7 replies to this topic

[L A M A]

Is there any tool out there that can change file system format inside *.img WITHOUT destroying data inside?? while the *.img is offline?

EDIT: My current options are:

01. Convert *.IMG to *.VHD and Use *.VHD which can be attached to VirtualBox-Portable USE PMagic or bootable iso/usb to manipulate formats. (CloneDisk: to convert *.IMG -> *.VHD without killing data)
02. Find a tool that can see grub4dos hooked *.img and allow changing filesystem format (is there any DOS tool?)
03. Find a tool that can manipulate *.img from windows while its offline (partition, change format etc without destroying data) (is there any?)


Is there an option in ImDisk to mount *.img || *.vhd upon OS boot up which can make windows tools (Partition Magic etc) to see drive and allow manipulation?

Items numbered as replies to first post:
... karyonix's raw2hd:
http://reboot.pro/9715/#entry83781


..., you normally mount the disk image in Windows with an APPROPRIATE "full disk" driver, (that is NOT IMDISK) and then you use any partitioning/resizing/whatever tool on the mounted image.
A suitable driver/tool is Total Mounter (besides Ken Kato's VDK, and Firadisk/Winvblock):
http://reboot.pro/1507/
http://reboot.pro/15170/
http://reboot.pro/fi...4-totalmounter/

Imdisk does NOT mount "fully" a hard disk image, ONLY the Volume(s) that are inside it, this info has been written on the forum over, and over and over...


Wonko

[steve6375]

Do you mean convert filesystem - e.g. from FAT32 to NTFS? If so, change what to what exactly?

[L A M A]

Yes, filesystem! for the moment i'm looking for NTFS to FAT32 (because I'm annoyed by size occupied by MFT)


edit: There is another option in my mind,
01. DeFrag *.img || *.vhd
02. Use FiraDisk and Grub4Dos to mount *.img || *.vhd
03. Hopefully Windows apps can see the disk(s) at boot time and allow...

but i've to make a copy of image and install windows apps on it... slows everything

[Wonko the Sane]

Items numbered as replies to first post:
01.A "static" .VHD is a RAW .IMG file with a descriptor sector appended to it, there are several tools around to do this conversion, among which the - in house - erwan.l's clonedisk:
http://labalec.fr/erwan/?page_id=42
http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=8480a
and karyonix's raw2hd:
http://reboot.pro/9715/#entry83781
this info has been written on the forum over, and over and over...

02. This makes no sense.

03. This also makes no or very little sense, you normally mount the disk image in Windows with an APPROPRIATE "full disk" driver, (that is NOT IMDISK) and then you use any partitioning/resizing/whatever tool on the mounted image.
A suitable driver/tool is Total Mounter (besides Ken Kato's VDK, and Firadisk/Winvblock):
http://reboot.pro/1507/
http://reboot.pro/15170/
http://reboot.pro/fi...4-totalmounter/

Imdisk does NOT mount "fully" a hard disk image, ONLY the Volume(s) that are inside it, this info has been written on the forum over, and over and over...


Wonko

[steve6375]

pmagic may be able to convert NTFS to FAT32 (or trash it!) - you will need to mount the image under linux first though (not sure how to do that as I am not a linux geek).

[L A M A]

pmagic may be able to convert NTFS to FAT32 (or trash it!) - you will need to mount the image under linux first though (not sure how to do that as I am not a linux geek).

i'm not a linux geek,... but this looks great while the disk is online... (updated my first post with this)

...so, no offline tools out there.



Are there any safe commercial bootable partition manipulating apps that allows mounting different virtual hard disk images?


EDIT: I totally missed Wonko's post (scrolled down too fast!) Thanks for update...

[dog]

Why not just copy the .img, mount both with imdisk, format the 2nd as fat32 then copy the content of the ntfs one?

[Wonko the Sane]

Why not just copy the .img, mount both with imdisk, format the 2nd as fat32 then copy the content of the ntfs one?

Because (as ALREADY posted) IMDISK does NOT mount the (hard disk) image, but ONLY the volume(s) inside it.
The "second" image, will miss the updated MBR Filesystem ID and the hidden sectors AND it WILL have the wrong number of "sectors before" in the PBR/bootsector, unless you "manually" correct/hexedit these.



Wonko