Disk imaging program?

[Nio Wiklund]

2014-06-30 19:58, John Hupp skrev:
> 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 $$.

Here a cheap ten-pack DVD-R costs approx $10 (because our government
collects money for the media industry). Anyway I agree, it would be
cheaper than a 32 GB pendrive. So if the pendrive cannot be used for
anything else, DVDs are much cheaper, particularly in your country.

Are you intending to install the system and send the DVDs as backup, or
will the end user install the system from the installation media (DVDs
if you find a method that is fairly easy to use)?