• Imaiging a partition one file at a time, sort of.

    From micky@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 26 12:25:23 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big
    file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm
    mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many
    other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that "locked"?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to micky on Tue Dec 26 10:00:15 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:25:23 -0500, micky wrote:
    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want.

    Robocopy, and it's already part of your installed Windows. It takes
    an image of the

    But Macrium Reflect can give you something Robocopy won't: password-
    protected encryption. It's really a good idea to encrypt your
    backups. If, heaven forbid, someone breaks into your house to rob
    you, you don't want your financial information on that external hard
    drive to be easily accessible.

    How likely is it that a burglar would have the computer skills to
    find your account numbers and other information on an unencrypted
    backup disk? Not 100%, but why take chances?

    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Big Al@21:1/5 to micky on Tue Dec 26 14:46:48 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 12/26/23 12:25 PM, micky wrote:
    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that "locked"?)
    You can't 'copy' files and get all the hard links, permissions, and maybe hidden, or files you just can't access due to
    'trusted installer' and such. If you could, robocopy would be a great tool for backups.
    And yes, files in use.
    --
    Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
    Al

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to micky on Tue Dec 26 13:51:12 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that "locked"?)

    You can mount a Macrium Reflect image file to get at individual files
    within the image file.

    http://reflect.macrium.com/help/v5/how_to/restore/browse_files_in_backups.htm Steps 1 to 4, inclusive, can be replaced with "Right-click on a .mrimg
    file, and select Explore Image".

    If you copy files individually, you have no versioning. No way to get
    at older copies of the same files. You would be stepping atop them each
    time you copied them. What you're asking about is call file sync.
    There are lots of tools that do that. Robocopy is already included in
    Windows. Or you could use Syncback (which I use for file sync), or FreeFileSync. As I recall, you have to buy SyncBack to get the VSS
    support whereas FreeFileSync has it. Some folks mentions Goodsync. It
    also has "copy locked files using VSS" mentioned in the manual, but I
    don't if the manual describes all features, or encompasses the paid
    version. Just remember that you'll only have 1 version of a file to get
    from the sync copy: whenever you last ran a sync.

    Of course, you could just just the 'copy' command already available in
    the OS. However, I found Windows' copy often has errors that results in
    you having to figure out which files didn't make it to the destination.
    So, I use TeraCopy for large file copies (thousands of files). The free
    and paid versions have "copy locked files" support which should mean
    they both support VSS (Volume Shadow Service).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Tue Dec 26 14:13:59 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> wrote:

    micky wrote:

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want.

    Robocopy, and it's already part of your installed Windows. It takes
    an image of the

    But Macrium Reflect can give you something Robocopy won't: password- protected encryption. It's really a good idea to encrypt your
    backups. If, heaven forbid, someone breaks into your house to rob
    you, you don't want your financial information on that external hard
    drive to be easily accessible.

    How likely is it that a burglar would have the computer skills to
    find your account numbers and other information on an unencrypted
    backup disk? Not 100%, but why take chances?

    In addition, payware versions of Macrium Reflect include Image Guardian.
    When enabled, no process can do anything to the backup files other than
    read them. No deletes, renames, moves, encrypting, etc. That protects
    the backup files from ransomware. Works by installing a stacked I/O
    driver that intercepts any file API calls to the backup files (there are several filetypes that get protected).

    I've had to move the backup files, and got reminded that I had to
    disable Guardian before I could do the move, and then reenable it after
    the move. The free version doesn't included Guardian. Well, they need
    some lures to get users to pay for more features.

    https://www.macrium.com/mig

    Before Guardian, I had the backup job run pre-job and post-job scripts
    (batch files) which reenabled a device (using devcon program in an admin console window) and mount the device, run the backup (since the drive
    would then be available), and then unmount the drive and disable the
    device. That way, outside of the backup jobs, the device (drive) was
    normally unavailable. However, malware can find and mount devices
    trying to find files to delete, rename, move, or encrypt. Also, during
    the backup job, the drive was available, so there was a window of
    opportunity for lurking malware to discover the files on the backup
    drive to fuck them up. Guardian works like a rootkit, so it's harder to
    get around.

    Guardian wasn't available until about version 7 of Reflect. Plus you
    had to buy Reflect to get Guardian. As I recall, I waited for a Black
    Friday online sale at macrium.com when Reflect was 50% off. I don't
    like subscriptionware, so I bought the perpetual license which is more expensive. I didn't need more than the Home payware version.

    There were some more features of the payware Home version not in the
    Free version, but Guardian is the big one that I remember. Besides
    protecting me from ransomware fucking my backups, it has also protect me
    from myself, or anyone else gaining access to my computer. If you have
    kids, they have lots of free time and impetus to screw with your
    computer unless you keep it in a locked room. Same for guests you
    invite over for a party or to stay on a vacation.

