Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 October 19

= October 19 =

Copying a harddisk byte for byte
I want to install a new Harddisk, SATA probably (fits contemporary motherboards available plus other reasons) instead of my old IDE one, which has Windows XP and loads of applications and pics and all. Now the problem is that I want the new the harddisk to behave exactly like the old one. If I get a portable harddisk and copy everything and paste it on to the new one, I don't think the problem will be solved - pictures and songs may be copied this way but not OS, or even applications. Even if I install XP first on the new disk and then go for copying, I am sure most, if not all, applications will not get installed properly. Can someone please suggest any software/hardware tool that will copy (using the word in Xerox sense) the old disk in such a rigorous manner that no difference remains between the two. 124.253.248.73 (talk) 12:48, 19 October 2016 (UTC)


 * This is commonly called "disk cloning". If you search for that term, you will find a multitude of tutorials and products. 209.149.113.4 (talk) 13:50, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Disk cloning and List of disk cloning software are existing pages. Tigraan Click here to contact me 13:57, 19 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Linux is able to access drives, partitions and files and other devices linkes into the /dev folder. Linux also includes the dd command. A linux live CD can boot your computer and mak use of linux without installing it. When gparted is included or temporary installable, you can indetify your drives and partition to plan a propper clone with the dd command. Linux can be installed on an USB stick, if the computer has no optical drive.
 * /dev/sda is the first drive
 * /dev/sda1 is the first partion of the first drive
 * /dev/sdb is the second drive
 * /dev/sdb1 is the first partion of the second drive
 * /dev/sdb2 is the second partion of the second drive
 * gparted and Diskmgmt for Win 10 can resize existing partitions. Note: Windows likes to save harddisc IDs. Bann the old drive from the system!
 * To clone the first onto the second drive, use: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb this will overwrite all data on the second drive (sdb). Using the gzip filter and output to a file instead of a device allows to create compressed raw disc and partition images. The web is full of exsamples, just search. -- Hans Haase (有问题吗) 21:42, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Logging URLs
On Windows I need a simple local proxy server that takes requests from my Firefox browser and passes them along to the internet while logging each URL passing through it to a text file called "log.txt". The log file should contain only the URLs one per each line, no time stamps or any other information. I only want to log requests that are specifically sent through the proxy, NOT all requests going though the ethernet adapter. What would be the best way to go about this? I have looked into "Squid Cache" but it seems overly complicated for my needs. I would like something much simpler. Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 43.243.112.86 (talk) 18:15, 19 October 2016 (UTC)


 * You can install the very popular python utility, Twisted (software); it takes about nine lines of code to write a simple HTTP proxy server. Then you can run the Twisted Proxy Server when-ever you like (all the time, or only when you want to use it); and you can configure Firefox using the localhost, on default port 8080 (if you used the example code I linked), as the proxy server.
 * If you want more advanced features, or if you want to proxy other complex network traffic, the difficulty will rapidly escalate, and you will probably need to crack open the Squid manual (which is, as you know, a very sophisticated piece of software that is not very user-friendly).
 * Nimur (talk) 21:27, 19 October 2016 (UTC)