Using NTFSClone.

NTFSClone is a super fast Linux utility for copying NTFS volumes. It is incredibly fast and will typically clone a 10GB NTFS volume in under 3 minutes. Compare this to Ghost which would easily take 10 minutes to complete the same task and you begin to realise the potential of this utility.

Basically all you need to tell it is the file/ volume to clone from (SOURCE) and give it an output file (or device) to clone on to. (e.g. /dev/hda1 or /mnt/tmp/myimage.file).

Usage:

ntfsclone [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone –save-image [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone –restore-image [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone –metadata [OPTIONS] SOURCE

Options:
Below is a summary of all the options that ntfsclone accepts. Nearly all options have two equivalent names. The short name is preceded by - and the long name is preceded by — . Any single letter options, that don’t take an argument, can be combined into a single command, e.g. -fv is equivalent to -f -v . Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.

-o, --output FILE
Clone NTFS to the non-existent FILE. If FILE is ’-’ then clone to the standard output.

-O, --overwrite FILE
Clone NTFS to FILE, overwriting if exists.

-s, --save-image
Save to the special image format. This is the most efficient way space and speed-wise if imaging is done to the standard output, e.g. for image compression, encryption or streaming through a network.

-r, --restore-image
Restore from the special image format specified by SOURCE argument. If the SOURCE is ’-’ then the image is read from the standard input.

--rescue
Ignore disk read errors so disks having bad sectors, e.g. dying disks, can be rescued the most efficiently way, with minimal stress on them. Ntfsclone works at the lowest, sector level in this mode too thus more data can be rescued. The contents of the unreadable sectors are filled by character ’?’ and the beginning of such sectors are marked by “BadSectoR\0″.

-m, --metadata
Clone ONLY METADATA (for NTFS experts). Moreover only cloning to a file is allowed. You can’t metadata-only clone to a device, image or standard output.

--ignore-fs-check
Ignore the result of the filesystem consistency check. This option is allowed to be used only with the –metadata option, for the safety of user’s data. The clusters which cause the inconsistency are saved too.

-f, --force
Forces ntfsclone to proceed if the filesystem is marked “dirty” for consistency check.

-h, --help
Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

Profile:  John has administered networks of various sizes for many years and also dabbles in PHP web development. More articles.