[PLUG] Copying all partitions of a drive to single partition/directory?

[Tyrell Jentink]

I glanced too quickly at that Montana State page... What I wanted wasn't
there.

Look at the 'mount' Man page, specifically the section on "The Loop
Device": https://linux.die.net/man/8/mount

On Sat, Jan 5, 2019, 05:18 Tyrell Jentink <tyrell at jentink.net wrote:

> Your original question seemed to imply you wanted to maintain the
> partition layout for some reason. If you do, disk images are the correct
> way to do it... But, as others have said, you might not actually have meant
> to ask for that...
>
> If what you want is the files, not the partitions, you can use 'cp -a,' or
> even 'rsync -a'.
>
> IF you want the partitions, that's what a disk image is for. Disk images
> are generally read only, but they are mountable.
>
> I have used disk images in a lot of ways...
> Related to your use case, I have used disk images to create "Archives" of
> machine states; In other words, I can use that image to restore my full
> disk back to it's current system state. Or, I can simply mount the "Old"
> system into my new file system and copy a file out if I need it. Those will
> typically be treated as "Read Only," after all, it's an archive.
>
> I have also used disk images in virtual machines... They are really just
> text files, mounted as loop devices and partitioned and formatted like a
> block device... You can use them in any way you can use a block device,
> including writing to it.
>
> Heck, I have entire services running in disk images that are shared over
> iSCSI... I mean, complex scenarios can be constructed with these things.
>
> > The standard tool for taking a disk image is 'dd.' Man page:
>> > http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/dd.1.html
>>
>> That's where I started ;/
>>
>
> Then you have what you need...
>
> > Theoretically, you can simply image the entire drive, partitions and all
>> > intact exactly as they are presently, although I've never done it that
>> > way... I have always imaged partitions directly... But I don't see why
>> > either method would be "wrong," as long as you know how to mount the
>> output
>> > ;)
>>
>> That "Theoretically" is the kicker.
>>
>
> Ugh... I'm sorry for dispensing doubt... I *HAVE* worked with full disk
> images in the context of Virtual Machines. I have even started with a plain
> text file, mounted it with a loop mount, and partitioned and formatted it.
> They work. They work well. When I said "Theoretically," I meant "Make sure
> you know how this works before you do it," not "Don't do it."
>
>>
>> >
>> > As for compressing it...
>> >
>> https://serverfault.com/questions/52260/compressing-dd-backup-on-the-fly
>> > suggests you can simply pipe the output of 'dd' directly into gzip...
>> But
>> > one of the comments says not to use it for the purposes the original
>> poster
>> > suggested it for, so maybe read their warnings before following their
>> > advice.
>>
>> I hadn't seen that particular article. But a similar one was what
>> prompted me to post.
>>
>> I hoped there was a tool. As I intend to erase the hard drive in each
>> machine before doing a fresh Debian install I NEED to have a copy in a
>> safe place. I WANT it stored in such a manner that I can retrieve
>> individual files/directories.
>>
>
> Once you dd the image... You can mount the image. With 'mount -o'
> command. This article appears to cover the ins and outs pretty well,
> although I just glanced over it...
>
> http://www.cs.montana.edu/~andrew.hamilton/cs560/VFS/mount.html
>
> Don't know if what I want is actually possible.
>> Don't know if there is something basic that I don't know.
>> Thank you.
>>
>>
>> >
>> > On Fri, Jan 4, 2019, 06:08 Richard Owlett <rowlett at cloud85.net wrote:
>> >
>> >> I wish to do fresh Debian installs to three machines {including
>> >> repartitioning drives of each machine}. Each drive is nominally 250GB.
>> I
>> >> have purchased a USB connected 1TB drive to be the target.
>> >>
>> >> I like the ease of use of Clonezilla-live. But it intrinsically wipes
>> >> the target drive completely. Compressing the output would be nice.
>> >>
>> >> TIA
>> >>
>>
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