Disk imaging program?

[John Hupp]

On 6/30/2014 10:51 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> 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

I looked at that.  As I recall, the drive image of the dual-boot 
installation with maximum compression was over 20GB (the lion's share of 
that due to the Windows Vista partition -- I think I can probably still 
get my usual Lubuntu-only installation onto a single bootable Clonezilla 
DVD).  In any case, I remember that a 16GB drive would not do -- I would 
have to move up to a 32GB drive.