Dear all,
I've a question for you.
In my company there's a Compaq PII PC with SCO OpenServer Release 5
operating system.
I need to make a full backup of the entire disk (the server is only an
"archive" and will not be upgraded with new datas).
Is there some software, like for example Norton Ghost or something similar,
which doesn't need installation (I'm completely newbie on that operating
system and I don't want to make mistakes, because actually we don't have
backup!!!), to make an affordable disk clone or disk image on another hard
disk and, in case of damage of the original hard disk, could be used to
restore everything?

Thanks a lot,
Alessandro - GenTLe

--
GenTLe ...di Varese, provincia.
TL1000S + Mito 125 per la pista
La mia HP: http://digilander.iol.it/thegentle/index.htm

La vita è fatta di treni che passano, e a volte è bene salire senza
biglietto. Basta chiamare il controllore e pagare strada facendo (M.
Donnini; TT, La Corsa proibita)

GenTLe wrote:
> Dear all,
> I've a question for you.
> In my company there's a Compaq PII PC with SCO OpenServer Release 5
> operating system.
> I need to make a full backup of the entire disk (the server is only an
> "archive" and will not be upgraded with new datas).
> Is there some software, like for example Norton Ghost or something similar,
> which doesn't need installation (I'm completely newbie on that operating
> system and I don't want to make mistakes, because actually we don't have
> backup!!!), to make an affordable disk clone or disk image on another hard
> disk and, in case of damage of the original hard disk, could be used to
> restore everything?
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Alessandro - GenTLe
>

I've used dd to clone disks (and make disk images) but it is a very
dangerous tool in the hands of a newbie!

In article <cpne6h$mo9$1@titan.btinternet.com>,
Ian Wilson <scobloke2@infotop.co.uk> wrote:
>GenTLe wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> I've a question for you.
>> In my company there's a Compaq PII PC with SCO OpenServer Release 5
>> operating system.
>> I need to make a full backup of the entire disk (the server is only an
>> "archive" and will not be upgraded with new datas).
>> Is there some software, like for example Norton Ghost or something similar,
>> which doesn't need installation (I'm completely newbie on that operating
>> system and I don't want to make mistakes, because actually we don't have
>> backup!!!), to make an affordable disk clone or disk image on another hard
>> disk and, in case of damage of the original hard disk, could be used to
>> restore everything?
>>
>> Thanks a lot,
>> Alessandro - GenTLe

>I've used dd to clone disks (and make disk images) but it is a very
>dangerous tool in the hands of a newbie!

And if you don't have an exact match of HDs on the restore you
might never get things working.

And where would he make the backup? If it means mounting another
HD he has a greater chance of destroying things just in the act of
moving hardware around.

Far better to use MicroLite's BackupEdge or Cactus's Lone-Tar.

The fact that he doesn't have backup is pretty frightening.

I not he also wants to use something that you don't install, but
BE or LT have no problems on install as they don't diddle a thing.


Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

> I've used dd to clone disks (and make disk images) but it is a very
> dangerous tool in the hands of a newbie!

Hi, I have a problem similar to Alessandro. I'd like to keep a
copy of OSR504. The original system was a P100, 4Gb IDE HD with
a 1Gb primary partition devoted to SCO. I tried cloning that
using knoppix onto a 8Gb HD, with a slightly bigger partition
"dd </dev/hda1 >/dev/hdc1"
The disk geometries (CHS) are different, though.

When trying to boot from the cloned drive, the filesystems seemed
not to be recognised (I'll post the exact error message id it helps).
Has anyone succeeded in a similar operation, who would be willing
to help?

Alessandro, sorry to hijack you thread. If by any chance you have
a spare disk of the exact same model and capacity as the original
one, I think the dd trick is worth trying, and would be glad to
detail the knoppix steps if you like.

Cheers,

Bernard.

