Need to just boot Linux from CD to run dd to re-image HDD

Hi All,

I'm new here and I hope I started off correctly by posting this in the right area and not re-posting something similar.

Basically I just need to boot Linux off of a CDROM first and later probably a USB flash drive and have it automatically run (dd) to re-image the system's HDD. I will need to put the 512MB image on the bootable media also to image from.

I write kernel drivers but this booting Linux from a CD is new to me and I just need someone to help push me in the right direction on how to created a simple bootable CDROM and USB flash disk to only run (dd). The only devices that I care about are an EHCI USB root hub and it's devices and the compact flash device that shows up as /dev/sda and of the course the USB CDROM. Other than that, Linux can be a stripped down distro.

Any help to get me pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
AM

I used this yesterday http://clonezilla.org/
It creates a bootable cd so the system has full access to the HD.
:)

Once you've booted from Knoppix (follow the USB instructions, if I remember correctly you can find them on the documentation page and there is probably more info on this forum if you do a search)

Then open a term window. You can right click on the device that has the image you wish to restore and the device you wish to restore it too. Look for the mount point, something like /media/sda

Then your best bet is probably to dd the old image to the new drive. Just reverse the syntax you used to make the copy. Try it on a non-essential machine first. Haven't actually tried this myself. I've pulled lots of DD images off machines before. Mostly for forensics purposes or to salvage whatever I could off a dying drive. Never actually tried to push a DD image back onto a had drive.