What is Digg?Sponsored by Sony Pictures
Watch a scene from 2012, in theaters November 13 view!
whowillsurvive2012.com - Get ready for the biggest event in history - the end of time. How will you survive? 2012- opening 11/13
51 Comments
- Platypus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Several people have mentioned "dd" and, while it's a useful tool, it's not the be-all and end-all of hard disk migration. Do you folks know how filesystems work? Can any of you not-so-wise guys predict what will happen if you "dd" from a smaller filesystem to a larger one? Will every filesystem allow you to use all of the new space after doing that? BZZZT! Wrong, but thanks for playing. No, quite a few won't, but the mistake is quite common. Then there are things like partition tables and boot sectors that require a little more sophistication to get right. It's not clear whether this program deals with them properly, but it's very clear that several of the suggested alternatives do not. Please, if you're going to suggest an alternative, suggest one that's at least as good.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2damn digg... html stripping.
dd if=/dev/olddrive of=/dev/newdrive bs=1024k - mailman-zero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When I saw the title I immediately thought Free as in Freedom... but if you really want to do things well, I would recommend not simply using dd, but using dd_rescue. It's on knoppix already, and it's much faster. It's also better because it doesn't choke on damaged media, so you can recover files from a hard drive that's almost dead, etc...
http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/ - vertigoblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1knoppix, anyone? ha!
- skwashd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1freeware != free software ... i can already do this with free software ... for example any one of many live linux cds that I carry around can do this
- nater, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wow, this program is lame
if you want some great software, here a bootable linux distro that is awesome for both copying hard drives and data recovery (it's for computer forensics)
http://www.e-fense.com/helix/
Eat your heart out, crappy non-free software (non-free as in no freedom) - deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Linux --> 'dd'
Nuff said."
Werd. From Tivo hacking to cloning Windows to installing µLinux on a Nano, dd 0wns all. - ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0mac antoher - wait - there are so many creative applications already - nevermind
- nacs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Linux --> 'dd'
Nuff said. - gookie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0datadump? anyone?
- WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't see why this is so special.
I can already do this with Partition Magic.
And yes, I got it for free! - Matt88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Just changed my HDD today and the manufacturer supplied free software to copy everything over - worked perfectly.
- xelloss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Would this work with the Xbox 360 HDD? If so that would be awesome.
- hexdoll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@AnusBreaker
I agree. I have used partimage from a Linux live CD to create a restore image for my Windows XP partition which has a SP2 install minus some Microsoft crap (Windows Messenger etc.) and with some useful things added in (Firefox, Thunderbird). It's much easier than having to wipe everything (inc Linux partition) and re-install from scratch. - AnusBreaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0partimage
- reidypeidy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0would this copy over installed programs and the operating system too? like if I wanted to get a bigger hard drive for my computer but didn't want to reinstall everything
- BritOverseas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What use is it if it doesn't recognise USB. I haven't had a PS2 keyboard or mouse in my house for years, hell I don't even have USB really, I use B/T.
I do however want some nice "free" (no warez please, although I use allofmp3 I am no thief) software for backing up my lappy drive to an external USB HD, any suggestions? Perfect, bootable mirror is what I really need, had an "incident" recently trying to get a cardbus NIC working in a non cardbus PCMCIA slot (yeah I know, didn't check, dumb) and it trashed my drive, prompting a reload/rebuild. Takes forever to get it all back the way it was and a mirror would have taken a couple of hours at most (freakin Ghost back up was a piece of *****, corrupt on the first disk)... - kderby2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"The software does not recognize a USB mouse or keyboard (after boot)"
Um, not good.
no digg - EricTheGrey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"G4U is good but ever so slow. Been forced to use it sometimes at work when Ghost won't work."
G4U also only works over a network via FTP (unless they've changed it since I tried it last) so you cannot copy drives on the same system.
EtG - cntp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this isn't new or revolutionary....or even cool....wtf
- hiredgun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Acronis TrueImage
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
dd if=/dev/ of=/dev/ bs=1024k - Huwawa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0G4U? Anyone? Oh well... :(
- Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0G4U is good but ever so slow. Been forced to use it sometimes at work when Ghost won't work.
- Saoshyant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@milo_hoffman
What's the bs=1024k for exactly? - rguy84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Since it doesn't see USB a fair number of people would be SOL.
- chickan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I just happen to be copying my laptop's hard drive right now. And I'm doing it through the network so I don't need to physically change the laptop. So I got to play with some new Ubuntu Compiz Xgl goodness this week and restore my wife's windows installation before she needs the laptop for work.
Just boot knoppix, check networking and
dd if=/dev/hda | gzip -9 | rsh user@dest "cat >backup-hda.dd.gz"
to restore
dd if=/dev/hda | gzip -9 | rsh user@dest "cat >backup-hda.dd.gz"
rsh user@dest "cat backup-hda.dd.gz" | gunzip | dd of=/dev/hda
To keep you backup's file size low run a program that can write 0s to the unwritten space (such as Eraser) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I used this software a few weeks ago to migrate from a 80gig to a 250gig. It was slow but it worked flawlessly. I tried the WD Data Lifeguard first to see if it would work and it failed. Data Lifeguard still tries to do some kind of "smart" copy of the drive rather than just a sector by sector image.
