Re: Making Windows images from Linux

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:48:58 -0700, Amaranth wrote:

Instead of forking out money to buy proprietary disk imaging tools to
restore Windows every now and then (cue Windows jibe), would it work
to just use Linux to copy a fresh Windows install out, to be copied
back (rm -rf Windows partition, cp -r fresh install) when things break
down or bloat up?

Use a tool called ntfsclone to backup individual Windows partitions which
are formatted ntfs. I described one common usage here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.suse/msg/837b44f62c139745


I'm about to do this but don't want to find out several months down the
line that it won't work. How do I make a copy of the Master Boot Record?

You are correct to worry that the tools you select will work when you need
them. One way to take the guess work out of equation is to practice in
advance using them. Practice requires a system where mistakes will not
have drastic consequences (i.e. you must have good backups, etc.)
There's more to the problem than just copying the MBR; you probably want
the ability to restore a blank disk using backups and simple tools to
yield a bootable copy of the source disk. To do this you need backups
of all partitions and have the ability to setup the bootloader. There are
many ways to backup/restore. It doesn't lend itself to a "one size,
fits all" approach. Simple methods (say, dd) may suffice, but IME
understanding what you're doing pays dividends later on. It may take a
bit of research and reading to understand your options. I started by
reading the "Hard Disk Upgrade Mini-Howto." Here is a brief outline of the
approach and some background information.

First, the "job" of the MBR is two-fold:

1. It holds the primary partition tables, partitions 1-4.
2. It holds the bootloader code. I use the grub bootloader.

You need to know the rules for partition disks in the PC world. I
explained them here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.misc/msg/d3544c061662cacf

There are tools which setup partitions, including fdisk and cfdisk. Setting
up the bootloader requires a little bit more understanding and practice,
but "practice makes perfect." As I said, I use the grub bootloader because
it is a very flexible bootloader. In dual boot situations with Windows, I
have found that the chainloader syntax works fine. This grub configuration
stanza works:

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

BTW, IME, Windows likes to be installed on the first partition.

To summarize, you'll need to understand the following:
1. The rules for partitioning disks.
2. The tools that you'll be using to backup and restore partition data.
3. The syntax and nomenclature used by the bootloader.

--
Douglas Mayne
.

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