--- "Doncho N. Gunchev" <mr700@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I do not know such, but I can give you an idea: mount your fat > partition, > create a file with zeroes to take all the free space on that it, > umount the > partition and compress and backup the whole partition. I assume you > have your > XP on /dev/hda2, so: > > [root@fedora ~]# mkdir /mnt/c > [root@fedora ~]# mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/c > [root@fedora ~]# cd /mnt/c > [root@fedora /mnt/c]# cat /dev/zero > ZEROFILE > cat: write error: No space left on device > [root@fedora /mnt/c]# rm -f ZEROFILE > [root@fedora /mnt/c]# cd > [root@fedora ~]# umount /mnt/c > [root@fedora ~]# sync > [root@fedora ~]# dd if=/dev/hda2 | bzip2 -vv -9 > /mnt/home/hda1.bz2 > # ( or 'dd if=/dev/hda2 | gzip -9 > hda1.gz' ) > > Then backup /mnt/home/hda1.bz2 where you want. You need the > 'ZEROFILE' > in order to full the unused partition space with zeroes, which will > be > compressed very much (128MB zeroes | bzip2 -9 > 112 bytes). When you > need > to restore your XP just do 'bzcat hda1.gz > /dev/hda2'. All files and > permissions (this trick can be done a bit harder with any fs) will be > 1:1. > > !!! WARNING !!! > 1. You should restore to the same partition (size). > 2. Any mistake like /dev/hda1 instead of /dev/hda2 will totally > destroy > /dev/hda1. > 3. This does not take care of the MBR. You might need to recover > it with the XP's rescue mode -> manual -> restore boot sector. > !!! WARNING !!! > > Hope this helps :) > PS: I used such trick to 'clone' some machines with same hardware > and > disks. > > -- > Regards, > Doncho N. Gunchev Registered Linux User #291323 at Hello; thank you very much. I now have a large file, I cannot test it untill I have to re-install XP. Mick M. ===== Dogs have Masters - Siamese Cats have Staff! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
