Alternative rsync client for Windows

[Karl O. Pinc]

So long as your compiling a list of things to
overcome to restore a MS Windows box you need
to add the following:

You'd have to have an (exact?)
copy of the original hardware onto which
you wish to restore.  I try to stay away
from Windows so am no expert, but I believe
that the OEMs are the ones that put the
hardware drivers onto the box.  Trying
to restore one MS Windows system onto
different hardware results in a system that
won't run on the new hardware.

On 04/11/2014 07:24:15 PM, L. A. Walsh wrote:
> Kevin Korb wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
> > 
> > I come from the Linux world.  If one of my computers were to simply
> > evaporate into nothingness or have complete storage failure then
> once
> > the hardware problem is dealt with I would network boot
> SystemRescueCD
> > then restore my backups that I made with rsync.
> > 
> > I understand that things are more complicated in Windows but if say
> my
> > laptop (it is the only computer I have that both boots and stores
> > Windows) were similarly destroyed or blanked I would still network
> > boot SystemRescueCD and restore my backups that I made with
> ntfsclone.
> > 
> > My hesitation with backing up a Windows system with rsync is that
> > I have absolutely no idea to go from "I have a blank computer and
> > a copy of all my files" to "I have a working computer with all my
> > stuff".  I might be asking for something as simple as "Install
> > Windows, install Acrosync, restore everything including the Windows
> > configuration from backups" or maybe some kind of rescue disc or
> maybe
> > some kind of custom WinPE disc.  I don't know.  I know just enough
> > about Windows to figure out how to use what I know from Linux to
> make
> > things sorta work.
> ---
> I wouldn't suggest trying to restore windows w/rsync.  It might be
> possible, but first issue is that whatever media you rsync things to,
> needs to support full NT security and be able to create arbitrary
> users/acl's to fully replicate the source.
> 
> Second issue is that MS deliberately uses things the location of
> something on the disk as a "security option".  I don't know what
> software uses it, but I remember discussion about "media licenses"
> (❝𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡❞) using the feature to prohibit any "copy" of them from
> working:
> only the original in its original 'licensed' location would work.  
> The
> whole way NTFS is designs it's locking of files is very unlike how
> it's
> done on linux/unix.  When it locks a file, it isn't, like in linux, 
> at
> the inode level+offset; it's at a physical location on the disk that
> gets locked... it's really primitive, (and is why one needs to often
> reboot a system to replace binaries -- because the bytes on the disk
> ARE
> the file and they are locked -- vs. on linux, usually you have an
> inode
> that points to sectors where the file is, and by changing where the
> inode points, you can change the content.
> 
> That said, my primary concern would be the first issue (for me, not
> using licensed content on windows, I've not run into the problem, so
> that's mostly from memory about how it was implemented.  VERY often,
> when doing copies with rsync or cp -a from one sys to another, I'll
> find
> permissions or such won't get transferred "quite" the same way.
> 
> I have used rsync from/to the same disk to restore & repair a broken
> windows install -- the part that has problems is storing the extended
> stuff and ACL's on a foreign media.
> 
> (Also have to make sure on restore that rsync has all needed
> rights&privileges.  Cygwin takes care of alot of that -- removing
> a file or such that in the windows command line, you'd have a pretty
> hard time doing... or setting permissions on all the files in the
> windows/system32 dir despite not "owning them" - under the posix
> model,
> ownership doesn't matter for 'root'.. so cygwin tries to emulate that
> as
> much as possible -- probably why I've seen cygwin listed as a
> "security
> hacking tool"...;-)  (really!, letting a user control their own
> system,
> how absurd!)..
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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Karl <kop at meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                 -- Robert A. Heinlein