From: David Farber on
Linux newbie here. I successfully cloned an XP, ntfs, 160GB laptop drive
with some Windows software. It's no surprise that the new drive shows bad
sectors that were present in the 60GB original drive. It is the second
partition that has the problem (sda2 in Linux speak?) I've found a couple of
utilities that give directions on how to reset the drive. Let me also say
that I do not have Linux installed on my system so I was happy to find a
tool here, http://www.bodden.de/legacy/bad-sector-recovery-on-ntfs/ that
didn't require any special software other than the link to the Knoppix boot
cd and the associated utility programs. I tried following the directions on
that page. Many of the Linux commands look like DOS to me but it appears
there are some differences I have yet to figure out. I selected the "shell"
command after Knoppix loaded to get to the "Linux prompt(?)" I found the
directory listing command in an online reference guide, "ls," but couldn't
figure out how to apply it to my hard drive or how to copy the source
directory to the ramdisk. Does the Knoppix create a ramdisk when it boots? I
used the log posted by the author here
http://www.bodden.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ntfsrecovery.txt
as a template but in the end, I couldn't get past step one.

Then I found another resetting tool located at the bottom of this page:
http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsclone but I only found a dead link
to the ntfsprogs package. It seemed if I had that program and boosted my
command line efficiency, it would only take a couple of lines to set the
record straight. Perhaps a couple of pointers from the experienced people in
this ng would help me reach my goal.

Thanks for your reply.
--
David Farber
L.A., CA