HardDisk Imaging

[Darwin4Ever]

Hi,

I'm searching a HardDisk imaging tool that runs under Dos (Win9x command) and that create DSK (or alike) RAW-images from a complete HardDisk (independent the formatting / partitioning), and doesn't require specifying sector/cylinder figures.
I've been searching but could only find tools for Floppy-imaging.

Thank you

[S+M]

I'm not sure if partition magic for DOS can do this, but it would be my only idea for DOS.

Else I would recommend to use a bootup disc with old linux and e.g. GParted or to remove the HDD and make the image at another machine.

If you use newer HW like a sata controller or big HDDs you could get some trouble with old tools.

[Gast]

Thanks for the reply.

My problem is the other way around.
It's concerning an old scsi-HDD which I only can use in an old pc.
And as you can imagine, everything after WinME can't be installed.

So I really need a DOS-solution.

It's very weird that there are so many floppy-only DOS-imaging tools, and none (i could find) supporting HDD's.
I know Partition Magic and can't remember it could make real RAW-images.

[Xaar]

I remember using older versions of Norton Ghost or PowerQuest's DriveImage for those cases. I don't know whether the created images are compatible to any modern (raw) image format or not - I never tried restoring these on newer systems with modern tools. Unfortunately, these commercial tools are hard to find these days.

I don't know if there are any freely available tools for DOS for hard disk imaging. My only alternative suggestion would also involve booting to a very old live Linux system form the early to mid 2000s and use dd or ddrescue to make an image - if the computer is capable of booting such a Linux system. And, of course, if you can find one to download after all these years.

[S+M]

I have "gparted-live-0.3.6-7.iso" in my collection (can be found online) and labled it to be compatible with 486 and higher. But I didn't checked the compatibility, try it yourself

[His_Cifnes]

As for imaging inside DOS, I've always booted a DOS floppy, then put in another floppy disk with the ZIP100 parport drivers on it.. load it, then put the next floppy disk into the drive: NortonGhost.

Now you can run NortonGhost and image any local hard drive or partition to the ZIP100 disks (and yes you can even tell NortonGhost to part them into multiple archives, so they span over many many ZIP disks.

An alternative method would be to simply take the hard drive off the DOS machine, connect it to a modern PC, and use the imaging method of your choice.

With old hardware I learned that cheating is necessary at times. Makes life easier. Sometimes it is less work to physically take a drive off a machine and image it externally.

However, the Norton Ghost method always worked for me, even for hopeless cases, as long as there is a parallel port and a floppy drive. :D

Cif