    They do have a Christmas sale:

    https://www.macrium.com/products/home#buy-reflect-home

    Scroll down to the "Happy Holidays" section. However, that's for their 12-month subscriptionware version ($39.99 x .8 = $31.99).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Carlos E.R.@21:1/5 to micky on Tue Dec 26 21:17:09 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-12-26 18:25, micky wrote:
    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    Well, for starters, that's not imaging. That's file backup, or
    archiving. It will have it sets of characteristics, some pro some
    against, but it simply is not "imaging a partition".

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Tue Dec 26 12:45:23 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On Tue, 26 Dec 2023 10:00:15 -0800, Stan Brown wrote:

    On Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:25:23 -0500, micky wrote:
    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want.

    Robocopy, and it's already part of your installed Windows. It takes
    an image of the

    ... image of the partition and then backs _that_ up, thus evading
    issues with files being in use.

    But Macrium Reflect can give you something Robocopy won't: password- protected encryption. It's really a good idea to encrypt your
    backups. If, heaven forbid, someone breaks into your house to rob
    you, you don't want your financial information on that external hard
    drive to be easily accessible.

    How likely is it that a burglar would have the computer skills to
    find your account numbers and other information on an unencrypted
    backup disk? Not 100%, but why take chances?

    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Paul on Tue Dec 26 15:03:34 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    On 12/26/2023 2:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big >>> file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find >>> them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone >>> a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm >>> mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many >>> other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that >>> "locked"?)

    You can mount a Macrium Reflect image file to get at individual files
    within the image file.

    Yup. Micky should know this.

    Ghost was one of the first backups, where you could mount the backup.
    The later backup program developers, all had to implement the same thing. Acronis has a mounter. Macrium has a mounter.

    Once mounted, you can copy individual files, out of the backup (mounted) K: K: is my standard assignment for the mounted partition. K: can be
    unmounted when I am finished. The Macrium interface, has a letter selector you can use, to set the partition to K: .

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/c1cjD6Ng/macrium-mounted-backup-K.gif

    Paul

    Too many users don't explore a program nor read its documentation. For example, most Word users use less than 10% of its features, and never
    wander through the menus nor read its included help or even bother to
    get a Dummies book from their public library. How many times have you
    helped a user when the solution was right there in the menues, or in the
    help, or an easy online search? What's obvious to us that are aware of
    the solution may not be obvious to those asking for help.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Tue Dec 26 15:52:26 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 12/26/2023 2:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big
    file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm
    mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many
    other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that
    "locked"?)

    You can mount a Macrium Reflect image file to get at individual files
    within the image file.

    Yup. Micky should know this.

    Ghost was one of the first backups, where you could mount the backup.
    The later backup program developers, all had to implement the same thing. Acronis has a mounter. Macrium has a mounter.

    Once mounted, you can copy individual files, out of the backup (mounted) K:
    K: is my standard assignment for the mounted partition. K: can be
    unmounted when I am finished. The Macrium interface, has a letter selector
    you can use, to set the partition to K: .

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/c1cjD6Ng/macrium-mounted-backup-K.gif

    Paul

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From micky@21:1/5 to nospam@needed.invalid on Tue Dec 26 16:25:16 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    This question got a wealth of information in return, from everyone who answered. I'm going to see my older brother thursday morning. I'm
    taking the laptop but nothing else, and I can't fiddle with the laptop
    while I'm not home for fear of messing it up, I'll be back at the end of January. First trip longer than a weekend in 2 years.

    Maybe I'll have time toorrow, maybe not, to do justice to answering even
    one of these post except this one, which has a comparitively short
    answer, but I red them and I'll reread all of them in February and again
    in March.

    Thanks a lot.

    More below.

    In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 26 Dec 2023 15:52:26 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    On 12/26/2023 2:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big >>> file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find >>> them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone >>> a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm >>> mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many >>> other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that >>> "locked"?)

    You can mount a Macrium Reflect image file to get at individual files
    within the image file.

    Yup. Micky should know this.

    I should, but it's still not real to me until I've done it. And every
    day it gets a little less real.

    The only time I've ever had to restore an image was before I was making
    inages. So I lost a bunch of data.***

    Being able to mount images without feeling like I'm interfering with my
    regular stuff is another reason I should get another computer working,
    more important from my pov than just running Linux

    Ghost was one of the first backups, where you could mount the backup.
    The later backup program developers, all had to implement the same thing. >Acronis has a mounter. Macrium has a mounter.

