How to Make a Clone of a Disk Drive
Making a clone of a disk drive is a useful and productive way to allocate the same environment on multiple work stations. It is also useful to create a backup of a drive for future use. Making a clone looks like a very simple process but unfortunately if you go for default windows cloning options, it is very tricky and it is not for a layman. If you are interested to get information about cloning hard disk, following is very easy step by step guide to create a clone of a disk drive or partition.
Instructions
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First of all go to this link (g4u) to read a guide on G4U. We are going to use this to make the clone.
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Now from the link above, download ISO image of g4u.
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Burn the ISO image on a CD.
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Now put the cd in cd rom and restart your system, it will boot with g4u. Now follow the instructions Here or alternatively:
A: Make an account with name install on any of the FTP servers of your choice and set a password for that. It will require your DHCP configuration so make sure that your DHCP is working and is configured properly.
B: Boot the CD, it will load g4u kernel and then will display all of the devices connected to pc, after that it will show you the DHCP configuration of your computer and then you will be presented by possible commands along with shell command prompt.
C: To make clone of whole HDD, type without quotes "uploaddisk your.ftp.server.com filename.gz", .gz will enable you to create a compressed image of hard disk drive. you will see an install window after that, and it will require you to enter an the password you created on ftp server.
D: To copy a single partition, type without quotes "parts disk" and it will display the available partitions on the disk such as sd0, wd0,ed0etc. Now identify the partition you want to copy and then type without quotes "uploadpart your.ftp.server.com filename.gz wd1e" or you can replace wd1e with partition that you desire to copy.
E: Now wait, it can take multiple hours to make a clone depending on your internet speed and machine's processing power.
F: Once you are done, halt the computer and shut it down.
G: Check your FTP server account and it will have the image you created. -
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You have the options to copy a single partition or whole hard disk either to a network destination or on a separate hard drive attached to your workstation.
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Now to paste the clone on another computer, simple reboot that computer and put the same cd and follow the instructions here.
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After cloning is done, simple remove the cd and reboot the pc. Now you have same environment on both machines.
