Hard Drive Cloning Project
This is my first project of this kind. I’ve had many firsts since I started using Linux Ubuntu 7.04 back in April. Including my first time to install an operating system! The purpose of this was to move/clone my old 40GB Maxtor drive with Windows XP which was starting to fail. I have an 80GB drive which housed my Linux Ubuntu 7.04. I then purchased a 160GB Seagate drive. Of course I want Linux on the largest drive because that is what I use the most. Well, here are the results…
Successfully cloned an 80GB Hitachi drive which had my Ubuntu onto a new 160GB Seagate drive. I searched the Ubuntu Forums on how to do that. And I was not disappointed. I found a nifty command in Linux that does just that. I made sure the syntax was correct since I was in danger of destroying everything I’ve done on Linux. So I popped in my Ubuntu LiveCD and did this:
sudo dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror
sudo – because of the permission error I kept getting
dd – the magical command
if – the source drive or partition
of – the target drive or partition
bs – determines the size of the tranfers (?)
conv – I have no idea but that was recommended
Again, I made sure that I didn’t get the source and target drives mixed up! Or else!
When it was done, I booted up my 160GB drive and voila! Everything was exactly the same. I had to reboot one more time to get back the drives to the correct /dev/hda tag. I didn’t have to do anything else. Ubuntu just did what it usually does. So the 80GB Hitachi with Linux was successfully cloned to the 160GB Seagate. Problem solved!
Now the 40GB Maxtor drive was another challenge. It was in NTFS format. The dd command did not work. I kept getting an input/output error message. I used the LiveCD to wipe out and split the 80GB Hitachi into 2 almost equal partitions. The ntfsclone command worked but for some reason I could boot up Windows XP on the 80GB drive even though all the files were there. I thought it was a Windows problem so I looked for a Windows solution. The 15-day Trial of Acronis True Image did the trick.
So now I can let the 40GB Maxtor drive rest in peace until I find a need for it. I hope not. Windows XP has been moved to my 80GB Hitachi drive and my Ubuntu is now on the 160GB drive with plenty of unallocated space for other Linux distros that I want to try out. I would never have done all this without the Ubuntu Community. Hats off to you guys!
Community
Thread here.
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I have a 40GB Maxtor drive which has Windows XP on it and an 80GB Hitachi which has Linux Ubuntu 7.04. On two occasions, the Maxtor drive was not detected by bios and I had to tinker with the IDE cable. I will be replacing the drive with an 80-160GB Seagate or Samsung today. I searched for a good and free cloning software and google led me to PCStats which reviewed commercial and free cloning software. I will be off to the store in a few hours to purchase a new hard drive. I’ll be buying a new IDE cable as well just in case the problem is with that. In the mean time, I am still searching for the best software to use to clone my dying(?) hard drive.
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A suggestion was posted asking for the removal of the Jumpstart server altogether because of the low activity compared to the Normal server. There was vote was held in the forum giving the players a chance to have their say on the game. Majority of the players chose to increase the turn rate of the Jumpstart server. How fast will it be? No announcements have been made but we’ll find out soon. There’s only 7 days left before Havoc starts. There is no start date yet for the next reset. The new and improved server aims to increase player activity as well as the current player base.
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Ask me anything about networking in Windows and I could give you an answer or get you one. I’m a technician for a manufacturer of networking devices. I take in about at least 18 cases a day, 6 days a week. I’ve been using Linux Ubuntu since April 2007. Recently, I was posed a question by one of my friends if I knew a lot about Linux networking. Of course, my answer was no because I’m still learning. I really want to try this out. I was told that I will need to learn CLI. I have no idea what that is. So I guess that’s where I will start. I’ll also be looking for online resources that I can read up on about administering a Linux network. We’ll see what I can find…
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A friend of mine who works for a research company found out today that I have switched to Linux Ubuntu. They use Fedora and Centos in all their workstations. Asked if I knew anything about Asterisk programming, I’ve never heard of it so I said no. Turns out that they’ve been looking for a way to install softphones on their linux boxes. I’ve been scouring the forums for a good softphone and voip provider. There’s Ekiga, Wengophone, Gizmo and Skype. So far the best bet is Ekiga which came with Ubuntu. And for the provider, based on what I’ve read it seems that most of them are from one company – Betamax. But in order to register, you will have to use a windows box since they ask you to install their software first before you can get a username and password. And the installer is an exe file. Some have tried running that in Wine though but I forgot if it worked or not. I will have to research on that further. As far as hardware is concerned, I think I will just keep the headset. A handset will be too much for something that I think I will rarely use. Although that might change if I get this to work and I’ll find plenty of uses for it.
At this point, it looks like Ekiga is more widely used and has a good success rate. The newer versions fix any audio issues. I have no idea if Ekiga works with Fedora or Centos. I’d like to think that it should since they’re still linux. I will test this and see what happens. The search continues…
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Unfortunately, this is not a guide. Merely notes on what works and what doesn’t. But even that is not 100% accurate. Last reset, a guildmate of mine – BlueCrus, showed me a wonderful red stack that worked well with our wonder – Academy of Trajectory. I have been experimenting with flying and ranged units. The stack I was given consisted of 2 melee units, 3 ranged units and 1 melee unit. Balrogs and Death Knights are interchangeable as the top 2 stacks. Then Magmademons, Ice Hexes and Acid beasts. With Mountain Rises at the bottom to kick the fodder. I also picked up Mind Flayers and had them behind the Magmademons. With Hellfire and Flask of Gasoline on defense, it was great!
With a different wonder, I didn’t really use this stack extensively. But the times that I did, I think it did better than the other stacks I’ve tried. If you’re a mountain mage and looking for a stack, this is a good one to try out. Let me know how it goes…
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