Building a Dedicated Maya Computer Part 2

# 1 08-03-2012 , 12:46 AM

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From a previous thread I explained that I was building a computer dedicated to my learning Maya 2012 and the good news is that I am building the computer around an AMD quad core motherboard. I will probably purchase a Quadro 600 graphics card. Now the machine will be dedicated to outputting Maya related files so I can develop a handle on the work that a computer does related to Maya.

One thing I want to do is clone the HDD in case anything should happen to the computer during the course of doing the work. So I downloaded xxclone on another all purpose laptop and experimented with cloning that hdd. Both computers will run windows 7. In this case I targeted an external storage HDD. I thought I was getting a single iso image but what I got was a lot of files. I havent had a chance to study the files yet. I dont even know how to recover those files yet either.

Question
Does anyone know how to...

1. Clone an internal hard disk drive onto an external storage drive as an iso image?

2. Reformat an internal hard disk drive?

3. Recover the cloned iso image drive to another internal hard disk drive or recover the cloned iso image drive to the original but but reformated internal hard disk drive?

user added image

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# 2 08-03-2012 , 12:57 AM

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Also, my understanding is that the only determining factor in whether a motherboard is compatible with an opengl graphics card is whether the motherboard supports PCI Express x16.

Does anyone dispute that?

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# 3 08-03-2012 , 01:11 AM

EduSciVis-er
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Use Clonezilla... it's excellent. I don't know if it uses iso images, but it's not too tricky. Do you have any Linux experience? You basically boot into the clonezilla cd, pick a few options on how you want to clone and you've got your disc image.

To reformat, I would use the windows utilities. Control panel > Administrative tools > computer management > disk management.

To restore, you use clonezilla too. Point to the image and whichever HDD you want to restore onto. I haven't done that part in a while, so I'm fuzzy on the details, but there should be good documentation.

-stwert

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# 4 08-03-2012 , 01:27 AM

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Thanks.

I do have linux experience and I have read about Clonezilla. I definitely plan to clone, reformat, and recover several times on guinea pig computers to get the practice and then when I have the dedicated Maya computer built I will do the same everytime I install or change the configs to ensure a controlled workspace environment.

Question
What is a disk image supposed to look like if correctly cloned?

And do you know if the free version of clonezilla will suffice for this particular procedure?

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# 5 08-03-2012 , 01:30 AM

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I wasn't aware there was a version of clonezilla that cost something... haha.
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
So yes, free is fine.

I can't find my OS disk image at the moment, so I'm not sure what it looks like, but the only way to know if it's good for sure is to restore it.

-stwert

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# 6 08-03-2012 , 01:31 AM

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Also am i correct in saying that clonezilla must be downloaded and then burnt onto a DVD RW and then booted onto the computer with the source HDD and the disk image can be stored onto a external HDD?

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# 7 08-03-2012 , 01:35 AM

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Nice. Ok, good people at Clonezilla. Your product is now up for the pepsi challenge. lol

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# 8 08-03-2012 , 01:56 AM

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Nice. Ok, good people at Clonezilla. Your product is now up for the pepsi challenge. lol

Originally Posted by animaguy

You know, it might be the fact that I've been awake for 28 hours now; but that didn't make any sense to me. user added image

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 9 08-03-2012 , 02:08 AM

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lol. Staring at a computer screen for long periods of time can do that to you. But we love what we do. The hazzards of our chosen profession.

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# 10 08-03-2012 , 02:59 AM

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Yeah, the only tricky thing is figuring out the drive letters cause it uses linux values like sda1 etc... not C:\ D:\... so make sure you get the right drive. I claim no responsibility for any loss of data... haha.

-stwert

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-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

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# 11 08-03-2012 , 04:28 AM

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Join Date: Feb 2004

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Yeah, the only tricky thing is figuring out the drive letters cause it uses linux values like sda1 etc... not C:\ D:\... so make sure you get the right drive. I claim no responsibility for any loss of data... haha.

Originally Posted by stwert

Simple fix. Disconnect any of your other drives user added image