Disk imaging program?

[Nio Wiklund]

2014-06-30 15:55, John Hupp skrev:
> On 6/30/2014 5:54 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>> 2014-06-24 20:35, John Hupp skrev:
>>> I'm looking for a freeware disk imaging program that supports/offers:
>>> __ imaging of Windows and Linux partitions in a single image-the-disk
>>> operation that includes the boot sector and related structures
>>> __ bootable disc can do offline image backup and restore
>>> __ image to spanned DVD’s
>>> __ good compression
>>> __ free for business as well as personal use
>>>
>>> Notes on a few of the programs I have considered:
>>>
>>> Clonezilla doesn't know how to span to DVD's.
>>>
>>> Promising newcomer Aomei Backupper has no stated support for ext4
>>> partitions.
>>>
>>> Redo Backup is a front-end for partclone, and I have seen no
>>> documentation indicates that it supports spanned DVD's.
>>>
>>> In short, everything that I have looked at in the past or now in a fresh
>>> new sweep falls short on one point or another.
>>>
>>> I'm willing to fudge on my desire for a single image-the-disk operation
>>> if I could find a recipe or documentation on how to use a
>>> partition-oriented tool with a script that uses several succeeding
>>> operations to build a complete drive backup.  Needless to say, I would
>>> want to arrive at both backup and restore scripts.
>>>
>> Hi John,
>>
>> Clonezilla creates 2 GB chunks, which can be copied to DVDs and file
>> systems in general, that cannot manage files larger than that. I don't
>> know (haven't tried) to write the image directly to DVDs, but it would
>> certainly be possible in a two-step procedure (with intermediate storage
>> in an external HDD or flash drive).
>>
>> Best regards
>> Nio
>>
>> ps/
>> I don't really trust DVD disks for backup, but that is another issue.
>> /ds
> 
> Hi, Nio.
> 
> Yes, I was aware that I could do such a restore in two steps, and have
> used that setup at least once.  But I wanted the cheapest, simplest
> thing to give away with a computer to someone with no more than average
> skills.  ("Just boot with this .....")
> 
> I have had a fair amount of exchange about this on the Ubuntu users
> forum, much of it exploring the idea of using dd in conjunction with
> utilities that zero-fill free space (as a preliminary step) and then
> compress and split the resulting dd archive.  But that idea stalled at
> the point where there was no apparent way to input the DVD splits to dd
> during a restore.  (Also a challenge with removing the boot disc and
> replacing it with a data disc, but I imagined that could probably be
> solved with a small distro that boots to memory.)
> 
> After I last posted there, I also encountered PING, which may possibly
> do what I wanted, at least on a dual boot setup with Win Vista.  But it
> and its backend partimage are apparently no longer under active
> development,  and people report some problems with Win 7, so I already
> regard it with less enthusiasm and have not had a closer look.  (But
> interesting to note that partimage is one of the alternate backends
> employed by Clonezilla, so they must think it is reliable for certain
> purposes.)
> 
> I've concluded that, for the moment, I can't get quite what I was
> looking for.  My choices are among half a dozen solutions that are a
> compromise on one goal or another.
> 
> --John

Hi again John,

I see your situation. How much data is it (compressed)? Would it be
possible to squeeze it into a reasonably cheap USB pendrive?

Best regards/Nio