    Once mounted, you can copy individual files, out of the backup (mounted) K: >K: is my standard assignment for the mounted partition. K: can be
    unmounted when I am finished. The Macrium interface, has a letter selector >you can use, to set the partition to K: .

    Aha, something I actually know, and have used! I knew we'd find one.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/c1cjD6Ng/macrium-mounted-backup-K.gif

    Paul


    ***(The only thing I've noticed and remember that I miss from that
    failure to backup was the complete shopping list I'd made to install a replacement for my central air conditioning *It took hours to make), but
    I probably would not have ever done that anyhow.

    (Oh, and I lost an email I wrote to a friend explaining why 13 of the 20
    stupid political things he'd written to me were not just bad judgment
    but outright false. I was still working on the remaining 7, when,
    speaking of Ghost.exe, he ghosted me because I'd told him I didn't want
    to be on his politics mailling list, and then I must have argued with
    him, and he stopped returning my email and when I called, he replied
    with a brief email. I never insulted him, only said his sources were
    wrong. What a jerk.) Where was I?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 27 18:37:06 2023
    On 12/27/2023 2:47 PM, ...w¡ñ§±¤ñ wrote:
    micky wrote on 12/26/23 10:25 AM:
    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big
    file.  Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually?   Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time.  By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that?  The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**.  I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***.   But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want.  EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to.  (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm
    mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many
    other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that
    "locked"?)

    How big is big ?

    1. For many users 'everything'(data, music, pictures, 3rd party installers obtained, new drivers) are all stored on the same main disk's partition that holds the operating system.
    2. Some users might partition(using 3rd party tools) the main disk with another partition to store that same 'everything' separate from the o/s system partion.
    3. A smaller percentage might keep 'everything' on a entirely different disk(internal) or a SDXC card.

    Depending on what is being imaged determines the size.

    My preference has always been #3(for all my devices).

    Iirc, your device and most of your questions are for a Windows 10 system and most of the response are from the same people that read/reply in the Windows 10 and Windows 11 groups. It may not be necessary to cross post to the Windows 11 group.


    And a very simplified picture.

    +-----+-------------------------+----------------+
    | MBR | Windows C: drive 100GB | Data D: 2TB |
    +-----+-------------------------+----------------+

    If you keep your movie/music collection on the Data partition,
    the Data partition can be backed up at a different frequency
    than your OS drive C: .

    The OS drive C: can still have files on it, but when it is
    plugged with stuff, the excess can be moved off to D: .

    By keeping C: small, the backup time for it can be
    reduced to a reasonable number.

    To back up my (not very big) data collection, takes
    most of the day, to the backup drive.

    There are others here, with media collections on RAID,
    and the array of disks takes a significant time to back up.

    Computer storage stops being pleasant, when you make
    the storage too big. That's why the above picture does
    not "delve into excess". Backing up 2TB, you might be
    able to finish that, overnight.

    When I back up, I try to put one partition per MRIMG,
    when the partitions are big. The largest MRIMG in that
    case here, is only 1.5TB . And that still takes quite
    a while to run a Verify on it, to determine the backup
    is still good.

    If you run a Verify and the result is bad, it would be
    automatic to assume a bad hard drive. But it is just
    as possible that the PC has bad RAM, and that corrupted
    the backup attempt. That's how I lost several backups
    on the other PC. Bad RAM.

    Paul

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Joel on Thu Dec 28 01:12:53 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 12/27/2023 6:21 PM, Joel wrote:
    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big
    file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm
    mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many
    other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that
    "locked"?)


    My backups are very simple, I copy files to an external hard drive,
    without using some special software. Makes it very easy to put my
    shit onto a new internal drive OS installation, as I did when I
    switched to Linux, when I realized that I needed to have everything
    backed up and wipe my internal SSD, that was simple because Mint's
    installer can handle the NTFS partition that remained, as well as the external drive, back up what wasn't already on the external, then
    restore files once the OS is installed. It's advantageous in that I
    don't have to do a complete transfer of every file, each time, just incremental change.


    This works, because Linux root can mostly access everything on the disk.
    The permission model is simpler (for home users). The corporate feature
    set will cause hair loss.

    And from the Linux side, NTFS has no permissions. The Linux NTFS driver,
    only "makes up metadata" to keep the Linux stat() happy. The permissions
    shown should be "permissive". It is in a sense, a "shell" of a driver,
    a facade, like the front of a cowboy western building. The NTFS driver was written by reverse engineering, and not by reading a spec and writing code. This is why only the minimal amount of work was done to build it. It
    was hard work watching the bits go on and off and jumping to conclusions.

