Deploying multi-partition harddrive over network to other computers.

C

cn@

Expert Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2016
Messages
3,732
I have one PC with Windows and Ubuntu on seperate partitions. I want to copy the entire disk to multiple computers over a network. Is this possible? What software do I need?

Thanks in advance.
 
A

Arthur

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Messages
26,879
Best commercial paid-for solution is Acronis Snap Deploy. Multicast image to a few or hundreds of machines.
 
S

sajunky

Honorary Master
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
13,124
cn@ said:
I have one PC with Windows and Ubuntu on seperate partitions. I want to copy the entire disk to multiple computers over a network. Is this possible? What software do I need?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
How partitioned, GPT?
 
C

cn@

Expert Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2016
Messages
3,732
I have many PC in an office and two operating systems on each PC (Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu Mate)).

Since 10 years ago (with windows XP and Ubuntu) I've always used Norton ghost on a bootable USB stick to clone a harddrive from one PC to the other. I physically take out one HDD and plug it into another motherboard, boot from the USB drive, and copy the contents over to another HDD. Even multiple partitions isn't a problem because I just run Ghost.exe with a -ir switch (I don't know what it means but it has worked for the past 6 years.)

Anyway I'm tired of opening up the PC cases everytime to connect a HDD to clone it from one to the other.

I know the image deployment from a server is pretty basic but I don't know how and I'm also not sure if "cloning" two paritions with two operating systems is possible over a network.
 
ginggs

ginggs

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Super Moderator
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
12,151
sajunky said:
You cannot copy entire GPT disk, but you can copy some individual partitions types, it is why is my question. If your disk is not GPT formatted, then follow suggestions above.
Click to expand...
Clonezilla claims to support MBR and GPT. Why would it not be possible to copy an entire GPT disk?
Features:
  • Many File systems are supported: (1) ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs and nilfs2 of GNU/Linux, (2) FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS of MS Windows, (3) HFS+ of Mac OS, (4) UFS of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, (5) minix of Minix, and (6) VMFS3 and VMFS5 of VMWare ESX. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows, Intel-based Mac OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Minix, VMWare ESX and Chrome OS/Chromium OS, no matter it's 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla.
  • LVM2 (LVM version 1 is not) under GNU/Linux is supported.
  • Boot loader, including grub (version 1 and version 2) and syslinux, could be reinstalled.
  • Both MBR and GPT partition formats of hard drive are supported. Clonezilla live also can be booted on a BIOS or uEFI machine.
  • Unattended mode is supported. Almost all steps can be done via commands and options. You can also use a lot of boot parameters to customize your own imaging and cloning.
  • One image restoring to multiple local devices is supported.
  • Image could be encrypted. This is done with ecryptfs, a POSIX-compliant enterprise cryptographic stacked filesystem.
  • Multicast is supported in Clonezilla SE, which is suitable for massive clone. You can also remotely use it to save or restore a bunch of computers if PXE and Wake-on-LAN are supported in your clients.
  • The image file can be on local disk, ssh server, samba server, NFS server or WebDAV server.
  • AES-256 encryption could be used to secures data access, storage and transfer.
  • Based on Partclone (default), Partimage (optional), ntfsclone (optional), or dd to image or clone a partition. However, Clonezilla, containing some other programs, can save and restore not only partitions, but also a whole disk.
  • By using another free software drbl-winroll, which is also developed by us, the hostname, group, and SID of cloned MS windows machine can be automatically changed.
Click to expand...
 
S

sajunky

Honorary Master
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
13,124
ginggs said:
Clonezilla claims to support MBR and GPT. Why would it not be possible to copy an entire GPT disk?
Click to expand...
When I wrote "You cannot copy entire GPT disk, but you can copy some individual partitions types" I meant a raw copy (sector by sector copy) as we used to copy MBR formatted disks. When you do it the result will be unbootable disk. It is because the disk and partition GUIDs will no longer be unique. See the relevant section in Microsoft's GPT FAQ: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535(v=vs.85).aspx#gpt_faq_sector_copy

I understand from your highlighted Clonezilla features that program will copy some individual 'unprotected' GPT partitions, but they don't say anything about creating bootable copy. There are few commercial programs which claim to do so, but I have no experience with.

@OP. There is a Microsoft deployment guide with a title "Apply a Windows Image to UEFI-based Computers", but I can't help with, quite frankly - do not understand. :(
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc765951(v=ws.10).aspx
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top