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Fresh install - best backup method?

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tluxon   04-17-2005 at 11:55:36 PM

Okay, I was unable to ever get back the DVD drives on my wife's computer with the previous install, so now I've completed a fresh install on a reformatted partition with all the major apps that my wife needs. Now I want to make an exact copy of the boot partition so if any unrecoverable situation occurs again, I can get everything going again with a minimal effort.

I think I'd like to make a bootable DVD-R with a snapshot copy of everything on the boot drive right now. What's the best/easiest way to put me in a position where all I'd have to do is reformat the boot partition and copy all the files back on it so it gets right back up and running like it is now?

If it's a better solution, there's also a 160GB drive in the PC with a blank 16GB partition that I could set up to be the boot drive if needed. Is there a quick-n-easy way to "copy" the boot partition of the current primary drive to the 160GB drive so that all I'd have to do to get her up and running is swap which drive is booted to?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Tim

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tluxon   04-18-2005 at 05:53:28 AM
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I usually avoid using Partition Magic unless alternatives are too time-consuming. Are you suggesting that I use the Drive Copy portion of it to backup the PC's boot partition?

Thanks,

Tim

Reply to tluxon
_WW_   04-18-2005 at 01:00:47 PM
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Quote :

What's the best/easiest way to put me in a position where all I'd have to do is reformat the boot partition and copy all the files back on it so it gets right back up and running like it is now?



I use R-Drive Image to image my OS once a month. There are other programs like Nortons Ghost that will do it too.


....WW (5.0)

Reply to _WW_
Riser   04-18-2005 at 05:20:37 PM
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Regardless, you'll want to make a small partition to copy an image to. 2GB should be fine, but 5GB if you can spare. If you can download Ghost.exe, it's a small file, you can just create an image to your 2nd partition, create a bootable CD using your CD burning software and edit your config.sys and autoexec.bat to create a menu and command line to start the ghosting process. Or you could just add the line in your autoexec.bat to call up ghost and pull the image off your other hard drive.

Do a little search for modifying the config/autoexebat and you'll be able to figure it out relatively simple.

I have a PC that I need to reimage constantly for some software that I use. I have a 5GB partition that I have my image stored on and I just restore over it using the Ghost program. I tell it to use the image on my D: drive, restore. It restarts the computer, images, and it's back up in about 10 minutes. That might be the simplest way as long as you can still boot into windows.
Now, if you can't boot into windows, you can use a boot disk with ghost on it and still restore from the D: drive OR CD if you burn it to a CD and have the CD drivers load via boot disk.

Riser

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tluxon   04-18-2005 at 06:42:57 PM
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The 160GB drive is a disk my wife doesn't even know is in there. Partition size and reformatting isn't going to be a problem. I'll take a look at R-drive and Norton Ghost.

As far as the DVD-R, both of the DVD drives boot to a CD and so I imagine they would also boot to DVD. Since my wife's boot drive with all the basic apps on it is only about 3GB, I figured there was some way to create a bootable DVD-R with a file-for-file copy of her boot drive. I'm just not sure if there are any utilities for making sure to get all those files that are open when XP and the burning software are running. Anybody done this?

Thanks,

Tim

Reply to tluxon
Riser   04-18-2005 at 07:28:53 PM
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Windows XP has a built-in backup/restore which does file for file and stores it in a large file. As far as I'm aware, you're not able to boot to disc to restore though, but it may be possible. I haven't fully looked into the capabilities of the program.

Imaging is probably your fastest and most reliable way of doing this though.

Riser

Reply to Riser
_WW_   04-19-2005 at 04:14:28 AM
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I can store images on DVD-Rs with R-Drive and create a boot/recovery disk to restore with...I would think Ghost would do something similar.

I usually keep an image on a USB Hard drive and on DVD also...just in case.

....WW (5.0)

Reply to _WW_
dunklegend   04-19-2005 at 04:43:16 PM
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I use PowerQuest Drive Image and it works fine.
If you have windows XP you'll need at least version 2002.

Reply to dunklegend
sobelizard   04-19-2005 at 09:40:00 PM
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Acronis True Image.

<b><i>Powered by <font color=blue>V</font color=blue><font color=purple>E</font color=purple><font color=red>R</font color=red><font color=purple>T</font color=purple><font color=blue>O</font color=blue></b>
Fueled by <b><font color=blue>CL-</font color=blue><font color=red>ONE</font color=red></b>

Reply to sobelizard
TheCh0s3n1   04-20-2005 at 04:14:34 AM
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I agree with riser. Imaging would be faster and simpler. I personally haven't tried using R-Drive, but I hear that it's quite good to use. At work, I use Norton Ghost just about every week. Works very well for me.

In addition to Windows XP's own backup utility, you could also create a simple batch file to create an image that copies the entire boot drive to a DVD-R. With less than 3GB of data to back up, it may not take too long to complete.

The batch file could be as simple as this:
<i>xcopy C: E:
rem BACKUP COMPLETE
pause
end</i>

This would copy <i>everything</i>.

Reply to TheCh0s3n1
tluxon   05-09-2005 at 02:37:01 AM
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I haven't had a chance to do this yet because I've been tied up with other things. It sounds like I could create a bootable CD with Ghost.exe on it which is called up Ghost when booting. Can anyone tell me where I might find Ghost.exe?

Thanks,

Tim

Reply to tluxon
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