<div dir="ltr"><div>When my parent's windows machine occasionally became too slow (as most undermaintained windows machine does). I tried to ease the situation like so:</div><div>I divided the windows into a minimal C:\ partition which contained the windows directory, a d:\ which contained the rest of the data (program files, documents and settings, etc), a hidden parition /dev/hda3 which contained copy of the c:\ partition, and finally a small linux partition.</div>
<div>I hacked up a script that would once every X boots up the linux partition that would recover the c:\ partition from the hidden partition.</div><div>That way, every once in a while the users would "feel" as if their windows was reinstalled (a known cure for many windows diseases.</div>
<div><br></div><div>This didn't work out eventually, since some windows program assumed Program Files is on C:\, without checking the registry, and behaved strangely.</div><div><br></div><div>I used partimage for this job, and was generally content. I don't recall a single data corruption. Of course this is highly inaccurate estimation, so use with caution.</div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Ira Abramov <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Lists-Linux-IL@ira.abramov.org">Lists-Linux-IL@ira.abramov.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Howdie people!<br>
<br>
Got a client that needs a test environment where the disk on one<br>
specific server (maybe more in the future?) are wiped clean once in a<br>
while (so the performance tests always start at the same state). They<br>
want the same machine to be at alternate times installed with one of<br>
several images, Windows and Linux. Naturally I prefer to skip<br>
proprietary solutions and go to open.<br>
<br>
One of the requiremnets is that the data is only wiped on one of the two<br>
disks in the machine, or preferably just a single partition (the OS).<br>
<br>
Stored images can go to the other disk, or a remote server. Naturally I<br>
prefer a remote server because then I'll be able to use it for other<br>
one-shot installs as well (such as virtual machines, or just future<br>
bare-metals)<br>
<br>
On the short list are:<br>
* OpenQRM (an overkill, and I think avoiding full wipe is not easy)<br>
* G4L (I know nothing about it)<br>
* Partimage/PING (donno it, and it seems unmaintained)<br>
* Clonezilla (seems like the best candidate ATM)<br>
* FOG (aka freeghost - seems pretty good as well)<br>
<br>
So... before I sink my teeth in, I'd love any recommendations or<br>
warnings that will save me time. If you have interesting horror stories<br>
that go with the warnings, that's even better :-)<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Ira.<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dumb as they come<br>
Ira Abramov<br>
<a href="http://ira.abramov.org/email/" target="_blank">http://ira.abramov.org/email/</a><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Linux-il mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il">Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il" target="_blank">http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br></div>