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user462982
Asked: 2011-10-24 10:48:43 +0800 CST

Raw copy with sector precision on windows

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Is there some program for windows that is able to do what dd does in linux out of the box? I need to copy from a file to a physical disk in raw mode where I need to define offsets for input and output. So for dd, I'd need to use the seek and skip parameters. I know there is (1) http://www.chrysocome.net/dd or I could try to (2) setup dd using cygwin but:

  1. Does multiply the skip parameter with 512 (which I believe is wrong). I want to skip=4198399 sectors but it then tries to skip 2149580288 sectors (bs=512). So with this bug, the program is useless for me.

  2. I tried to use dd under cygwin as partially decribed here: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2000-08/msg00885.html. I did this

    mount -f //./physicaldrive0 /dev/enc
mount -f of=/dev/enc if=/cygdrive/f/inputfile.dat skip=4198399 seek=4209089

and got

dd: opening '/dev/enc': Invalid argument"

Similarily

    mount -f //./Device/Harddisk0/DR0 /dev/enc

resulted in

     dd: opening '/dev/enc': No such file or directory"

So I am tired of trying with cygwin.

Are there other programs/options that could accomplish a dd kind of raw copy (maybe some disk editor)?

Thanks

windows cygwin copy dd raw-disk

2 Answers

  1. Use a LiveLinux CD of your choice (e.g. Knoppix). Boot from it and do the dd from there. Everything else is just a hack if you depend on dd.

    Otherwise you can choose any imaging tool for Windows (e.g. Ghost, Acronis True Image).

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  2. With VirtualBox, you can use VBoxManage clonehd, converfromraw and storageattach, depending on what's suitable.

    To automate, you can use simple shell provisioning in Vagrant or, better yet, write a template with Packer. Installing these on Windows is a breeze with Chocolatey.

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