> I am looking into a _general_ solution to backing up Win systems to CDs
> from tomsrtbt. The solution discussed in list archive (tarring the vfat
> files into archive / copying directly to CD) seems not to be sufficient,
> as it may break some programs that do rely on system/hidden attributes
> (not that I can think of an example, but in theory these could exist) etc.
I have never run into such a problem on a modern Windows ( > 3.1 ) system.
I think they have stopped using such stuff in such a way that it breaks if
those attributes are cleared, if they ever did. You can do a recursive
chattr -S -R -A -H or whatever on Windows without anything breaking. I'm
sure there is a straightforward way to archive that, too. But, until I'm
confronted with a case where it fails, I won't worry about it.
> Now, if it would be a question of backig up the entire partition, it would
> be simple with dd, but in Win boxes usually one partition covers the
> entire disk. But if only 200MB of a 20GB partition is used there is no
> idea in backing up all the empty space.
Just create a file that is all zeros that fills all free space. Then you
don't have to figure anything out, all the free areas will compress.
> - is there an utility for determining the last used block on a vfat fs?
Not worth the trouble to defragment and do this.
> - juggling with mounted/unmounted partition: is it safe/possible to
> consequently raw read from a partition and write to it?
No need to mount it, or if you want to, just mount -o ro.
> - is it possible to create the outfile on the mounted winpartition to a
> specific disk location/vfat fs block (for retaining a big enough gap
> between the reading area and the writing area)?
You can't write the output to the same partition- you have to have
something like a tape drive or another disk.
> This would enable to transfer data between partitions after repartitiong
> as an additional benefit btw -- you could break the big 20GB partition
> into, say, 10GB bits and dd the beginning (of the 20 GB) back into the
> first one. Though fips is better suited for the job, it still is an issue.
It just isn't worth it to do anything like this with dd. Either (a) fill
the empty space with zeros and just dd the partition, or, (b) use tar or
cpio. I have done plenty of windows-9x backup/restore cycles with cpio or
tar, it works flawlessly, and gives MUCH more flexibility.
-Tom
