From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 10 19:41:44 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C203106564A for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:41:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david+dated+1308165107.fdbca6@skytracker.ca) Received: from 3s1.com (3s1.com [209.161.205.12]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4698C8FC12 for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:41:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from 3s1.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by 3s1.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p5AJBlvX053104 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:11:48 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from david+dated+1308165107.fdbca6@skytracker.ca) Received: (from david@localhost) by 3s1.com (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id p5AJBl3C053088 for questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:11:47 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from david+dated+1308165107.fdbca6@skytracker.ca) X-Authentication-Warning: 3s1.com: david set sender to david+dated+1308165107.fdbca6@skytracker.ca using -f Received: by 3s1.com (tmda-sendmail, from uid 1000); Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:11:47 -0400 Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:11:46 -0400 To: questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20110610191145.GA36779@skytracker.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.12 (Macallan) From: David Banning Cc: Subject: copying hard drives X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:41:44 -0000 I am interested in copying hard drives and would like some feedback. 1. I would like a way to take peoples windows -or- unix systems and store each on portable hard drive as a single file - so that in the end I have a large, say 2TB drive with a number of peoples operating system backed up - that can later be restored. One concern I have is that the file saved is under a certain generic standard - I don't want to be in a situation down the road where I need to restore, but the required software to restore is defunct. It would be nice to have the operating system on a stick - so I could boot into the program from a clients computer, connect a large drive, and backup their entire drive. 2. I'd like a simple way to copy - my FreeBSD system to another drive - a clone so to speak - which I know dd can do - but I wonder if there is a way to do this so that clone drive can be smaller that the original. My thinking here is that I need to experiment with changes but can't do it on a live system - hence the copy booted from a separate machine.