Clone QNX/POSIX HDD via Acronis or Norton Ghost?

Clone QNX/POSIX HDD via Acronis or Norton Ghost?

My main question here is a) does anyone know if there is
bootable Unix disc (similar to Acronis or Norton Ghost)
that will do what I want???

Also how about a dedicated Unix newsgroup where I might
have a better chance of getting an accurate Unix answer?

Meaning does anyone know if booting from a bootable disc
of Acronis or Norton Ghost, will permit me to:

1. Clone an existing QNX/POSIX HDD (250GB) to a new 500GB HDD?

(my hunch is that both will permit this)

2. The tougher part may be in how to expand the main partition (on the original
250GB Unix HDD) to become larger and take up most of the new 500GB HDD.

Any/all thoughts on what I'll have to do will be appreciated.

Also, I've so far tried this on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage n/g
with one response by Arno that may (or may not) be all I need:

> <"Size change requires filesystem support. I doubt very
> much that Acronis or Ghost support that for rteh QNX filesystem.
> The only thing that should work is a sector-wise (1:1) copy.
>
> Incidentially, you are using the wrong tool. QNX is Unix-like,
> so you should use Unix tools.

My 2nd question there was:

>> 2. The tougher part may be in how to expand the main partition (on the original
>> 250GB) to become larger and take up most of the new 500GB.
>>
>> Any/all thoughts on what I'll have to do will be appreciated.">

Arno's response was:

> Simple: Copy it over via (GNU) tar after having created a new filesystem
> on the target and having mounted it somewhere:
>
> tar cf - --one0file-system <old-root-partition> |
> (cd <new-root-partition>; tar xvf -)">

Thanks in advance for comments/answers

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:48:20 -0400, Othersongs <post.DeleteThis@onng.net> wrote:

> My main question here is a) does anyone know if there is
> bootable Unix disc (similar to Acronis or Norton Ghost)
> that will do what I want???

I've never used Acronis or Norton Ghost.

I haven't looked at many of the live linux boot cds, but I'd expect
them all to have the required basic tools to do this.

You have three basic options ...

1) Sector by sector copy of the first hard drive onto the first
250GB followed by resizing the partition/filesystem.
This can create a possible problem with duplicate volume serial
numbers in the mbr, if you plan on using both drives in the same
computer, after the copying. This problem can actually be
a benefit if you have vista installed, as the mbr will be
unchanged.

2) Preallocate a 250GB partition on the new drive, then do a
sector by sector copy of the partition, followed by resizing
the partition/filesystem.

3) Allocate the 500GB partition, format it, and copy the data
from the first drive to the second.

What do you currently have on the hard drive, as in which os, and
which filesystem type (fat or ntfs)?

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=134457
shows how to do option number 2.

Option 1 is similar to option 2, except that you skip the creating
of the partition, and replace the dd command with
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/sda bs=32256
to copy the entire drive, including the first track.

Option 3 can be done with the tar command as suggested by
Arno, or a little simpler using rsync ...
After creating the partition on the new drive, as per the above
article, mount the old and new filesystems ...

mkdir /mnt/old
mount /dev/hda1 -t ntfs /mnt/old
mkdir /mnt/new
mount /dev/hdb1 -t ntfs /mnt/new
rsync -av /mnt/old/ /mnt/new/

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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