[vi-tech-testers] Backup and restore with Clonezilla
- From: "Agent Orange" <agentorange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-tech-testers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 15:01:47 +0100
Hi Mo,
I have now performed a backup and restore using the Talking Arch live CD and
Clonezilla. I have repeated the process twice on different hard disks
inside the same desktop PC running Windows XP Home SP3. My comments are
below.
1. It works! Congratulations - whatever else I have to say is subsidiary
to the main point which is that this tool did what it set out to and enabled
me to backup and (more importantly) restore a hard disc independently with
the help of speakup.
The comments that follow are my observations about the backup and restore
process, and of the text guide where I found that it may not be strictly
accurate.
2. The Talking Arch CD did not always boot with speech.
3. When I pressed Enter to select 'device image work with disks or
partitions using images' I received a cryptic message which I cannot recall
in detail and which did not appear or remain on the screen for speakup to
review. But it said something about there being 'no such file or directory
/partimac'. I confess I am a little uncertain about this. In any case, it
did not stop me from proceeding to the next step (although query what it
meant). I received this both when trying to create an image and when trying
to restore one.
4. When trying to create an image, and I pressed Enter on the 'save entire
disk' option I received an I O error. Again, cannot recall the details but
it said something about I O error and something failed. I received a
similar error at some point towards the end of the restore process. But
neither error appeared to stop me from proceeding to the next step (although
query what it meant).
5. When trying to create an image, and Clonezilla asked me to choose which
disk to backup, I was presented with two choices, SDA and SDB. I followed
the guide and cursored to which ever of the two I wanted to image, then
pressed Enter. But I discovered that it is not enough to just press Enter on
the selected drive as indicated in the guide. I had to press space to
select the one I wanted to choose, and then press Enter.
Failing to press space to select before pressing Enter causes an error
dialogue to appear. This asks you whether you want to repeat the previous
step, and presents you with a OK or Cancel choice. Unfortunately speakup
does not appear to read these buttons separately when tabbing or cursoring
up/down between them. Cursoring left and right produced more helpful output
from speakup as this time it read the first letter of each button so OK
would be spoken as O, and Cancel would be spoken as C.
You might consider explaining in the guide that if you have more than one
drive option, then you need to cursor to the one you want to select, then
press spacebar to select it.
6. When the backup completed successfully I think I had to press Enter
twice in order to get to the command prompt. The first part of the guide
explaining the backup process says to press Enter once; the second part of
the guide explaining the restoration process correctly indicates that you
have to press Enter twice. I think the correct number of presses of the
Enter key between the end of the process and getting to the command prompt
is two in both cases. Might want to amend the first part of the guide
accordingly.
---
Many thanks for putting this tool and the guide together. I shall certainly
be using it to back up my Windows 7 machine.
Phil
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