kesuki's Journal: ntfs clone, more work than dd, but it saves some filespace.

while i was playing around with using Linux to look for rootkits etc, i had started to wonder, why can't you just use tar.gz files to restore windows partitions... well, it's because of a 2 pronged problem... http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsclone

first off, NTFS file systems store 'metadata' data that Linux file systems doesn't store, and which tar is unable to read to store in it's file... secondly, there is the MBR, which is apparently tied specifically to the file system eg: you can't copy the MBR from one windows drive to another, it won't boot, that seems silly to me, but i guess it's true, after all they make Linux tools to migrate NTFS backups to new drives...

dd takes a long time, worse still it takes the entire size of the hdd, rather than 'used' space..

until i read about NTFS clone, i didn't think there was another way to copy NTFS partitions and back them up from Linux, but now i know better, although NTFS clone isn't a 'simple' process, you have to use multiple programs to both back up and restore, and if you want to migrate to another hdd you have to have a third program...

I might test this setup out, it might not be faster than using 'max blast' or hdd vendor tools, but the advantage is that if Linux is installed on a 500 gb hdd, i can make many backup/restore points from a raw os install, all the way up to having all my games installed.

I also like the way ntfsclone can be used to make a image of all the metadata, and only the metadata, it might help alleviate my concerns about rootkits 'hiding' inside the NTFS file system a bit..