Using a Linux Live CD to clone XP - Page 5


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Thread: Using a Linux Live CD to clone XP

  1. #61
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    So far first DD command worked successfully! Even though I could have sworn in all the previous times I had tried doing this, I did infact have the exact number of cylinders for both partitions. Either way I'm happy the first one worked and that makes me feel like the second one is going to work as well!

    Oh and I noticed that you had a little typo in your last post where you were giving me the commands, you said "...of=/sdb1" and "of=/sdb2" instead of putting the /dev/ in there. I'm assuming it would shoot back an error at you if you excluded the /dev/ just thought I'd let you know of the minor typo.

  2. #62
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    Yes they were typo errors and wouldn't execute.

    Thanks for pointing out.

    Your fdisk - look great and I am hopeful you would get through this time.

    The partition ID is under the "type" in cfdisk.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  3. #63
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    awesome! i finally got it to work! after i fixed the MBR worked like a charm. Big thanks to you saikee for helping me out, since you could figure out from looking at my posts that I knew practically nothing, and yet you were still very patient. This is going to be great around the office and I'll definitely be using it for my own personal use here in a little bit when I upgrade my macbook's hard drive.
    Last edited by jonathansmith68; 07-02-2007 at 05:05 PM.

  4. #64
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    Glad to see it works out for you.

    I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg of many simple tasks that produce amazing results in Linux.
    Last edited by saikee; 07-02-2007 at 03:48 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  5. #65
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    Reply to No.57
    Hi Saikee, well I've sorted out fdisk....I had spaces either side of the dash, (-should have been only prior). It's not always easyt to read space size, for me, on my monitor etc.
    Anyway I burnt the .iso and now have a bootable CD for PartMagic - using this with the "Ubuntu" HDD installed |I get the following readings sorry can't post a screenshot, it .ziped it but that was it.
    disc/dev/hda1: 122.9GB
    255heads 63 sectors/tracks 14946 cyl
    Units = Cyl 16056 x512 = 8,225,280bytes.
    Device -- boot - - start - - end -- - Blocks - - - ID - - -System
    /dev/hda1 * . . . . 1 . . 7426 ... 59649313+... 83 . . . . Linux
    /dev/hda2. . . .7427..14946 ... 60404400 ... . . 5 . . .Extended
    /dev/hda5 . . . 7427 ..14853 ... 59657346 ... 83 . .. . Linux
    /dev/hda6. . 14854 .. 74946 ... 746991 ... . . 82 . .Linux swap

    The above is the HDD that runs Ubuntu and has been upgraded to 6.06 recently and today I updated 32 files, before taking these notes. (Hope the spacing works out.)

    The Ubuntu-PC works OK, it's just I suspect I've lost 56G because under Disc Manager it says the 56G is not accessible. That's nearly half the disc lost because I was confused by the partitioning routine prior to loading.

    Sorry I couldn't unzip/paste the screenshot, but I think this is the vital info.... It signs off root@partedMagic.
    Thanks.
    Last edited by jl_harry12; 07-02-2007 at 04:25 PM.

  6. #66
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    Your partition table looks OK to me.

    I am guessing you may just be confusing yourself.

    The way I understand, based on your description, is that you want to format hda5 to Fat32 but are afraid losing the data in the /home and Gparted is refusing to comply with your wish.

    Unless during the installation you have used partition sda5 to mount as the /home there should be another /home inside the Linux residing in hda1 which is about the same size of 59Gb.

    If you have installed Ubuntu there then your data should be inside hda1 since you can't even use hda5 at the moment.

    hda5 has been created as a type 83 partition suitable for Linux ext2/3 or Reiserfs filing system. Any attempt to format it in fat32 may cause problem unless you alter the partition ID which should "c" for fat32.

    Before I offer command to format hda5 can you post the /etc/fstab of Ubuntu here? You fstab will tell us if hda5 is to be mounted as /home.

