[CLUE-Tech] Poor man's Ghost?

[Jim Ockers]

Matt:

Matt Gushee wrote:
> 
> I'm wondering if it is feasible, using some Linux distribution or 
> other on a floppy or two or three, to:
> 
>   1. Boot up a machine and connect it to a LAN;
>   2. Mount a network drive; and
>   3. Create an image of a local partition on the network drive
>       i.e., something like:
> 
>         $ dd if=/dev/hda of=/network/drive/hda1.img

This will work.  Obviously Windows 98 cannot run dd so you will need to
use a Linux boot CD.  If you have to have floppies then an old slack-
ware distribution with PCMCIA support on the boot/root disks is your
best bet, if your ethernet card is supported by that kernel and PCMCIA
utility set.

> In case you're curious why, I want to copy my wife's Win98 system to 
> a new hard disk. The machine is a laptop, so we can't readily install 
> another HD alongside the existing one. And we have the product 
> recovery CD, but it's not bootable, and the boot floppy seems to be 
> in a box in her parents' barn in northern Japan.

I think Windows 98 can make its own boot floppy ("startup disk") if you
can find the right tool to do that.  Look in add/remove programs maybe.

The only problem you might have is if you write the image to the new
drive, it may not be bootable, or it may have a problem due to the
partition table not matching the drive's actual geometry if the laptop
BIOS is not nice to you.

I've "ghosted" lots of systems this way.

-- 
Jim Ockers (ockers at ockers.net)
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/