Hi Jaclaz,
I did poke around a bit on the FAU link provided, but couldn't locate a complete "how to" document on there. I did review the contents of the dd help though. I noticed the "\\.\" prefix thrown in there on multiple sites but also noticed that there are slight variations between these windows releases - so I didn't know if it carried over to this FAU version. I'm willing to research and read up on things, but understand your frustration.
The original image is of an 80GB internal HDD which was a system drive w/ windows xp installed. So \\.\ is what tells dd to extract the image instead of copying?
No. (and don't worry, everyone has to start somewhere)
It is a windows (GLOBAL) object (device).
\\.\<drive_letter> is a partition with a letter assigned to it (i.e. it means that the disk on which it is is partitioned)
\\.\physicaldriven is the actual "whole disk"
Run on your windows machine Winobj
http//
to have a look at the amount of such objects, some are "global" and some only exist in temporary namespace.
Get the DSFOK toolkit and read it's examples AND run vlm.exe
You are interested only to the ones related to disks, and/or "special" devices, such as the \\.\Zero one (cited on the FAU page).
Get the version by John Newbigin and try dd --list wink
(this version can use NT Block Device Objects also)
Then you can start experimenting with the different tools.
Mind you IT IS complex and confusing, so take your time. )
jaclaz