Answers below -------- 1. "Drive" is ambiguous. In the Linux world, a "drive" is a physical device (e.g., IDE primary, accessed as /dev/hda). A drive contains partitions that in turn contain filesystems. Windows people seem to use "drive" to refer
both to a physical device and to a filesystem in a partition on a drive. In Linux/Unix terminology, your example -- "Microsoft machines "c" drive" -- probably refers to creating an image of a *filesystem*, not a *drive*. Is that what you really mean? -=-=-=-=--=-= I can see the confusion. It would be a Partition (with a windows file system) on A physical drive attached to a windows machine. 2. I assume you want to run something on the Linux server that does this job. So ... how is the filesystem visible to Linux on the server? It is an NFS mount? An SMB mount? Something else? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= I can mount the file system using SMB. Cp and tar are not viable options As they can not do anything with locked files. Which is why I was hoping For something similar to Norton Ghost which does a byte by Byte image. 3. With boot drives, there are special considerations, involving the boot sector and possibly some files that need to be in known locations (this is true for LILO, at least; I'm not expert enough in Windows to know what might matter there). Does this backup-to-image solution need to address any restrictions that are, in this sense, outside the structure of the filesystem? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= No it does not. There are a couple machines (The CEO and VP) that I would like to Be able to do a full system restore without having to load any apps or windows itself. To minimize downtime and to return there systems to the exact state of when the backup Occurred. 4. How much flexibility does the corresponding restore function need? Does it need only to restore to the same physical drive (or another that is physically identical), or do you want to be able to put a copy of the filesystem on a another drive with different geometry (and perhaps even a different partition structure)? -=-=-=-=-= In the event that the hard drive was physically broken I may need to install A new hard drive that would have a different geometry. The same partition Size would be acceptable but I would prefer to be able to restore the image to A larger partition. A general suggestion ... coming from a Windows background, you may assume that Windows is s good starting reference point for capabilities. This isn't true for all of us here; though I use Windows on my desktop, there are many things I know how to do with Linux that I can't begin to guess how to do with Windows. So, in this case, your reference to "ghost" does not help me understand your needs. I'm sure I'm not the only one here with this particular combination of knowledge and ignorance ... you might get better responses if you didn't rely on Windows examples to clarify your needs. -=-=-=-== Linux is by far a better OS every day I keep looking at my windows desktop and Wanting to install LINUX. I use windows examples assuming (falsely) that everyone Has some knowledge of it and its apps so I try to use an app I think is familiar To try portray my needs. I will refrain from this in the future. Since I don't know how ghost works, let me ask this ... would a solution be to run ghost on the Windows host, them simply transfer (in any of the usual ways) the image it creates to the Linux server? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This would be a solution but then I require a 3rd machine in order to do the restore. 1. the workstation that is to be imaged, 2. the Linux server that is holding that image, 3. the windows machine that can run ghost. I am trying to replace all the things I do with windows with Linux. I am using this as a way to become familiar with Linux as well as a way to become independent of Microsoft. -- -------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"-------- Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
