Re:Cloning/Backing up a harddisk containing Linux via a Win7 pc

bethy1234 · 19 Jun 2012

Hi Team,

I need your recommendations for software to make copy of a sata hard drive via inserting it into an external sata dock and hooking it up to a win7 pc. The sata disk will actually contain the Linux Fedora server operating system plus an accounts system. A long story short - i will take the disk out of the original x86 box and require a successful method for an exact clone/back up of the Linux disk.

Have any of you experience in successfully achieving this?

Thank you for looking.

All the best.

Andy

OldMX · 19 Jun 2012

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

Where,

if=/dev/sda : Input disk (source)
of=/dev/sdb : Output disk (destination)

Is what i use and recommend, if the target disk is larger, clone as is, then expand partition on windows via disk management.

bethy1234 · 19 Jun 2012

HI oldMX thanks for getting back so promptly.

I will be performing the cloning/backup entirely from within the win7 pc. Could you please how i can implement this command "dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" specifically from within windows 7? It looks like a unix command statement (after a quick google search)and i don't think i can issue this command from the windows command prompt.

The sole purpose of my objective is to insert the new cloned disk(which will be of the same size) into the original machine in case it crashes.

Thanks once again

F5ing · 20 Jun 2012

Although it doesn't operate under Windows, you could burn Clonezilla (which will use dd if necessary) to a bootable CD. It'll clone or image most of the well used file systems:

Clonezilla - About

Clonezilla - Downloads

OldMX · 20 Jun 2012

bethy1234 said:

HI oldMX thanks for getting back so promptly.

I will be performing the cloning/backup entirely from within the win7 pc. Could you please how i can implement this command "dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" specifically from within windows 7? It looks like a unix command statement (after a quick google search)and i don't think i can issue this command from the windows command prompt.

The sole purpose of my objective is to insert the new cloned disk(which will be of the same size) into the original machine in case it crashes.

Thanks once again

Sorry bethy1234, i forgot to specify that command needs to be performed under any live unix variant, like ubuntu, mint, etc, but it works flawless all the time if you follow that route