[GLLUG] Hard Disk Imaging

[Matt Graham]

On Thursday 21 December 2006 09:07, after a long battle with technology, 
Clay Dowling wrote:
> I have an NTFS drive that I need to re-[image] several times a day
> while testing an install.  I have access to Norton Ghost, but to be
> honest version 10, which I'm using, is a major pain in the tail.

Yeah, the quality of Norton utilities is ... not high.

> currently using g4u off the Ultimate Boot CD, but it takes half an
> hour to re-[image] the disk.

How large is this image?  I/O can take a while.

> I absolutely need to place the images on a network and retrieve them 
> from a network, because we don't have a machine with a spare hard disk 
> to store the image.  I need it to work reliably with NTFS (PartImage 
> comes with gigantic warning signs about NTFS). 

Check the docs for partimage again.  They say "If you can back up an 
NTFS filesystem with partimage, restore should work fine."  partimage 
will fail to back up NTFS partitions in certain pathological 
circumstances (system files fragmented to hell and back, for instance.)  
It'll inform you if this happens.  Use gzip; it'll go faster than bzip2 
at the expense of a larger image size.  HTH,

-- 
   I find that having a pint or two is a good problem-solving technique.
   Especially if it's vodka rather than beer.
      --Peter Corlett in ASR
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see