best way to clone arch partition

anti-destin · 2009-10-01 03:08:07

i currently have my system set up as follows:

c:\ (windows)
d:\ (programs, data, etc.)

i haven't yet decided to move over completely to arch, so i'd like to keep my windows and data partitions intact for a while, at least until i can get arch set up properly.

and i figured, rather than dual boot (and play around with the partitions, etc.), i could simply clone my arch partition and save it on d:\. whenever i need to get back on xp, i just restore my xp image, and whenever i want to set up arch, i just restore the arch image.

now, i usually use ping, but ext4 isn't supported, so i've had to try other programs. clonezilla looked good, but after i restored my arch image, grub failed to load, and i couldn't fix it at all. so, i want to ask: what do you use for image your partitions?

thanks!

QuimaxW · 2009-10-01 03:26:02

Personally, I think the whole re-image just to get into another OS is far too time consuming...resize the partitions (one time operation), keep XP installed and dual boot. In my experience, it never seems to fail that I need Windows for something ridiculous.

My opinion aside...

GParted is what I use to resize partitions and such.
Clonezilla is the only program I have ever used in the Linux world. For my notebook, it restored GRUB fine for me. It's just a collection of other tools that you could also use, a little reading on their site should reveal what they are. I think GParted might even have a way to save/restore partition images.

TheSaint · 2009-10-01 05:26:10

If you just like to try out Arch, Virtualbox would satisfy your needs.

F

anti-destin · 2009-10-05 22:42:41

QuimaxW wrote:

Personally, I think the whole re-image just to get into another OS is far too time consuming...resize the partitions (one time operation), keep XP installed and dual boot. In my experience, it never seems to fail that I need Windows for something ridiculous.
My opinion aside...
GParted is what I use to resize partitions and such.
Clonezilla is the only program I have ever used in the Linux world. For my notebook, it restored GRUB fine for me. It's just a collection of other tools that you could also use, a little reading on their site should reveal what they are. I think GParted might even have a way to save/restore partition images.

in any case, i'm looking for a good imaging program, since i like to create images of my installations, in case of emergencies.

when you used clonezilla, did you restore only linux partitions? i had no trouble restoring linux partitions when the original partition was the linux one. but the operation failed when i tried to restore the linux partition after i first restored the xp partition. this suggests that restoring the xp partition wiped out something linux requires.

as for gparted, i took a look, and it is capable of copying partitions, but i don't think it can create images.

TheSaint wrote:

If you just like to try out Arch, Virtualbox would satisfy your needs.

thanks. i use virtualbox all the time to test things out, including various distros. but sometimes you need to install the os to test the things you can't test in a vm, e.g., bluetooth.

TheSaint · 2009-10-07 18:19:38

anti-destin wrote:

... but sometimes you need to install the os to test the things you can't test in a vm, e.g., bluetooth.

Depends if you install VBox-ose surely nope for bluetooth . Most of the modern hardware is connected by USB, also internally. therefore the

 pacman -S virtualbox-bin virtualbox_bin_additions

is the best trial.

F

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-01 03:08:07

best way to clone arch partition

#2 2009-10-01 03:26:02

Re: best way to clone arch partition

#3 2009-10-01 05:26:10

Re: best way to clone arch partition

#4 2009-10-05 22:42:41

Re: best way to clone arch partition

#5 2009-10-07 18:19:38

Re: best way to clone arch partition

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