Can't restore image (FAQ)

[Ahkoneboeboat]

Hi.

I've followed the FAQ for 'Restoring images';

cat *.ntfs-img.* | gzip -d -c | ntfsclone --restore-image -o /media/usb02/clone.img -
ntfsclone v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Ntfsclone image version: 10.0
Cluster size           : 4096 bytes
Image volume size      : 20974428160 bytes (20975 MB)
Image device size      : 20974431744 bytes
Space in use           : 6135 MB (29.2%)  
Offset to image data   : 56 (0x38) bytes
Restoring NTFS from image ...
100.00 percent completed
Syncing ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then checked the image;

file /media/usb02/clone.img
clone.img: x86 boot sector, code offset 0x52, OEM-ID "NTFS    ", sectors/cluster 8, reserved sectors 0, Media descriptor 0xf8, heads 255, hidden sectors 63, dos < 4.0 BootSector (0x80)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then tried to mount the image;

sudo mount -o loop -t ntfs /media/usb02/clone.img /media/dd01/
Failed to read last sector (40965686): Invalid argument
Perhaps the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet, or the
wrong device was used, or the partition table is incorrect.
Failed to mount '/dev/loop4': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/loop4' doesn't have a valid NTFS.
Maybe you selected the wrong device? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)? Or the other way around?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So,
1. Restore, OK
2. Check image, OK
3. Mount image, failed

Please advise.
Thank you.

[Jazz Yao-Tsung Wang]

Hi,

Clonezilla use different tools like dd, ntfsclone, partimage and partclone for partition backup and restore. Only dd will create a raw image which can be mount by linux kernel. (There are lots of details about Linux kernel VFS filesystem)

ntfsclone, partimage and partclone use its own image format, so currently it does not support mount image yet. For partclone, we are still thinking of creating a COW, VDI or VMDK format of image, or use FUSE to make it possible to provide a read-only mount.

Jazz Yao-Tsung Wang

[Ahkoneboeboat]

Jaz.

Thank you for your comments, however they do not address the instructions in the FAQ; .....

I believe I have carefully followed the below instructions from clonezilla.org so I am
wondering why the results are a failure... ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the Clonezilla FAQ...

# Is that possible I can read the content of a NTFS image created by Clonezilla ?     ^TOP^
     Yes, but it's not straightforward. Here you are:
1. Prepare a large disk in Linux
2. Say if your image is /home/partimag/YOURIMAGE/, and the image is /home/partimag/YOURIMAGE/hda1.ntfs-img.aa, hda1.ntfs-img.ab...
run
"file /home/partimag/YOURIMAGE/hda1.ntfs-img.aa"
to see it's gzip, bzip or lzop image. Say it's gzip, then you can run
cat /home/partimag/YOURIMAGE/hda1.ntfs-img.* | gzip -d -c | ntfsclone --restore-image -o hda1.img -
Then you will have a "hda1.img" which you can mount it by
mount -o loop -t ntfs hda1.img /mnt

Then all the files are in /mnt/

[Steven Shiau]

Ahkoneboeboat,
What Jazz mentioned is for directly mounting, this is not you want. You can ignore that.
The method shown in the FAQ allows you to dump the file into a loop file then mount it. The problem now you have is in the mounting. Maybe you can try:
sudo mount -o loop -t ntfs-3g /media/usb02/clone.img /media/dd01/

Let us know the results, please.
Thanks in advance.

[Ahkoneboeboat]

Steven,

Thank you for the direction. Your syntax was incorrect, but this worked (finally).

sudo ntfs-3g /media/usb02/clone.img /media/dd01/

Best regards,
AB

[Ahkoneboeboat]

Hi again.

Could someone please recommend the correct method to 'convert' the mounted image (ntfs-3g)
to a standard ISO image ?

I have tried the below packages, resulting in errors;
- AcetoneISO
- ISOMaster

Thank you.
AB

[Steven Shiau]

If you mean you just want to "copy" the images to an iso file, I think it can be done by mkisofs/genisoimage. However, if you mean the created iso can be used as a bootable iso, I think it's another story.

[Ahkoneboeboat]

OK,

Cancel the ISO idea. I thought it might be possible to hack away at the ba-zillion
options available in genisoimage to make an ISO that Windows can mount since the other
programs I'm used to in Linux made errors, it doesn't seem possible due to ISO limitations.

The resulting clonezilla Image will not mount in windows with any image mounting tools...
(i.e. PowerISO).

I've considered making an ntfsclone of the image in hopes it will write a more readable
image in windows. It seems that sharing the mounted folder (ntfs-3g) via samba
is going to be the quick solution for now unless anyone knows how to mount the clonezilla .img file in windows.

Thanks for the help.
AB

[Ahkoneboeboat]

Steven.

I understand there are maximum size limitations to ISO that would prevent me from acomplishing using the Clonezilla image file as an ISO.

Clonezilla Image file: clone.img = 14 Gigabytes

Are you sure mkisofs/genisoimage can generate a 'non' bootable ISO file that can be mounted in either linux or windows ?

Thank you.
AB

[Steven Shiau]

I know I can make a ISO file larger than 15 GB in Debian etch using genisoimage. I can mount it in Linux.