Sector by sector HD backup from Windows

[peterh337]

I have a couple of machines which run FreeBSD.

Both have a little 4GB WinXP partition, which was installed for admin and to make sure everything works.

One can boot into either OS.

I need to be able to make an "image" backup of the whole HD (though really I am after a backup of the boot stuff and the FreeBSD stuff; the winXP bit I can rebuild if I have to) to a network drive (ethernet), from either OS (though I would prefer it from within Windows because then I am 100% sure there are no open files in BSD which are inaccessible and are missing from the backup).

I can achieve this now using Trueimage, from Windows, which is a great tool which I have used all over the place, but TI doesn't restore the unix MBR (even if you explicitly select the MBR for restoration) so while the restored data "seems all there" it just boots into Windows.....

TI has other problems like this; for example if you use it to backup a Thinkpad laptop which has a special 4GB IBM utilities partition, there is no way to restore that partition. If you have to replace the HD, you lose that feature (no big deal really).

So... is there a windozeXP based imaging prog which just does the whole damn lot, hopefully compressing empty sectors that are full of 0xFFs etc (the HD is a 256GB SSD which is mostly empty space and I would prefer to not end up with a 256GB image :) ) and which can restore it easily, again from within Windoze?

There is a catch :) The server (http://www.quietpc.com/products/systems/sys-fc5-z77) has motherboard is a brand new Gigabyte one (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4281#sp) whose ethernet controller is not recognised by most software. Even the latest Trueimage 2012 does not recognise it. WinXP doesn't either - unless you install the Gigabyte drivers that come on the CD. This means that to restore using Trueimage I have to first copy the archive to a separate partition on the local HD, which is stupid, even if TI did the MBR correctly.

This is why I am after an imaging prog which restores the image while running inside a running copy of Windows.

However this may mean that it cannot overwrite the Windows partition, which is fine...

Or one which supports the "Atheros GbE LAN chip" which this motherboard has...

[Milo Minderbinder]

Gigabyte motherboards usually come with Xpress Recovery 2 built into the firmware
See GIGABYTE Xpress Recovery2 (http://www.gigabyte.us/webpage/21/Xpress-Recovery2.html)
That may do what you need


As regards copying utility partitions, often you simply can't. In many cases they are hidden by use of the SET MAX ADDRESS disk drive utility which restricts use of the hard drive to a certain area. Only way to gain access is to boot with a CD with fake partition table, or to overwrite the SET MAX ADDRESS command

Host protected area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area)

I'm also aware of at least two patents about hiding recovery partitions in the same way

Back to the original question - have you tried Norton Ghost?

[Bushfiva]

EaseUS may do it. If not, check the brand of your drives and see if there is a manufacturer's cloning utility available. I've cloned drives containing a variety of operating systems in the past. I can't remember whether I did a simple clone, or backup MBR, clone, restore MBR. I think just clone though.

[peterh337]

The Gigabyte recovery utility appears to store the archive only on the HD, not on a network drive.

No I haven't tried Ghost. I wonder if there is a spec somewhere on which ethernet chips it supports, and whether it will do a sector by sector clone? No easy way to test it really, nondestructively :)

One way forward, IF one can find a way using Trueimage, would be to install a rather more common ethernet adaptor... I suspect TI does actually work if one uses the FreeBSD boot CD afterwards to fix up the MBR. We will find out on Monday...

BTW I have finally done a disk "clone" using Trueimage, with both SSDs on the same SATA controller, which ought to "just work", but it still boots only to Windows. What the hell does Trueimage call "cloning"? :ugh:

Re the Thinkpad business, Trueimage can see the recovery partition allright and seems to archive it OK, but it cannot restore it.

[Milo Minderbinder]

With Trueimage
are you selecting the whole drive to back up, or the individual partitions? Trueimage can be a bit feisty at times
There are multiple versions of Trueimage as well - one of the biz versions may be more suited to what you need

And its NOT a sector-by-sector clone you need, as that would give you 1:1 reproduction with no compression and would include all the empty space.

[Milo Minderbinder]

and just a thought - have you thought of looking at Clonezilla - About (http://clonezilla.org/)
That at least could handle BSD and Linux partitions, though you'd have to do the backup offline from a Linux boot disk

[peterh337]

Yes, I was doing a whole "drive" backup.