GenTLe wrote:
> Dear all,
> I've a question for you.
> In my company there's a Compaq PII PC with SCO OpenServer Release 5
> operating system.
> I need to make a full backup of the entire disk (the server is only
an
> "archive" and will not be upgraded with new datas).
> Is there some software, like for example Norton Ghost or something
similar,
> which doesn't need installation (I'm completely newbie on that
operating
> system and I don't want to make mistakes, because actually we don't
have
> backup!!!), to make an affordable disk clone or disk image on another
hard
> disk and, in case of damage of the original hard disk, could be used
to
> restore everything?
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Alessandro - GenTLe
>
> --
> GenTLe ...di Varese, provincia.
> TL1000S + Mito 125 per la pista
> La mia HP: http://digilander.iol.it/thegentle/index.htm
>
> La vita è fatta di treni che passano, e a volte è bene salire senza
> biglietto. Basta chiamare il controllore e pagare strada facendo (M.
> Donnini; TT, La Corsa proibita)

Alessandro,

There are several commercial packages available, e.g. Backup Edge, Lone
Tar, etc, you will need a backup device, i.e. Tape backup, CDRW, etc,
There are some others which you can use to make exact copy of your
primary hard drive, but that will require you to add a second drive,
since you mention you are new to SCO OS and don't want to make mistake
and do not have a backup, I would not suggest you to make any changes
to the system, e.g. adding disk, I would highly recommend you to seek
some professional help.

Good luck,

Abid

In article <1103072502.694877.261260@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups .com>,
<akhan@att.net> wrote:
>
>GenTLe wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> I've a question for you.
>> In my company there's a Compaq PII PC with SCO OpenServer Release 5
>> operating system.
>> I need to make a full backup of the entire disk (the server is only
>an
>> "archive" and will not be upgraded with new datas).
>> Is there some software, like for example Norton Ghost or something
>similar,
>> which doesn't need installation (I'm completely newbie on that
>operating
>> system and I don't want to make mistakes, because actually we don't
>have
>> backup!!!), to make an affordable disk clone or disk image on another
>hard
>> disk and, in case of damage of the original hard disk, could be used
>to
>> restore everything?
>>
>> Thanks a lot,
>> Alessandro - GenTLe
>>
>> --
>> GenTLe ...di Varese, provincia.
>> TL1000S + Mito 125 per la pista
>> La mia HP: http://digilander.iol.it/thegentle/index.htm
>>
>> La vita =E8 fatta di treni che passano, e a volte =E8 bene salire senza
>> biglietto. Basta chiamare il controllore e pagare strada facendo (M.
>> Donnini; TT, La Corsa proibita)
>
>Alessandro,

>There are several commercial packages available, e.g. Backup Edge, Lone
>Tar, etc, you will need a backup device, i.e. Tape backup, CDRW, etc,

Actually you can use a backup device on another machine on your
network with either BackupEdge or LoneTar.

>There are some others which you can use to make exact copy of your
>primary hard drive, but that will require you to add a second drive,
>since you mention you are new to SCO OS and don't want to make mistake
>and do not have a backup, I would not suggest you to make any changes
>to the system, e.g. adding disk, I would highly recommend you to seek
>some professional help.

That's probably the best recommendation yet.

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

Ero seduto nel Korova Milk Bar, arrovellandomi il gulliver
per sapere cosa fare della serata, quando GenTLe mi ha disturbato scrivendo:

> [...]

Thanks all, maybe my english is not so good, and so I probably make a little
confusion.
I'm a "little&tender" (Microsoft) technician, and when I need to make a disk
image I simply install in the machine a second hard drive, make the bios
(without start Windows, for example inserting an empty floppy or a boot
floppy) recognize that HD, than use a DOS boot floppy disk with inside a
program like "Ghost" which work alone without affecting the OS.
Ghost simply take everything it finds on the source HD (or also you can
choose a single NTFS/FAT/FAT32 partition from the source drive) and make a
..GHO compressed image file on the destination HD. You could use that image
file to recreate a cloned PC on another disk (Windows, especially 2K or XP,
doesn't care about the dimension of the new drive, and is affected only if
you change the controller system, for example it will not works if you start
from an IDE source drive and put the result of the decompressed image on a
SCSI drive).
I thought that there was something similar which could be used with SCO
partitions (I really don't know what kind of partition that system uses).
Something which work from a boot disk, with the SCO OS totally inactive. In
that mode, I'lle be sure to not touch the OS, becouse the *only* things I
know about it are how to insert the root account and the command "Init 0" to
turn off machine :-(

Nothing similar?

