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As a SysAdmin I occasionally backup and duplicate Windows installations. My current approach is creating a WIM using DISM /Capture-Image or ImageX /capture, then applying the image to a new volume. This copies all content twice - first from source volume to intermediate place (WIM file), then from intermediate place to target volume.
I want to skip the intermediate WIM file for a migration (without backing up) using only Microsoft tools - this can either come preinstalled on Windows or available in Windows ADK. I've looked into robocopy.exe but it doesn't appear to be suitable: NTFS ACL is important here. I would LOVE to see an equivalent to the famous tool Rsync on Unix. Is it possible?
Notes:
- The solution should work for volumes with different sizes. There's always enough space in the target volume for all data, but the target volume may be smaller than the source volume.
- The target volume is always clean and formatted to NTFS. Source is always NTFS.
- The target volume should be able to boot after configuring BCD properly (like with
bcdboot.exe T:\Windows /s Z:)
iBug
Posted 2019-12-18T08:45:29.247
Reputation: 5 254
1Why is file-based a necessity? Linux ntfsclone has long been able to make sparse clones (i.e. skipping unused parts) – user1686 – 2019-12-18T08:49:32.967
@grawity I migrate between volumes with different sizes. The only thing I ensure is that target volume is large enough for the data. – iBug – 2019-12-18T09:02:29.930
@grawity I've updated the question to better reflect my original intention. – iBug – 2019-12-18T09:29:07.933