The Clone Project

The so-called "clone project" began out of frustration at the lack of
tools for copying files across the network while retaining all of the
attributes and long file names.

It has been our practice for many years to keep a copy of a "Standard
PC" on a network drive as a source for "cloning" a new PC.  When a
new PC would arrive, we'd create a minimal network boot diskette,
reformat the drive, and load a copy of the "Standard PC" from the
network.  In "the old days", when using DOS and WinFWG this was
accomplished with the simplest of tools.  

However, the adequacy of the tools today have not kept up with newer
operating systems such as Win95.  For example, you cannot use XCOPY
at the MSDOS real mode to copy hidden or system files (although in
the 32bit mode, you can!).

Even after an exhaustive search of the Internet, all of the shareware/
freeware tools I found had a fatal flaw.  Some couldn't deal with
hidden and system files, one couldn't deal with hidden directories,
one wouldn't copy empty directories.  Oddly enough, the utility most
often recommended on Usenet news would corrupt files if copying
across a network!  

So, I decided to write my own "copy tool" call CLONE.  It is designed
to copy every file (no matter what!) from one directory to another.
The source and destination can be either a floppy, hard disk, CDROM,
or network drive.  It runs from the MSDOS real mode and is small
enough to fit on the "network boot diskette".

Ah, but that's not all... I also needed a tool that could recreate
the long file names after the files were copied.  Once again, all of
the shareware/freeware tools I could find had a fatal flaw.  One
program created a MSDOS batch file to restore long file names, but
it couldn't rename hidden files and couldn't retain the VFAT creation
and access dates.  Duncan Murdoch's DOSLFNBK program came very close
to meeting my needs, but it couldn't create a backup file from an
NTFS partition.

So, I decided to write my own "long file name backup tool" called
NTLFNBK.  It is essentially an NT version of DOSLFNBK that can
backup (but not restore!) long file names on a NTFS partition.  I now
use NTLFNBK to create the backup file and then use DOSLFNBK to restore
the files after they are copied.
 
Both CLONE and NTLFNBK are truly public domain.  That means that you
can do anything you wish with these programs (to include trying to
make money from them!).  The C source code is included and there are
no restrictions on its use.  The latest version of CLONE and NTLFNBK
are always available via anonymous FTP from moe.hood-dpw.army.mil.

Emmet P. Gray                        US Army, HQ III Corps & Fort Hood
graye@hood-emh3.army.mil             Attn: AFZF-PW-ENV
                                     Directorate of Public Works
                                     Environmental Division
                                     Fort Hood, TX 76544-5057