But even the "disk clone" function failed to do any better, which is really odd. (It has always worked on windoze machines, no matter how partitioned).

I have come across Clonezilla. That may be a better way. I can't find a list of supported hardware though, and the only contact is via yet another damned forum where one has to register. FreeBSD itself supports that ethernet adaptor OK.

Edit:

Searching the Clonezilla forum for "Atheros" I see lots of people having problems but nobody offering a solution, apart from this

If you are familiar with compiling a kernel module, then you can compile the module, and follow http://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/81_add_prog_in_filesystem-squashfs.faq#81_add_prog_in_filesystem-squashfs.faq to put the module in the filesystem.squashfs. Then follow http://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/87_create_clonezilla_iso_from_zip.faq#87_create_clonezilla_i so_from_zip.faq to generate the iso file.

which is strictly for unix experts :)

TBH I would be happy if I could back up the SSD to a cheap USB-attached HD, but the Gigabyte utility, which really ought to support that in the BIOS, doesn't.

[Saab Dastard]

Ghost does allow you to add support for your own specific network cards when you create a bootable USB or CD - basically add the driver files during the image creation.

You can clone an entire disk or individual partitions, and store them as files on an accessible network device (or local device).

You may find that MBR repair needs to be done after deploying partitions - I found this to be the case with Win7, although I am using an older version of Ghost, and this may be rectified in more recent editions.

SD

[Milo Minderbinder]

With Clonezilla the drivers will depend on which Linux/BSD distribution you run it from. You can download one of the minimalist distributions from their download page, or use a "live" distribution with Clonezilla included
For instance past versions of Knoppix included it - I don't know about current releases

[peterh337]

Spending way too much time on this... many people have been up this path before, it appears.

Trueimage (Acronis) offer a solution (http://kb.acronis.com/content/26321), but it's yet more hassle.

I will install a common-as-muck ethernet card... but even finding the hardware compatibility list for Trueimage is a challenge :ugh:

[Milo Minderbinder]

anything with a VIA or Realtek 100mb/s chip will work without needing drivers
Anything 1Gb/s will probably not work

[peterh337]

Do you mean will work with the Trueimage bootable media?

For backing up, "everything" works if you have O/S support because TI just uses the O/S.

It is the restore when one is using the drivers embedded in the bootable media CD only. I bet a lot of people got fingers burnt on this, because the time you discover this is when ................. :)

It looks like all backup products have this problem, to some degree. Both Trueimage and Ghost offer a (complicated) means of building a custom boot CD, to deal with it.

I wonder if this NIC would work...

[Milo Minderbinder]

Unlikely

I'd gamble against most gigabit LAN cards working

[peterh337]

That rules out everything made in the last 5-6 years.

Some gigabit cards definitely work e.g. the one in my Thinkpad.

[Milo Minderbinder]

The thing is, most of those recovery disks rely on a version of WindowsPE - which in turn only has the built-in generic drivers - and there are few Gigabit LAN cards included in that

[Tinstaafl]

Why don't you boot from a Linux live DVD? There are any number of them that can image a whole disk, or just particular partitions and save to a network drive. Booting from a DVD will ensure there isn't anything running on the HD.

[peterh337]

Can it image the whole HD to a network drive (without having to load Samba etc) and then restore the HD from the network drive.

The network drive uses SMB (a Buffallo 1TB drive).

[peterh337]

Our next approach is to buy a USB drive (£65 from Amazon, 500GB :) ) and hopefully Trueimage will be able to restore from that.......

But then so will the FreeBSD utility called DD, which we know works and can restore from anything one is able to mount. That is maybe a better approach. Switch the OS to single user mode to run the backup, and to restore you boot using a FreeBSD boot CD and run DD on that.

That sidesteps the ethernet adaptor issues, and the USB drive can be kept in a firesafe :)

[Tinstaafl]

Buy a laptop drive and, separately, a USB powered caddy via eBay. Much cheaper. I re-use my old laptop drives similarly. Boot from DVD as before and start imaging the source drive.

[Milo Minderbinder]

You're using FreeBSD

On checking it would appear that one of the FreeBSD packages is Freisbee - a tool from the University of Utah for imaging BSD drives

Remember that the imaging program you use is going to have to cope with UFS file systems, so you're probably better off with a Unix / Linux tool like this, or Clonezilla