[Qemu-devel] making a raw disk image

[Qemu-devel] making a raw disk image

[U n d e r a c h i e v e r]

Hi

I have a dual boot system with Windows 2000 and Debian 3.1. I've not
booted Windows in months, but I would like to preserve the system on a
"just in case" basis.

>From Debian, my disks look like this:-

 $ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3
                      23371076  14108844   8075036  64% /
tmpfs                   124104         0    124104   0% /dev/shm
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
                      14841848   1951052  12890796  14% /disks/C

When booting the real hardware, the boot loader is grub IIRC and comes
up first, then the NT Boot Loader. Can anyone advise on how to turn
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 into a bootable qemu image? 



-- 
U n d e r a c h i e v e r (and proud)

Re: [Qemu-devel] making a raw disk image

[Jim C. Brown]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2005 at 09:03:32AM +0100, U n d e r a c h i e v e r wrote:
> 
> When booting the real hardware, the boot loader is grub IIRC and comes
> up first, then the NT Boot Loader. Can anyone advise on how to turn
> /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 into a bootable qemu image? 
> 

/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 can be copied into a disk image.
Thats ot too hard. fdisk -l /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disk will
tell you 3 of heads ad #of sectors per track. It will also tell you how
many cylinders you need for the partition. You can easily create a new
table on a disk image and dd the partition into the right place.

However, Windows NT (including 2k and XP) does not like it when you change all
the hardware (esp. the motherboard & IDE controller). Ok, so how do you get
Windows to recognize and work with the new hardware (the one that qemu uses) ?

Short answer: You don't. You can't. You are better off reinstalling win2000
inside of qemu and then moving all your files from the partition to the disk
image.

Long answer: Once installed, Windows has only the minimal drivers required to
boot the hardware on your computer - which happens to be completely different
from what qemu emulates. 
If you really really want to try to set up Windows 2000, try looking at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314082 and
http://www.duxcw.com/faq/win/move2K.htm, which explains part of the problem in
greater detail as well as some possible workarounds. Note that changing
the drivers for the IDE and motherboard may not be enough - there may be other
hardware issues as well. (E.g. keep that copy of win2k on the partition until
you are sure that the copy in the disk image has enough drivers to boot into
normal mode).

--
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.

[Qemu-devel] Re: making a raw disk image

[U n d e r a c h i e v e r]

Jim C. Brown <jma5@umd.edu> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 19, 2005 at 09:03:32AM +0100, U n d e r a c h i e v e r wrote:
> > 
> > When booting the real hardware, the boot loader is grub IIRC and comes
> > up first, then the NT Boot Loader. Can anyone advise on how to turn
> > /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 into a bootable qemu image? 
> > 
> 
> /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 can be copied into a disk image.
> Thats ot too hard. fdisk -l /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disk will
> tell you 3 of heads ad #of sectors per track. It will also tell you how
> many cylinders you need for the partition. You can easily create a new
> table on a disk image and dd the partition into the right place.
> 
> However, Windows NT (including 2k and XP) does not like it when you change all
> the hardware (esp. the motherboard & IDE controller). Ok, so how do you get
> Windows to recognize and work with the new hardware (the one that qemu uses) ?
> 
> Short answer: You don't. You can't. You are better off reinstalling win2000
> inside of qemu and then moving all your files from the partition to the disk
> image.
> 
> Long answer: Once installed, Windows has only the minimal drivers required to
> boot the hardware on your computer - which happens to be completely different
> from what qemu emulates. 
> If you really really want to try to set up Windows 2000, try looking at
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314082 and
> http://www.duxcw.com/faq/win/move2K.htm, which explains part of the problem in
> greater detail as well as some possible workarounds. Note that changing
> the drivers for the IDE and motherboard may not be enough - there may be other
> hardware issues as well. (E.g. keep that copy of win2k on the partition until
> you are sure that the copy in the disk image has enough drivers to boot into
> normal mode).

thanks -- whilst that's not exactly the answer I want

oh, to bite the bullet and kills windows then?
-- 
U n d e r a c h i e v e r (and proud)

Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: making a raw disk image

[André Braga]

2005/7/22, U n d e r a c h i e v e r <takeme2your@rocketmail.com>:
> Jim C. Brown <jma5@umd.edu> wrote:
> thanks -- whilst that's not exactly the answer I want
> 
> oh, to bite the bullet and kills windows then?

If it's the first partition on the disk, just use dd to copy from the
beginning of the drive up to the last sector of the partition and dump
this on a file. Use that file as a raw image. The relevant part on
number of sectors will be on the MBR. For tidyness, run fdisk on that
image and delete the other partition entries.

If it's not... Then I'm out of ideas :)

Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: making a raw disk image

[Jim C. Brown]

On Fri, Jul 22, 2005 at 10:16:42AM -0300, Andr? Braga wrote:
> 2005/7/22, U n d e r a c h i e v e r EMAIL HIDDEN:
> > Jim C. Brown did not write:
> > thanks -- whilst that's not exactly the answer I want
> > 
> > oh, to bite the bullet and kills windows then?
> 
> If it's the first partition on the disk, just use dd to copy from the
> beginning of the drive up to the last sector of the partition and dump
> this on a file. Use that file as a raw image. The relevant part on
> number of sectors will be on the MBR. For tidyness, run fdisk on that
> image and delete the other partition entries.
> 
> If it's not... Then I'm out of ideas :)
> 

The technique I gave works perfectly well even if the partition is not the first
one.

-- 
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.

Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: making a raw disk image

[André Braga]

2005/7/22, Jim C. Brown <jma5@umd.edu>:
> The technique I gave works perfectly well even if the partition is not the first
> one.

Oh, I'm sorry, I totally missed it. When he said it was not the answer
he wanted, that somewhat made me skim over your post.

You are absolutely correct. :)