An even easier solution would be to just buy a new HDD, and stick the
original into a static bag.  Why make it harder than it needs to be?

On 11/21/08, Robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:14:19 +0000
> "John ." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> Hello misc,
>>
>> I want to install OpenBSD/amd64 on my laptop (a recent Toshiba amd
>> turon with 3GB RAM) and ONLY have OpenBSD on it, but before I do this,
>> I need to know how I can image the disk and restore it subsequently.
>> It has vista on, and I may need to restore vista should I subsequently
>> need to sell the laptop at some future date.
>>
>> The hard disk was partitioned and formatted at the manufacturers. The
>> first primary partition is not visible as usable space - I think this
>> if from where the OS was prepped.
>>
>> Has anyone had this scenario, if so, what did you use to image the
>> data? Have you restored it since?
>>
>> thanks
>>
>
> My tool of choice for this is: dd
>
> Just dd the whole drive to a file, compress it and store it somewhere.
>
> Depending on how easy it is to rip out the harddrive and if you have
> another system around you can use for imaging that might be the fastest
> way.
>
> Otherwise you can image over the network or to an external medium.
> With usb-bootable systems i use a usbstick with openbsd to get a
> working enviroment. On older systems a knoppix cd still comes in handy.
> Over the network just redirect the output from dd over ssh.
>
> To restore the image just dd it back onto the drive.
>
> That's as simple as it gets and works also works for the "funny"
> partitions with the factory-restore stuff.
>
> To answer your last questions:
> Recently got a new Thinkpad, Vista license/media, XP preinstalled, no XP
> key/media, thought an image might come in handy sometime, imaged as
> described above, image-file is collecting dust scince then, don't
> really expect to restore it anytime soon.
> But an image produced this way can be restored and the system would be
> "working" the same way it was at the time you made the image.
>
> (If you only have a NTFS drive around to store the image,
> gparted+partimage would be another sollution.)
>
>
> - Robert

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