<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Greetings All - </div><div><br></div>I've been dipping my toe in the Ubuntu pool via Wubi for several weeks now and I'm ready to abandon my XP setup and have just Ubuntu installed.<div><br></div><div>I would like to do two things to move from XP to Ubuntu.</div><div><br></div><div>First, I want to backup the entire drive. Using dd or rsync can I make a full disk image of the drive (to an external USB backup device) that could some day in the future be restored if I wanted? In other words, would I be returned to the XP + Wubi setup I have now? Would the command (dd or rsync or whatever) need to be run from a Live CD?<br><div><br></div><div>Second, I would like to do a physical-to-virtual conversion of my existing XP system, and once Ubuntu is up and running as the OS, bring XP back as a virtual OS when desired. My hard drive is limited in size however, as it has an 80 GB capacity, and it currently holds 70+ GB of data. I don't have restore disks for this machine, nor do I have access to an XP CD, so virtualization is my only path to retaining XP for posterity.</div><div><br></div><div>Can I create the virtual image to a USB drive? I am hoping that I can selectively virtualize the XP system - I really only want the OS and installed programs. Any data will be backup and deleted prior to the virtualization, and would be re-introduced to the Ubuntu file system as needed or desired.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Mark</div><div>-- </div><div>Nothing is impossible if you don't know what you are doing.</div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span> </div><br></div></div></body></html>