    NTFS *cannot* be accessed at file level, for NTFS New Compression files.
    These could be in WinSxS or System32 perhaps. These use custom reparse
    points, for which the Linux NTFS driver has no parsing code. A guy at
    Paragon was donating a new NTFS driver to Linux, but it was *still*
    missing at least one reparse handler (I tested it, it was not ready
    for prime time). Microsoft will keep making new reparse points,
    until hell freezes over.

    If you access a New Compression file, Linux reports "I/O Error", but
    don't freak out, your hard drive is not broken and that is not a CRC error!

    NTFS *can* be handled from Linux, at a different storage level.
    In the same way that Macrium backs up clusters, partclone could
    do something similar. Partclone would not know exactly what it
    was backing up, but it still can make a copy of a partition for you.

    NTFS data partitions (D: Data), Microsoft does not generally foul those up.

    Paul

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  • From Carlos E.R.@21:1/5 to Paul on Thu Dec 28 14:14:31 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 2023-12-28 07:12, Paul wrote:
    On 12/27/2023 6:21 PM, Joel wrote:
    micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big >>> file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find >>> them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone >>> a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm >>> mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many >>> other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that >>> "locked"?)


    My backups are very simple, I copy files to an external hard drive,
    without using some special software. Makes it very easy to put my
    shit onto a new internal drive OS installation, as I did when I
    switched to Linux, when I realized that I needed to have everything
    backed up and wipe my internal SSD, that was simple because Mint's
    installer can handle the NTFS partition that remained, as well as the
    external drive, back up what wasn't already on the external, then
    restore files once the OS is installed. It's advantageous in that I
    don't have to do a complete transfer of every file, each time, just
    incremental change.


    This works, because Linux root can mostly access everything on the disk.
    The permission model is simpler (for home users). The corporate feature
    set will cause hair loss.

    And from the Linux side, NTFS has no permissions. The Linux NTFS driver,
    only "makes up metadata" to keep the Linux stat() happy. The permissions shown should be "permissive". It is in a sense, a "shell" of a driver,
    a facade, like the front of a cowboy western building. The NTFS driver was written by reverse engineering, and not by reading a spec and writing code. This is why only the minimal amount of work was done to build it. It
    was hard work watching the bits go on and off and jumping to conclusions.

    This is correct, but there are three NTFS drivers in Linux.

    There is the old, read-only, ntfs driver in the kernel.

    There is ntfs3 ("3" because it implements ntfs 3.1) made by paragon.

    There is ntfs-3g, made using "fuse" (it is not a kernel driver). It is
    slower but more complete currently, AFAIK,


    The ntfs3 driver is currently blacklisted in, for example, openSUSE.


    NTFS *cannot* be accessed at file level, for NTFS New Compression files. These could be in WinSxS or System32 perhaps. These use custom reparse points, for which the Linux NTFS driver has no parsing code. A guy at
    Paragon was donating a new NTFS driver to Linux, but it was *still*
    missing at least one reparse handler (I tested it, it was not ready
    for prime time). Microsoft will keep making new reparse points,
    until hell freezes over.

    :-(


    If you access a New Compression file, Linux reports "I/O Error", but
    don't freak out, your hard drive is not broken and that is not a CRC error!

    NTFS *can* be handled from Linux, at a different storage level.
    In the same way that Macrium backs up clusters, partclone could
    do something similar. Partclone would not know exactly what it
    was backing up, but it still can make a copy of a partition for you.

    NTFS data partitions (D: Data), Microsoft does not generally foul those up.

    Paul

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.

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  • From Fokke Nauta@21:1/5 to micky on Thu Dec 28 21:30:05 2023
    XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11

    On 26/12/2023 18:25, micky wrote:
    I again imaged my harddrive with Macrium Reflect (free) and it's one big file. Now that harddrive space is so cheap, wouldn't it be more
    versatile and just as easy to copy every file and store them
    individually? Maybe it would take more time but I don't care about
    time. By versatile I mean that if I need specific files I could go find
    them and copy them back.

    What are the problems with that? The only one I know shows up when
    XXCopy won't copy files from newsgroups that are in use by Forte
    Agent**. I tried to use VSScopy to do this but I couldn't do it
    right***. But surely there are other programs that work as well as
    image software and do what I want. EVen Macrium Reflect free will clone
    a disk but only if I have an empty disk to clone it to. (My
    recollection is that Macrium Reflect free used to do this, but maybe I'm mixed up.)

    **though fwiw it does copy mailboxes open and in use by Eudora.
    ***So now I do backups when Agent is closed, but there are probably many other system files that are not able to be copied. (Is the word for that "locked"?)


    No.

    Use Macrium Reflect to make an image of your Windows system drive.
    You can use a different backup program to make a backup of your
    documents, music, pictures and video folders.
    That's what I do and it works well.

    Fokke Nauta

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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