Thank you all and good night!
Chris Zakelj wrote:
A Rossi wrote:
Hi,
I've been hired by a client to perform a number of network services
for him, most of which are completely unrelated to my topic.
Now, onto my topic:
He asked me if I could partition all of his workstation computers
(running windows XP Professional SP2) with a windows partition, and a
hidden partition which occupies most of the disk, that is accessible
over the network to OpenBSD (actually he asked for FreeBSD, but I will
change his mind...) to back up his server. He doesn't want his
employees to know about it or to be able to interact with this "hidden
partition" in any way. I told him that it is not possible, because
windows controls the hardware (being the OS on the system) and the
only way it would work was if he had *BSD on the system. But, because
he is paying me, I thought I should give him the benefit of the doubt,
and ask the pros in this area.
So, is it possible for OpenBSD to access a bunch of "hidden" (I put it
into quotes because it could be any non-windows compatible partition,
because it won't show it then) partitions on networked workgroup
computers and treat them like one big disk for backup?
My apologies for such a long post. I am new to OpenBSD, but I like
what I see.
Thanks,
A Rossi
I'm certainly no guru, but I can tell you this: If the OS in control of
the system does not understand the file system of the partition, then no
other system will be able to access it in any meaningful way. That
said, I think you could create a C partition, and house the user's
Windows installation and applications on it. Then create a second D
partition, and lock the view/use rights for that partition to
administrator accounts only. Share that partition with the usual
Windows file and printer sharing, then access it through SAMBA with
administrator credentials.
