interested in a solution. Has anyone found one? I Messaged OP and he says he still has to reconfigure every new install.

If you are looking to clone disks for other machines, like the OP, not sure what to do. If you are after a solution to keep images of your computer, I recently found interesting link on this forum that I am also exploring right now:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Backup_Operating_Systems

Sounds OK as solution. I am mostly interested because you can restore on smaller partition than the one you imaged, as long as the data fits of course.

Cloning for different machines is not easy task, even in windows. The hardware is rarely identical, for a start. When you add to that that linux is working quite differently than windows, it's not a simple job.

PS. I just remembered, the OP mentioned Acronis in the title and exactly Acronis can image linux partitions too. I think the only limitation is that it will image the whole partition, not just the used part, because it can't read what's inside. It will basically image block by block. But I might be wrong, they are improving linux compatibility with every release.

But I guess even imaging like this will still make you do reconfigurations on the new machine.

[sikander3786]

If you are looking to clone disks for other machines, like the OP, not sure what to do. If you are after a solution to keep images of your computer, I recently found interesting link on this forum that I am also exploring right now:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Backup_Operating_Systems

Sounds OK as solution. I am mostly interested because you can restore on smaller partition than the one you imaged, as long as the data fits of course.

Cloning for different machines is not easy task, even in windows. The hardware is rarely identical, for a start. When you add to that that linux is working quite differently than windows, it's not a simple job.

PS. I just remembered, the OP mentioned Acronis in the title and exactly Acronis can image linux partitions too. I think the only limitation is that it will image the whole partition, not just the used part, because it can't read what's inside. It will basically image block by block. But I might be wrong, they are improving linux compatibility with every release.

But I guess even imaging like this will still make you do reconfigurations on the new machine.

Hi darkod.

I was thinking exactly like you mentioned. I know it will not be an easy job to create an image for multiple hardware but what I have been doing on windows is to create and image for a specific brand e.g, dell gx280 with all the needed software, games, drivers, everything configured according to our needs and then re-use it to install windows on every gx280. Same is the case for other brands.

This is what I want to do with ubuntu. I think it will not be that much complex.

I will go through the link you stated. I know there is an Acronis software but I don't know much about its reliability or efficacy. Will check it out for sure.

Regards.