    If you want to post information in the terminal, like from "fdisk -l", you can high light the text and right click the mouse and click copy. Go into the web site to anywhere you want to post and right click again to select paste and you will see the text copied.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  7. #67
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    Reply to Post 66....
    +Thanks, Saikee, will try - I'm away from that PC at present.
    hda1 appear to me to be the booting bit - ie the Linux program itself?
    hda6 appears to be a small swap-file - this is OK - i.e. what I expect.
    but hda2 and hda5 both appear to start at the "same place" - can this be right?

    What I wanted was to keep the pictures in a separate partition...at the time I didn't understand I needed FAT32 to read in Win98SE.....but now I do, so it would be nice if Ubuntu would save files so I can read them on another machine.......

    [[.aside: If I can burn under Ubuntu, a CD with jpeg images.....can that be read by my Win98SE computer? - I'm sure it works the other way round, because normally I take files off the camera memory card and do some/no adjustment then Win98SE- Nero-burn to CD and copy also a spare HDD, attached via USB. I don't know if the burner works in Ububtu - will test with a picture, perhaps..]]

    The partition (fdisk -l)data I gave you was from the PartedMagic LiveCD, I presume I ran as Terminal. As far as I can see, the usual "Copy-Paste" doesn't exist, neither can you link to an internet site - the LiveCD is only 30MB (they say) - - - I'll suggest they add these features, since the person running the LiveCD may not know enough, like me, but willing to learn. There may be an issue with memory since it cannot touch the HDD(other than Read) and will only have 256M to run the program segments - but I suspect it could be done even a text editor and save to USB which almost every PC has. The presumption being that it is the internal HDD that is faulty and in need of a LiveCD to check it out.

    When Ubuntu is running...... I recall, if I run "Disk Manager" it tells me that one partition of (about 56G) is not accessible and it is this "statement" that concerns me.....what have I done, etc?
    I will try to establish which hda it is....and yr request also....but I'm not entirely sure what yr asking, so don't expect too clear an answer.

    There is no work on the Ubuntu PC that is worth saving, maybe a test document in /home and some pictures I've Gimp'd .... The issue of FAT32 came about because I have a valid Win98SE instalation disc and even now cheap printers(like Lexmark) come with a Win98SE driver.
    - Multifunction Print/Copy/Scanners are very cheap and I suspect not likley to have a driver for Ubuntu - hence the need to transfer to-fro using Windows98SE which for all its legendary faults talks USB, internet and so on, indeed my Paint-Shop-Pro is hardly any different from Gimp....both having dire interfaces....but at least I can print snaps from the Win98SE computer. due to a (maybe) faulty LPT1 and PCI LPT2 card..... on the Ubuntu motherboard.

    The 1st issue for me, has to be finding out whether that 56G really is missing and then, what-how to format it.....oh dear!
    Oh and I don't appear to have gparted under the pull-down menus - under Ubuntu, I've only used Disc Manager and Terminal (although that wasn't too good hence making a CD of PartedMagic even though I ended-up using terminal I think.....Confusion!
    Last edited by jl_harry12; 07-03-2007 at 10:31 AM. Reason: sense tidy-up

  8. #68
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    jl_harry12 ,

    I think if your problem is not related to the cloning may be it is better to start a new thread as it may cause confusion to readers thinking it is related to the thread title.

    Anyway I see if I could answer all your question in this post.
    hda1 appear to me to be the booting bit - ie the Linux program itself?
    It is customary to use the first partition for /boot by a Linux installer. /boot is very small and generally less than 1 Gb. This does not fit well with your hda1 and so the hda1 would be mostly likely a single partition installation holding the whole Linux. /boot would be simply a subdirectory to the root "/".

    A swap in Linux is always small. Many experienced members do not think it needs to be bigger than 0.5Gb.

    but hda2 and hda5 both appear to start at the "same place" - can this be right?
    That is a perfect match as it is supposed to do so. The hda2 is an extended partition with no storage of its own. It is just an envelope defining the boundary of the first and last logical partition. Therefore its starting point must be the same as hda5 and the finishing point same as you last logical partition hda6. You have a typo in hda6 by saying it is at the 74946 cylinders. We know this because your hard disk has a size of 14946 cylinders.

