The blog of Nathan Hunstad » Utility

Moving from Ghost to Clonezilla

doctorgonzo — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:47:00 +0000

In a previous post, I talked about using disk imaging software for setting up Windows in a corporate environment. For years, I’ve used Symantec Ghost, specifically Ghost 8. I’d previously manually run Ghost from a network drive, booting from a custom floppy bootdisk with a DOS Novell client to allow me to log into our network (we still use Novell). A couple of years ago, I switched to running Ghost from an external USB hard drive that stored all the image files. To make it even more automatic, I wrote a tiny utility in assembly that reads the model info from the computer’s BIOS and uses the correct image file.

As time went on, though, the shortcomings of Ghost became apparent. The biggest one is speed: by running Ghost in a DOS environment, I was limited to USB 1.1 speeds. Ghosting a 20 GB Windows 7 partition would take around 40 minutes. When you are ghosting many machines at once, the quicker you can do it, the better. I knew of a great, free alternative in Clonezilla, but would it work for what I needed?

I have been using Clonezilla for backing up my home computer for a while, but running it in interactive mode once every month or two is a lot different from running it constantly (I only use Clonezilla at home to back up my Windows partition; my data is backed up daily using WinRAR). Most important was the ability to detect the model that the external drive was plugged into so it could grab the right image. My DOS COM file wouldn’t run under Linux, so I either needed to port it over, or find an alternative.

After a short foray into assembly programming in Linux, I figured that somebody smarter than me would have figured this out before, and I was right: dmidecode will pull that information from the BIOS, no problem. After fiddling around with a shell script, I was able to get the model information from the BIOS and automatically select the image. It took a few days to work out all the kinks, since my Linux expertise is very low, but I was able to get everything to work.

The results? Creating a disk image was sped up by a factor of two or three, and putting that image back onto a disk by a factor of four or five. Being able to put an image on a computer in less than ten minutes makes a big difference.

The only difference between Ghost and Clonezilla is that Clonezilla does not have a utility to change the Windows computer name and SID after the image is put onto the disk. In the past, it was considered that needing to change the SID was required or else all sorts of network errors would happen, so we used Symantec Ghostwalker to do so. However, even Microsoft says that it’s not necessary anymore, so we’ll give it a try. We aren’t in a Windows domain environment anyway, so it shouldn’t cause too many problems. Plus, we change the computer name manually as a matter of course regardless.

I always try to use free, open-source software whenever I can, and getting Clonezilla to do what I need it to do was a real victory.

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Computer Utility: WinRAR and 7-Zip

doctorgonzo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:59:00 +0000

It’s harder and harder to come up with these good computer utilities, but here’s one I use just about every day: WinRAR. It’s a file compression/decompression utility that supports many file formats, with a nice GUI. However, it’s main use for me is its command-line options: it has a very powerful set of options, and it is what I used to back up my data files on a nightly basis. WinRAR isn’t free; it is shareware, and although it has a nag screen it doesn’t keep you from using it. It’s so vital for me, though, that I gladly paid for it.

If you want a totally free version, 7-Zip fits the bill. It’s almost as full-featured as WinRAR, and for a while I tried it out. The command-line options are not as good, however, which is why I stopped using it. If you are just looking for a Windows graphical file compressor/decompressor, however, 7-Zip is perfect.

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Current Mood: Hungry

Computer Utility: Knoppix

doctorgonzo — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:42:00 +0000

It’s hard to call an entire OS a “utility”, but Knoppix, a distro of Linux on a live CD, has come to my rescue many, many times. By far, the most common situation I find myself in where I am using Knoppix is when I’m faced with a Windows box that gives me a bluescreen on boot due to missing or corrupted boot files or virus problems. I simply boot from the Knoppix CD, plug in a flash drive, and copy all of the data I can from that NTFS partition. Once I’ve saved the data, I can reinstall Windows to fix the problem. And of course, being a distro of Linux, Knoppix allows you to do far more than just copy data. It’s definitely a CD or DVD everybody should have.

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Currently Reading: "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro

Computer Utility: Ultimate Boot CD

doctorgonzo — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:51:00 +0000

If you don’t have the Ultimate Boot CD in your CD collection, you should. It lives up to its name: its got pretty much everything you need to do maintenance on a computer: hard disk diagnostics, disk wiping tools, partitioning, memory and processor tests…it even has DOS boot disks in case you want to pull out that old DOS version of X-Wing and play it. It comes in handy quite frequently, so download and burn yourself a copy today.

