g4u

[Andrew Gould]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Vu Pham <vu at sivell.com> wrote:
> On 01/21/2010 09:36 AM, Andrew Gould wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 8:26 AM, Vu Pham<vu at sivell.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>> I am trying to copy images of several notebooks ( Windows and Linux ) as
>>> their backups. g4u allows me to transfer the images to a remote ftp
>>> server
>>> but I need to copy these images to a local drive ( usb external hard
>>> drive
>>> ). If I understand correctly, g4u does not have this option: it will not
>>> copy images to local disks as files.
>>>
>>> Am I wrong ? If not, any alternative to g4u to allow me to clone hard
>>> drives
>>> onto local devices ?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Vu
>>
>> If I recall correctly, you are correct.  g4u will allow you to clone
>> partitions or hard drives locally, but does not have the option to
>> save an image to a local file.  The advantage of using ftp for saving
>> image files is that g4u doesn't have to worry about filesystem
>> compatibility.
>>
>> That being said, isn't g4u's backup application simply a front-end for
>> dd?  If your filesystems can be read by g4u, you may be able to
>> achieve your goal with a manual script.  If your filesystems cannot be
>> read by g4u, you may be able to recreate g4u's functionality using a
>> live Linux CD that has dd.
>>
>
> Andrew, dd is what I use at this moment. I thought g4u only copies files and
> file structure, not the whole disk ( owned and free nodes ) like dd so g4u
> will take less time to copy. I may be wrong.
>
> Thanks,
> Vu
>

g4u can work on disks or partitions, both of which can be identified
as devices.  It is compatible with all file systems because it copies
the disk/partition bit by bit rather than reading directories and
files.

Andrew