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How to clone a Compact flash card with multiple partitions, including the MBR

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First post, by Kahenraz

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I just finished setting up a laptop with three partitions between DOS, Windows, and a shared extended partition that always appears as drive D between the two. I've also installed a custom bootloader to switch between the two operating systems.

All of this took a long time to setup and get configured the way I wanted it, including installing all of the games. This is actually the third time I've had to do this after accidentally blowing away a partition due to a mishap in DOS.

What solutions are available to easily backup and restore this drive, including all partitions and the MBR?

I've only heard of "Norton Ghost", although I've never used it or any other solution. Is this the best software to use for this purpose?

The drive in question is also a CompactFlash card. Is it possible to do the backup/restore from a USB card reader, or will I always need to connect to an IDE bus?

Reply 1 of 2, by Yoghoo

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There are a couple of threads about this topic. Clonezilla is a free example for this. I personally use the Macrium Reflect for this. Even the free version will do.

From Windows XP and up you can do it locally but most of the time I will just transfer the CF card to my Windows 11 desktop to make a backup.

Reply 2 of 2, by keropi

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Shouldn't you be able to use something like Win32 Disk Imager and do the save/restore functions on the CF card?
Any similar tool that does a 1:1 byte copy would work, just like we download linux/mister/whatever images and we write back to sd cards

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