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Computer Utility: PDF Split and Merge

doctorgonzo — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:52:00 +0000

I really don’t like working with PDF files. They have silly DRM that interferes with your ability to copy and paste, they crash browser, they can be huge if incorrectly generated, they are generally not accessible to people who need to use special software like screen readers, sometimes you can’t search them…in short, they usually suck. Unfortunately, sometimes you have no choice but to deal with them. Most of the time, PDFs are a read-only affair if you don’t shell out for Adobe Acrobat (another reason why they suck). But if you ever need to merge several PDFs into one, or split a PDF file into several files, PDF Split and Merge is a free, open-source utility for doing just that. The interface is Java Swing and can be a bit hard to figure out at first, but it works like a charm. It will make you stop hating PDFs, for a moment at least.

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Currently Reading: "Learning to See Creatively", Bryan Peterson

Computer Utility: WinSCP

doctorgonzo — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:38:34 +0000

Every once in a while, you need a good FTP client. For Windows, I use WinSCP. It’s pretty simple to use, it allows you to save login information, and it has a good bunch of features. My only quibble with it is that it defaults to SFTP as the protocol, but as long as you remember to switch it back to FTP when appropriate, it works like a charm.

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Computer Utility: CutePDF Writer

doctorgonzo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:12:00 +0000

I hate PDF files for many reasons, but there are times when creating a PDF is useful, such as when you want to have an electronic copy of a document instead of printing out a paper copy. Many programs these days now come with integrated PDF converters, such as Open Office and even Microsoft Office, but there are plenty of programs out there that don’t. When you want a PDF version of a document and the program you are using can’t give you one, CutePDF Writer is the answer. It installs as a printer on your computer, so all you have to do is print that document to the CutePDF printer, and voilà! CutePDF has helped me eschew paper for electronic archiving many times.

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Computer utility: Notepad++

doctorgonzo — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:43:00 +0000

There’s always a need for a good, simple text editor when you need to edit text files or make up a simple document (a blog post, perhaps?). Windows comes with Notepad, but that’s about as bare-bones as you can get. A much more powerful, yet still free, alternative is Notepad++. It’s especially useful for programmers, with its syntax highlighting and auto-complete, among other features, but it has things that everybody can use, such as a tabbed multi-document interface. It has quickly replaced Notepad for me, and will no doubt do it for anybody else looking for a good editor.

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Currently Listening To: "New Year's Day", U2

Computer Utility: CCleaner

doctorgonzo — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:57:00 +0000

It’s generally acknowledged that Windows slows down with time: as you install and uninstall programs, crap gets left behind on the hard drive and in the registry that can make your computer act like molasses on a cold day. In the old days, pros recommended that every few months you simply reinstall Windows to solve this issue, but that’s using a pretty blunt axe. You can use a scalpel instead: CCleaner.

CCleaner will clean up files you don’t need, invalid registry entries, and the like. Since it does mess around with the registry and important system files, you need to be careful when using it, but overall it’s safe and does a good job of deleting unnecessary things without hosing your computer. If you’ve had your computer for a while and it’s bogging down, give CCleaner a try.

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Computer/Photo Utility: GeoSetter

doctorgonzo — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:54:25 +0000

This piece of software is a two-fer: it’s a computer utility for photographers! Most people these days know that you can “geotag” pictures; that is, add the precise location of where a picture is taken to its EXIF metadata, allowing you to see it on maps, Google Earth, etc. Unfortunately, unless you have a very expensive camera, an expensive camera add-on, or a lame iPhone, your camera probably can’t do this automatically. That’s where GeoSetter comes to the rescue.

GeoSetter uses a very simple Google Maps interface to allow you to add geotagging information to JPG, TIFF, or camera RAW files. Select the location on the map, click to add it to the photos, save, and done. It can even remember your favorite locations if you return to the same spots over and over. Of course, it’s free.

GeoSetter is obviously not as convenient as an automatic geotagging system, but it’s a great manual replacement.

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Currently Listening To: "Dark and Long", Underworld