Hello Mo,
Thank you for your most helpful message.
When you said that you had
used a 64GB pen drive for your install
did you mean that you had booted from a CD into the linux environment
and recovered a windows environment installing it on to a pen drive
or did you mean that you booted from a pen drive into the linux
environment and installed a recovered windows environment on to a hard
disk drive.
What is the size of this recovery environment?
is it possible that we will ever need to burn an ISO image on to a DVD
because it will exceed the 750MB limit of a CD?
Is it possible to create this linux recovery environment
in such a way so that it could be placed on a USB pen and boot into it
from the pen as an alternative
to booting from a CD?
Many thanks,
Mike.
At 20:48 17/05/2014, you wrote:
Hi.
No worries, we all have catching up to do i'm not exactly a linux
guru my self either. talking arch is a linux live CD which means it
runs from within memory and in realtime from a CD so can be used on
any computer. it is fully talking from the moment the command prompt
loads. the interface is text based and uses the speakup screen
reader, for those new to linux its like being at a dos prompt but
don't worry you won't need to or have to know about the command line
for this. when you type clonezilla at the prompt, the recovery
environment loads and from there its literally arrows, enter, and
space to check/uncheck items and you don't have to delve any deeper
if you don't want to. clone zilla has its own modes, beginner and
advanced. the beginner mode is mostly automated and is ideal for most
users for backing up windows. it allows you to backup either certain
sections on your disk (not recommended for windows hard drives), or
the hole drive which is normally the way i'd recommend backing up
newer windows installs. it will only back up the space that's in use
on the hard drive. in other words if you have a 120GB hard drive, and
windows is 25GB installed, it'll only backup the used install space
so the image will be roughly 12GB in size. clone zilla will compress
the image to half the size of the install which is an excellent
feature. i used a 64GB pen drive for my install and it only took up
around 18GB. if you restore an image to a larger hard drive, you can
then pop in to windows and expand the partition so that your windows
will use the hole drive. for example if i upgrade my hard drive to
240GB and i restore my image, my image will initially only be 120GB
because that's what my original hard drive was. but if i go in to
windows and go to disk management, all i have to do is tell windows
to expand the partition to use the full 240GB space on the hard
drive. again the restore process is fully guided and as easy as they
come. the only reason i'm writing the guide is because some options
aren't straight forward for those totally new to linux. its feedback
from those people that i'm mainly after, though more advanced linux
users feedback is also very welcome. appologies to those of you that
are advanced users if you already know how to use clone zilla, if you
can tolerate the traffic on list that'd be great and perhaps provide
your own comments as well. finally, i just got sick of using dos to
restore images. i mean who uses dos these days when you have access
to cd's with speech output that work with sound cards? most people do
not have external speech synths available. i take the point from
those people on BCAB using drive snapshot, its a great tool. but for
full independence, its just not good enough in my book. i know that
sounds harsh but if the options there we should take it. i also
intend on providing a guide on how to format your disks as the
project progresses. as far as i know noone else has documented the
process for clone zilla from a VI prispective, so this should be
interesting i just hope noone gets there before us hahahaha...
cheers,
Mo.
On 17/05/2014 19:58, M F Mason wrote:
Hello Mo,
I know nothing about Linux but I am excited about learning.
Please could you expand a little on
The linux restore environment
which you said was a talking CD based on arch
and the advantages offered
by CloneZilla from within arch.
Clearly I have some catching up to do.
Many thanks,
Mike.
At 17:06 17/05/2014, you wrote:
Hello Mike.
Its always very interesting to read people's backgrounds. all to
often on lists like the BCAB list we hardly know anything about the
people we're helping out. my motivation for putting together this
text guide is because of the frustrations i experienced in backing
up windows systems without sighted help and always having to fall
back to windows. its not always possible to go running to windows
in an enterprise environment for example. hopefully we can get
started next week and we won't run into too many hickups.
technically the base distribution hasn't been created by me, but i
do hope to role my own releases of the linux restore environment in
future. at the moment its a talking CD based on arch, and if any of
you have ever used CloneZilla from within arch, you'll probably
have seen the advantages offered. its 1 thing to read guides online
on how to backup/restore using clone zilla, but another to write
and carry them out from a VI perspective.
all the best,
Mo.
all the best,
Mo.OOn 17/05/2014 16:44, M F Mason wrote:
Hello,
My name is Mike Mason.
My background has been in software development.
I worked for IBM as a staff software engineer until 2004 - now
retired.
.
Computing for the blind is a significant interest for me
and the idea of being able to recover and restore systems
independently as a blind person is something which matters to me a
great deal as we have no sighted help in the house.
Many thanks,
Mike.
At 10:27 17/05/2014, you wrote:
Hello.
This is a test message to the vi-tech-testers list to see if
people receive it. perhaps we can all reply with a short
introduction or something to test functionality and to ensure
everyone's on board?
My name's Mo and all of you have doubtless seen me around on
various lists. My backround's in PC hardware with over 10 years
experience building/recycling computers, as well as server
administration and networking wiring etc. I spend my time
reviewing products, providing technical support and custom
building/recycling computers for people, and providing advice on
various hardware for the blind. I'm also a huge fan of the
raspberry PI, and the linux operating system and very supportive
of any open source project. Projects i've worked on include the
Raspberry VI project to make the raspberry Pi accessible, Vinux
an accessible version of linux for the blind, and working with
Eset, Avast and Natwest to make their applications accessible
among others. enough of me... over to you.
Mo.
