Re: Free Space Monster (episode 2)

In article <nospam.News.Bob-94F61D.23550812062007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bob Harris <nospam.News.Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Practical application would be to allow Mac users to create a bootable
small image backup of a Vista partition on their Intel Macs.

Conventional backup methods like using the Vista version of Ghost will
not work, for various reasons.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a Vista utility that is
capable of wiping the free space of a Vista partition. (on a Mac)

Mark-

But if I recall correctly, you prefer to use 'dd' as your backup
utility, so you are backing up all sectors whether the file system
is currently using the sectors or not.

Correct, I use dd as my normal backup and restore method.




A file system backup utility only backs up the file data and
associated metadata for the files. This should have generated a
backup more in line with a 3MB file system.

Correct, however the available backup utilities for Vista are not a
viable option, they just plain do not work with a BootCamp created Vista
partition. They work _fairly_ well on real PC hardware, but even
there they have major problems with a thoroughly zapped Vista partition.

Judging by the posts in the Windows NGs, Vista users are resigned to
having to re-install Vista from the original DVDs _before_ they can
use their Vista "Backup", on a severely damaged Vista partition.



As regards clearing free space, it is essential for me to do so,
otherwise my COMPRESSED backup of the Vista partition is 23GB.

It is no problem for me to wipe free space on real PC hardware, using
Windows utilities like "KillDisk", instructing them to over-write free
space with hex zeroes.

The resulting Vista backup compresses to a reasonable 3 GB.



KillDisk refuses to work on a BootCamp created Vista partition.




Bob Harris posted:
But if I recall correctly, you prefer to use 'dd' as your backup
utility, so you are backing up all sectors whether the file system
is currently using the sectors or not.

A file system backup utility only backs up the file data and
associated metadata for the files. This should have generated a
backup more in line with a 3MB file system.

File systems DO NOT zero freed sectors. It is a waste of time and
I/O bandwidth, since the next time the file system needs to use
those sectors, it is just going to write something on top of the
old data anyway. (The exception to not zero'ing freed sectors
would be if you use a secure erase, and even then they are more
likely to leave a totally random pattern on the erased sectors to
make it even more difficult to read back the old data; but that
random pattern would make it even more difficult to compress when
read by 'dd').

Bob Harris
.

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