Backup the entire system and install arch

blauwal · 2013-11-01 10:57:37

Hi fellow arch users,
my employer supplied me with a brand new lenovo laptop with windows 7 on it. So the very first thing to do of course would be to wipe the harddisk and install arch.

BUT:

I have to return the device after a few years with the weird proprietary drivers and software on it (which I can't reinstall). Also the need might arise to use that weird driver framework to control some specific hardware.
What I am looking for is a solution to completely backing up the system (A standard harddisk with a small mSATA SSD used as caching device, seems to be lenovo specific? Would that cause problems?) in a way which doesn't require too much space.

How about just dd'ing both drives? Although the drive is pretty empty (fresh installation) it is going to throw out giant files with mostly 0s in it, right?

And once I am ready to install Arch, how to use the 8GB SSD in an efficient way?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Trilby · 2013-11-01 11:15:08

Sorry to have to say it, but this sounds like a bad idea all together. Very bad (*). I thought about not replying at all, as I wouldn't condone doing any such thing - but if you are convinced to try, I'd urge you to go with one of the only two options that may be even remotely viable:

1) dd the whole disk of each disk. Yes this will make disk images the exact size of those disks - even if they are nearly empty. You'd then make a few copies of this, and guard them with your life.

2) Install a new disk into the machine and simply never touch the existing drives. When it's time to give the machine back, remove the drive you added.

(*) This is assuming you have permission from your employer to do this at all. With permission, it is a very bad idea. Without permission ... just don't.

EDIT: a good alternative would be to run linux in a virtualbox. Another potentially reasonable alternative would be to shrink the windows partition and dual boot.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-11-01 11:19:11)

qinohe · 2013-11-01 11:24:58

edit; Trilby was faster, and I fully agree.
Why don't swap this disk with another, and lay this one safe somewhere, might be a lot better idea.

If you still want to proceed, you can make an image with Clonezilla.
As far as I know, win8 comes with imaging tool too.
Have a look at bcache in the in the wiki, it might do what you wish.

Last edited by qinohe (2013-11-01 11:26:17)

teateawhy · 2013-11-01 13:42:32

I agree with Trilby's suggestion 2), but i can not recommend removing the SSD drive. I also own a lenovo laptop with mSata SSD drive, and from my experience, replacing/inserting the mSata SSD drive takes a lot of work. You have to remove the keyboard and some other parts. ( If you really want to, lenovo has support videos about it. )
So i'd say replace the HDD with your own, and backup the SSD with dd, but do not use the SSD. As the SSD is only 8GB, it should be easy to make multiple backups.

blauwal · 2013-11-01 16:00:16

Thanks a lot! My employer is perfectly okay with it, after all it is about productivity, which in my opinion is so much lower on windows (despite things such as windawesome). I was just very tempted about the ssd caching for example (bcache seems pretty straight forward). Shrinking the windows partition and dual booting is something I haven't even considered and it sounds very reasonable, or just going straight for the new HDD (the only thing that seems to be easily replacable on that device, don't even wanna talk about ram or battery).

drcouzelis · 2013-11-01 16:16:43

blauwal wrote:

I have to return the device after a few years with the weird proprietary drivers and software on it

This was the part of your post that stood out the most to me. "A few years" is FOREVER in the software and hardware world. After three years, there will be Windows updates, service packs, driver updates, and new versions of the software that's installed on it. Returning it the way it was three years prior doesn't seem necessary.

Have you talked to the people that are REALLY responsible for the laptop, like, the system administrator, not management? Do they care how it's returned?

I'm a system administrator. If I got a laptop back after three years, I'd just wipe it and (very easily) install what I put on all the other computers I manage.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2013-11-01 16:17:00)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-01 10:57:37

Backup the entire system and install arch

#2 2013-11-01 11:15:08

Re: Backup the entire system and install arch

#3 2013-11-01 11:24:58

Re: Backup the entire system and install arch

#4 2013-11-01 13:42:32

Re: Backup the entire system and install arch

#5 2013-11-01 16:00:16

Re: Backup the entire system and install arch

#6 2013-11-01 16:16:43

Re: Backup the entire system and install arch

Board footer