Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] I could use some OT coaching... retrieve laptop os remotely

[Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>]

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On Saturday 29 May 2010 03:42:51 Harry Putnam wrote:
> Can anyone offer a suggestion as to how I can backup a disk on a
> remote laptop running windows vista.
> 
> I've utterly destroyed the laptops screen, even plugging it into an
> external monitor... fails.  vnc access fails as well.

Isn't this an indication that more than the screen was damaged?  Did you try 
pressing Fn+F4 or whatever the appropriate key is to activate the external 
monitor?  Did you try rebooting just for good measure?

The VNC access may fail if you have set it up to need confirmation by a 
currently logged in user, before a remote connection is allowed.

Have you tried using rdesktop from a linux machine?  That should allow you to 
access your Vista remotely (unless you had seriously locked down who can 
remotely access your MSWindows OS) as a normal user.

> However due to having installed an sshd daemon with cygwin, I can ssh
> to the host.
> 
> I thought maybe I'd be able to run a version of Norton ghost that is
> installed on the laptop... by ssh in, and from a cygwin shell, but
> that doesn't appear to work.  I'm not sure if ghost 14 can even be run
> from a command line.
> 
> I guess I'd like to clone the disk so I'd have access to all of it,
> and could even put the clone on another host and boot it.

It is unlikely that you will be able to do this with Vista.  The hardware on 
which the Vista installation was performed will not allow you to boot it on 
different hardware, at least not until you re-register the product by re-
entering your Vista registration code.  As I am guessing that the Vista 
installation was an OEM job, you will find that you cannot register it for 
different hardware.  Then MSWindows will kindly ask you if you want to 
purchase another registration ...

> If I were to dd it to another disk, that is bigger
> than the remote laptops disk... Would that create a a bootable disk?

No, see above.

> Any suggestions that employ linux/unix tools?  Can `dd' do something
> like this?  Or I guess really it would be cygwin `dd' doing it.
> 
> Are there any tools that can create a disk image of a remote disk?

There are many cloning solutions and some of them come with LiveCDs.  I would 
recommend SystemRescueCD with an external terminal, which also has partimage 
on it and you can use it to create an image of the drive on a remote server.

> I've found that neither norton ghost 14 or 15 will do it if the disk
> is on a remote host.  In fact neither of them will even backup files
> if they are remote... I mean if the source files are remote.  They can
> backup  onboard files to remote targets... but not the other way
> round.
> 
> Of course I can rsync the files and save the data that way, but I'd
> like to save the disk as a bootable os if possible.

Notwithstanding the above, I'd try to use rdesktop, or krdc to login remotely 
to your Vista box.  It may also be worth looking at ebay or the OEM's website 
to see now much a replacement screen costs.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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