I am pondering how to add a safety net that somehow will prevent someone from 
dropping an image onto the wrong disk.  "are you sure" isn't it because the 
person generally doesn't understand what they are committing to.

The story goes like this: Joe service guy figures out that a system needs a new 
disk.  he calls the office and tells someone.  person in office grabs a new 
disk, plugs it into a sata->usb cable, plugs the usb into a linux box, runs a 
script that drops an image on the disk, unplug, box it up and ship it out to 
Joe.

The slight problem with this plan: the "runs a script" step has to be done as 
root, and it has the potential of wiping out the wrong disk.  For instance, if 
someone adds a new internal disk to the box, now the usb disk is sdc instead of 
sdb.  or if someone plugs in their iPhone or something.  This all kinda results 
in: person in office needs to figure out what the target device is and not mess 
up.

I am ok with getting them to help (pick a device from a list), but would like 
to 
offer an extra level of protection.   This is when I start pondering...

One idea I had: only restore to an empty disk.  "empty" could have a few 
definitions: no partitions defined, no partition table, no files in any 
partition.

Another idea is looking for some sort of signature: like a file name, or a file 
with a string in it.  and to be over the top, the string could be the date, so 
that the signature expires after some time.

One problem I keep thinking is:  The step of prepping a disk has the same risks 
as dropping the clone on the wrong disk.  I have 2 solutions to this:

1. someone else preps the disks, and they are standing by.  (this is different 
than just dropping the clone on them, because there may be more than one image 
to pick from, and the image may change over time.)

2. person in office uses a 2nd box to prep: maybe a windows box, or something 
they are more familiar with, and less likely to wipe out critical data.

btw - make this an option.  I don't want to inflict this added step on the 
current clonezilla userbase, especially me :)

Carl K

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