Disk imaging program?

[John Hupp]

On 6/30/2014 12:20 PM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> 2014-06-30 17:07, John Hupp skrev:
>> 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.
>>
> The cheapest (and rather slow) 32 GB pendrives cost approximately
> 18 € or $ 24 in my country. There is a 'pirate tax' on DVDs so seven or
> eight of them cost a significant sum too.
>

$20-25 would be a decent price for the 32 GB drive here.  Compare that 
to the 5 image DVD's I would need for the same installation.  A Verbatim 
50-pack of DVD's I can get here for about $0.30/DVD, so cost of the DVD 
set would be about $1.50.

That's a big difference, especially for something to give away with an 
older computer.  It's a backup measure that many people will never need, 
and it doesn't justify too many $$.