Once I was done with HDClone I used QTParted to enlarge the NTFS partition on the new disk. So for those of you who will not be happy unless you have to also use Linux in some way, there you go, you still need it. - JAgostoni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No USB = No good ... but for all the commenters out there just saying "dd you fool" is all well and good but I am not going to teach my Dad how to use dd for his office. Frankly, I am tired of cloning his HDDs for him; this will be a nice thing. Funny, though, is he has no problem cracking open a PC and putting in hardware but he would most likely destroy stuff with dd.
- MarkByers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0'What's the bs=1024k for exactly?'
$ dd --help | grep bs:
bs=BYTES force ibs=BYTES and obs=BYTES
...
ibs=BYTES read BYTES bytes at a time
obs=BYTES write BYTES bytes at a time
... - striker1211, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've used this before. A simple app that does what it says it will do.
- sonar_un, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Suprising that people are posting fairly lame versions of hd cloning software. So far, I haven't found a good HD clone software without having to go through a recovery procedure.
HDCopy is a very good program
http://home.tiscali.de/zdata/hdcopy_e.htm
It is a very small program and does amazing well for what it needs to do, however it will skip over files that it cannot copy without giving you a list of the files that it skipped. Also, your source drive has to be an actual drive letter, you cannot source from a folder unless you want to be sneaky and map a network drive to that folder.
If you are using a drive imaging program like Acronis or Ghost, you must realise that if the hard drive is failing, forget it, you cannot copy with these programs as they will get hung up on bad sectors. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It really depends on how bad the hard drive is. Many times, if the hard drive can be booted to a seperate windows install, the file copy can go through with a program like HD copy.
Now, why not just copy with the built in windows copy procedure, well, I think you all know that the first file that Windows cannot copy stops the entire process and you have to start over, which has been a problem ever since Windows 3.1 and it doesn't look like it is giong to go away.
This is what we need, a simple, clean, hard drive copying program, in which I can specify certian folders / subfolders to copy from and to with a complete printout of what files were skipped. PLEASE, someone design this program. - aThing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's not free software.
- FuManchu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For an old [2004] JustLinux forum post on how to copy a harddrive including a Windows Boot HD, check out:
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=134457
Using a Linux Live CD to clone XP
Therein, saikee suggests steps to avoid the problems correctly pointed out by Platypus [above].
WORTH A READ!! - anthony0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you used 'dd' you would be wasting your time. You want to transfer the data to a "larger" hard drive. DD would make your "larger" drive the same size as the one you're moving the data from.
- gookie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0dd = datadump
- collar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hi,
The tool that can help backup data is prefer is Disk Image. It performs the operation great, moreover allows browsin and using single files or folder within the image of the hdd. The tool itself is found on a data tools set CD Image that alos contaions mighty utils for data recovery and destruction.
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm - Buddhist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Okay, if I plan on upgrading to a better version of Windows on this PC (I am already saving up for a Mac, can't afford a new PC to run *nix how I want, unfortunately), right? And I currently have a 250GB Hitachi, and may add in a 74GB Raptor. But what I want to do is be able to upgrade my PC's OS without losing the 90somethingGB+ of stuff I have saved on here, and I don't have anything that could back it up either, unless I use 25 DVD-Rs. Any suggestions for programs?
- ahecht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I much prefer XXCOPY. It's free, scriptable, and versatile. Just use the command xxcopy X: Y" /CLONE
http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm - msbose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Does dd work for RAID systems? I am looking for a solution to backup my RAID servers (w2k, w2k3 and Redhat)
- Boofster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0...or just use a 3rd drive to boot with and run xcopy32 on the command prompt (forgot all the switches you need) and you can log everything that got copied and did not.
- ahecht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oops, that should've been xxcopy X: Y: /CLONE
- SoonerDude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I use G4U and Partimage for this.
- StealthTomato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@realnebby: Yes, but some people like...oh, I don't know, decent OSes, perhaps? Or maybe it's just hardware that's _not_ incompatible with everything on the planet. Wait, it might be a decent supply of _good_ programs? Hmm...how about paying reasonable prices? Or real multitasking?
- republicoftexas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah but what happens if I back-up my hard drive, the primary drive crashes, and then I cannot put the data from the second one back because it is bigger than the first hard drive, right?
Please help with this problem. - diggduggjoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0xcopy(32) from Bart's PE does work.
I have used Bart's PE and Windows backup to an external USB drive. This is useful when backing up, in contrast to a one time copy. Just be sure to copy the executable and some required dlls to the B: drive. The log will end up there, too. The benefits I found are having a single file with the entire system contained, having a log available and usually free to those with legal Windows licensing. I do like Ghost when it works. The new versions boot from CD with access to USB drives.
When using any PE based recovery having a USB 2.0 card fully supported is very helpful. Some Intel or Via chipsets do not work or are limited to 11mbps. The NEC chipset PCI cards will provide full USB2.0 support for your USB external hard drives with both Bart's PE and Ghost's PE.
11mbps vs 480mbs is huge differential, so having a good card available is an extreme time saver. - JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0heh. dd.
no digg.
Linux runs on frekin toasters. I doubt this "utility" can copy hard drives in a toaster. - Njall, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1NO DIGG! This is a shill post for an adware infested version of a commercial program. Don't bother. If you are reading DIGG there are already OpenSource alternatives that you can get and use. Pity is I can give this a negative DIGG. Some people are SO GULLIBLE!
- realnebby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Ya, it's call OS X. Apple provides software to do this free with the OS.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"Linux [live cd] --> 'dd' Nuff said."
(for the immature diggers, brackets mean I added this text). Quoted for Truth.
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is