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My goal is pretty simple: I need to make an exact copy of a Windows partition. Then I can wipe it down, play with it, and when I'm done, I can re-copy the partition back and have everything back in order.

I achieved this in the past by saving the partition table + using http://www.fsarchiver.org but the whole setup is a bit "iffy". The end result is not "exactly" the same as the original and after 2-3 months I had to format the disk.

Does anyone have a better solution? Maybe a dd copy?

Jeff Schaller
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Con7e
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    This may be answered here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/140957/how-can-i-back-up-win7-before-installing-mint-alongside-it/140966#140966 – Evan Nov 28 '14 at 23:36
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    `dd` is great to backup the disk's first sector, containing the MBR and partition table. It can also be used to make an image of the partition, but `ntfsclone` is probably a better choice (as I elaborated below). – PM 2Ring Nov 29 '14 at 12:50

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I think that ntfsclone might be really helpfull here. As mentioned in the manuall: "...ntfsclone can be useful to make backups, an exact snapshot of an NTFS filesystem and restore it later on..."
ntfsclone is part of the ntfs-3g package.

b13n1u
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  • I also use and recommend `ntfsclone`. Because it understands the NTFS filesystem it only reads the stuff it needs to reconstruct the filesytem on a partition, so unless the partition is full the files it makes will generally be smaller than an exact clone of the partition's bytes made using `dd` and copying with `ntfsclone` will be faster than using `dd`, especially if the partition has a lot of empty space. – PM 2Ring Nov 29 '14 at 07:57
  • FWIW, a few months ago I successfully used ntfsclone to clone fresh Windows 7 installations to around a dozen identical machines; it was **significantly** faster than installing each one individually from CD. (Yes, these were all legal installations, done for a community organization with the appropriate licenses). – PM 2Ring Nov 29 '14 at 08:00