[Lilug] dd restore process

[Joe Goldberg]

You could try using Packer, https://www.packer.io/.  It can export a machine to several different formats at it is not too difficult to work with.

Joe


From: Lilug <lilug-bounces at lists.lilug.org> on behalf of Bill Catlan <wcatlan at gmail.com>
Reply-To: "wcatlan at gmail.com" <wcatlan at gmail.com>, LILUG Mailing List <lilug at lists.lilug.org>
Date: Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 8:21 PM
To: "LILUG at lilug.org" <LILUG at lilug.org>
Subject: [Lilug] dd restore process

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of using dd to archive off some physical hard drives - ext, ext2, ext3 and fat32, and ntfs and restore them as time allows as virtual machines, probably on AWS. I have found various things online about how to do this, but have not tried them just yet.

However, I also have a nagging recollection of using dd as being fraught with potential stumbling blocks for performing the restore.  I seem to recall that 1) you needed to take note of the source disk geometry in order to recover the image and 2) you needed to take note of certain boot sector specifics - perhaps start location? - to restore boot-able volumes.

Do either of those things resonate with anyone regarding restoring a dd image either today or at any time in the past to physical hard drives?  On the one hand I think to myself, wow, that would be really bad design, but on the other, I seem to recall it being that way. If you see any obvious points of confusion on my part, then I would welcome thoughts on that as well.

Thanks!

Bill

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