Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.win98.disks.general (
More info?)
Thanks for your input but ...
I bought a copy of PowerQuest's Drive Image at
the same time that I bought PowerQuest's PartitionMagic 7.0.
But, ended up liking PM7 much more than Drive Image.
I tried 'xxCopy' but didn't like it.
And, I don't use WinXP.
"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:kZadneO2jYXWzuHcRVn-1Q@comcast.com...
> "Adam" wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for partitioning software that is capable of
> > backing up (or copying) existing FAT32 bootable partitions.
> > Are the partitioning software you mention capable of this?
>
>
> You're looling for what is frequently called a "disk cloning"
> or "imaging" utility. PowerQuest's Drive Image 7.x (now
> Norton's Ghost 9.0), Acronis' True Image, and several others
> do this, not partitioning utilities. Xxcopy does this, too, but
> I've not heard much about it except that it's free (see their
> website at http:\\www.xxCopy.com ). If you want the cloned
> partition to be bootable (assuming it contains an operating
> system), tell the utility to copy the Master Boot Record
> ("MBR") as well. On the 1st boot-up of the clone, don't let
> the original OS be visible to the clone or the clone will hook
> into files on the original drive and the clone thereafter won't
> run without the original OS present. To do this, just disconnect
> the original drive and put the clone in its place for that 1st
> boot-up. Thereafter, the clone can be booted even with the
> original visible to it.
>
> If you have WinXP (or Win2K) (and if the clone drive has
> the space), you can put at least 4 copies of the original OS
> on the clone drive, and each can be bootable from its separate
> *primary* partition. (It may be the case that WinXP/2K can be
> booted from a logical drive, but I've never put a clone into a
> logical drive.) You can then use WinXP/2K's) multi- boot
> feature to select the clone for booting at boot time. You would
> have to adjust the original drive's boot.ini file (at C:\boot.ini) to
> add a line pointing to the clone to include it in the original drive's
> boot menu to do that, but that is trivial if you know the boot.ini
> syntax. Since your clone(s) might also act as emergency
> copies of the original in the event the original drive crashes,
> you ought to adjust the boot.ini file in the "active" partition on
> your clone drive as well. You can make any partition on a drive
> the "active" partition by using Disk Management (rt-click on
> My Computer, click Manage, click Disk Management), and that
> indicates that the boot.ini file in that partition will be used for the
> boot menu of OSes to select from. When pointing to partitions
> with boot.ini, remember that the 1st partition on the drive is
> known as "partition(1)", the 2nd partition as "partition(2)", etc.
> You can use the part of the boot.ini file that is in quotes to
> call each OS whatever you want.
>
> If the original drive crashes, just pop the archive drive in its
> place and boot the OS version that you want. Otherwise, you
> can keep the archive drive connected where it is, and you can
> boot into it by adjusting the boot sequence in the BIOS.
>
> If you have WinXP and the archive drive is selected by the
> BIOS' boot sequence, the boot.ini file in the drive's "active"
> partition will let you select which partition (i.e. which OS version)
> to boot into. Keep in mind that the boot.ini file in the "active"
> partition will always think it's in the booted partition (called
> "Logical Disk (C
" by Windows), so set the rdisk() lines in
> boot.ini file to point appropriately to "this" hard drive (i.e rdisk(0) )
> or to "the next" hard drive (i.e. rdisk(1) ) or "the one after that"
> (i.e. rdisk(2) ). This sequence of hard drives, by the way, is
> determined by the boot sequence in the BIOS, and by adjusting
> that sequence, you adjust what is meant by "this drive",
> "the next drive", and "the one after that".
>
> *TimDaniels*
artitionMagic"
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