Thanks :-)
Alex

--
GenTLe ...di Varese, provincia.
TL1000S + Mito 125 per la pista
La mia HP: http://digilander.iol.it/thegentle/index.htm

La vita è fatta di treni che passano, e a volte è bene salire senza
biglietto. Basta chiamare il controllore e pagare strada facendo (M.
Donnini; TT, La Corsa proibita)

Bernard Delmée wrote:
>> I've used dd to clone disks (and make disk images) but it is a very
>> dangerous tool in the hands of a newbie!
>
>
> Hi, I have a problem similar to Alessandro. I'd like to keep a
> copy of OSR504. The original system was a P100, 4Gb IDE HD with
> a 1Gb primary partition devoted to SCO. I tried cloning that
> using knoppix onto a 8Gb HD, with a slightly bigger partition
> "dd </dev/hda1 >/dev/hdc1"
> The disk geometries (CHS) are different, though.
>
> When trying to boot from the cloned drive, the filesystems seemed
> not to be recognised (I'll post the exact error message id it helps).
> Has anyone succeeded in a similar operation, who would be willing
> to help?

See http://www.aplawrence.com/Bela/2335.html for some background.

GenTLe wrote:
> Ero seduto nel Korova Milk Bar, arrovellandomi il gulliver
> per sapere cosa fare della serata, quando GenTLe mi ha disturbato scrivendo:
>
>
>>[...]
>
>
> Thanks all, maybe my english is not so good, and so I probably make a little
> confusion.
> I'm a "little&tender" (Microsoft) technician, and when I need to make a disk
> image I simply install in the machine a second hard drive, make the bios
> (without start Windows, for example inserting an empty floppy or a boot
> floppy) recognize that HD, than use a DOS boot floppy disk with inside a
> program like "Ghost" which work alone without affecting the OS.
> Ghost simply take everything it finds on the source HD (or also you can
> choose a single NTFS/FAT/FAT32 partition from the source drive) and make a
> ..GHO compressed image file on the destination HD. You could use that image
> file to recreate a cloned PC on another disk (Windows, especially 2K or XP,
> doesn't care about the dimension of the new drive, and is affected only if
> you change the controller system, for example it will not works if you start
> from an IDE source drive and put the result of the decompressed image on a
> SCSI drive).
> I thought that there was something similar which could be used with SCO
> partitions (I really don't know what kind of partition that system uses).
> Something which work from a boot disk, with the SCO OS totally inactive. In
> that mode, I'lle be sure to not touch the OS, becouse the *only* things I
> know about it are how to insert the root account and the command "Init 0" to
> turn off machine :-(
>
> Nothing similar?
>
> Thanks :-)
> Alex
>

If you use Google you'll find reports from people who have successfully
used Ghost to copy OpenServer disks - but you can only copy or restore
to a drive of the same geometry. Ghost doesn't understanf OpenServer
disk-divisions or filesystems so you can only copy the whole drive.

One of the Supertars (Microlite, Cactus, ...) may be what you really need.

If the system is important, the suggestion of hiring an experienced
consultant is a good one.

Ero seduto nel Korova Milk Bar, arrovellandomi il gulliver
per sapere cosa fare della serata, quando Bugblatter mi ha disturbato
scrivendo:

> If you use Google you'll find reports from people who have
> successfully used Ghost to copy OpenServer disks - but you can only
> copy or restore
> to a drive of the same geometry.

Good! Is what I need :-)

Thanks a lot :-)

--
GenTLe ...di Varese, provincia.
TL1000S + Mito 125 per la pista
La mia HP: http://digilander.iol.it/thegentle/index.htm

La vita è fatta di treni che passano, e a volte è bene salire senza
biglietto. Basta chiamare il controllore e pagare strada facendo (M.
Donnini; TT, La Corsa proibita)