XPost: aus.computers   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 12/31/2025 12:41 PM, Alan K. wrote:   
   > On 12/30/25 11:59 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >> On Tue, 30 Dec 2025 14:31:12 -0500, Alan K. wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> This may sound off beat, but I image my linux partion(s) with   
   >>> Acronis True Image from Windows.   
   >>   
   >> Former Windows users do seem to have this belief that they need to   
   >> “image” their Linux disks for some reason, don’t they.   
   > I can extract files from an image, granted I'm in Windows and Linux linked   
   files don't work, but for the most part I can replace the whole image or   
   pieces.   Not sure what else you can ask of a backup program.   
   >   
      
   I can give an example.   
      
   One day I was in Windows, I wanted to see something, and the directory   
   was "Access Denied". That is C:\System Volume Information .   
      
   I went over to Linux, and yes, I can CD into that directory.   
      
        /media/mint/Windows7/System Volume Information   
      
   OK, so I attempted to read one of the special files there.   
   It was likely to be a shadow file, and today, I don't think   
   they are visible. Still, I looked at it, and it was "filled with zeros".   
   How curious, I said to myself.   
      
   I shut down Linux, and... Windows would not boot. I soon discovered   
   that the Windows 7 partition was *completely and utterly destroyed*.   
   Totally unrecoverable.   
      
   Why was I laughing at the time ? Purely on a whim, just ten minutes before,   
   i had backed up the Windows 7 partition. It might not have had a backup   
   in ages. I had no plans at the time to be   
   "doing anything dangerous". Or so I thought.   
      
   It was then easy to recover from my little adventure. Now we know   
   why that folder is "Access Denied" :-) I would never have guessed,   
   that merely reading a file was dangerous. But that was a persistent shadow   
   or the like.   
      
   The NTFS driver is not feature-complete. The USN journal does not work.   
   It might even get reset or invalidated (to prevent Windows from attempting   
   to use out-of-date info). The permissions on NTFS don't work either (which   
   is why we like Linux :-) ). If you gparted an NTFS, the "dirty" bit is set   
   to ensure that Windows will CHKDSK it on return.   
      
   I consider Safe-Temporary-Backups to be a great feature, with not a lot   
   of "rsync..." or "tar..." command invocations needed to protect stuff. I just   
   do the whole partition, and it does not matter what kind of firestorm   
   comes next.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)