On Ma, 11 feb 20, 06:50:58, Martin McCormick wrote: > I don't know if things have changed or I forgot how to do this > but I want to boot in to a Debian image and not install it but > invoke a shell so as to clone the hard drive on a Windows machine > to an external hard drive. From memory, I'm aware of two methods: 1. Any time after starting the installer, press Ctrl+F2 and there will be a prompt to press Enter to enable the console. Ctrl+F1 returns to the installer. If using the graphical installer you will need Ctrl+Alt+F2 and Ctrl+F5 will should get you back to the installer. 2. Start the installer in "rescue mode". After doing some basic configuration it will ask you about the root and will offer to start a shell. For your purposes chose "open a shell in the installer environment", because you don't want to touch your system. As mentioned above, this is all from memory, it's been a while since I used the installer. Kind regards, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser
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