    To get hda5 into fat32 and format it is quite simple but I could only give out the instructions after seeing the content /etc/fstab to ensure it is not mounted first, so as not to damage its content accidentally.

    You can use Ubuntu CD as a Live CD, boot it up and get the /etc/fstab as follow
    Code:
    sudo su
    mkdir /media/hda1
    mount /dev/hda1 /media/hda1
    cat /media/hda1/etc/fstab
    You should find the "copy and paste" in the terminal works in Ubuntu.

    You can do the same to mount hda5 too and see what is inside.

    My current thought is your hda5 could be the /home because /hda6 is a swap and that mean hda5 must have been created for a purpose during the installation when the swap was formed in hda6.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  9. #69
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    Jun 2007
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    Hey just wanted to say thanks again for all of your help saikee! Since posting last, I have successfully DDed an 80 gig to a 40 gig (just like the first time I tried) and also just today, I actually used this DD knowledge to make an exact imaged hard drive of one of our server's hard drives, so if that server hard drive were to fail, we can just simply swap the hard drives out and have the server up and running in no time. Ideally we'd love to have a RAID 1 in our server, but we made the server out of one of our Dell Optiplexes and didn't really want to spend money on a hardware RAID controller card.

    Just wanted to report back two more successful DD's on my side and again wanted to say thanks!
    Last edited by jonathansmith68; 07-11-2007 at 04:02 PM.

  10. #70
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    jonathansmith68 ,

    Thanks for letting me know any success and failure as I could improve the solution for the others.

    The RAID 1 is good that it has the latest information but your current method of keeping a mrror image on standby and off line has the advantage that the cloned disk isn't spinning all the time and should have a longer service life.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  11. #71
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    Restore the deleted MBR

    Quote Originally Posted by saikee
    Many users say their back up images from a filing-orientated software also boot but that is more to do with the original bootloader and MBR haven't been moved. If we clone a the filing-system XP into a new disk it will not boot. If you do a defrag in XP you will also notice part of the files is unmovable. Therefore a 100% mirror image by dd is the way foraward because it faithfully preserves the original filing structure and the boot loader.
    If I accidentally delete the MBR with an utility from Nero to back-up (trying to restore the partition from image discs, previous created), how can it be restore it?
    I have read the topics related but I am very confused because any of them are perfectly related to my pain.
    Many thanks!

  12. #72
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    XP and old MS Windows can be restored by the installation CD or just a Dod bootable floppy with fdisk.exe inside. Task B1 and B2 in the last link of my message refer. Either method works on any Dos and MS Windows as far as I have tried.

    The new Windows Vista now has its own MBR and must be restored by Vista's own installation DVD. Task B7 of my last link in the signature refers.

    It is fairly standard that an operating system on a PC will have a ready-made mechanism to restore its MBR.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  13. #73
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    So saikee, ever thought about trying to break your 145 boot record?

    I'm sure there's no Guinness World Records category for this, but I would be willing to bet that so far you are in the lead.

  14. #74
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    Sepero,

    It is a possibility.

    I have been using 44 partition on a Sata disk and it is about 75% full. The mobo supports 7 Sata and 1 IDE disks and so I could theoretically get 350 partitions out and that is before I introduce any USB hard disk to it. It is a lot of repetitive work so I am just installing the systems slowly not really making a push at all. I still keeping the PC with 145 systems (may be between 150 to 155 by now) but the kernel 2.6.20 and newer make it nearly impossible to increase the number because my 3 Pata all have 63 partitions each and the new kernels allow only 15, so most installers cannot cope. My 44-partition is a work around.

    At the moment I am happy that we in JustLinux has claimed a position by putting a large number of OS this way, and it is a direct result of what I learned from JustLinux members and moderators because I started here as an absolute beginner.

    I think there are some good Linux applications. I have been busy putting as many iso into a DVD or a pen drive.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  15. #75
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    Sep 2007
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    Sabirs

    Hi, This post is very informative, however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

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