Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (
More info?)
Timothy Daniels <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote
> phaedrus wrote
>> I'm having terrible problems trying to make a bootable backup of my Hard
>> Drive.
>> I've given up the ghost with Ghost (terrible piece of software)
>> and am now trying my luck with Acronis TI's trial version.
>> All I want to do is create, on a recordable DVD., a *complete*
>> bit-for-bit copy of my HDD with all the operating system,
>> applications and data and make it bootable so in the event
>> of HDD failure, I can just slip the DVD into another computer
>> with a clean HDD and have it boot-up fully with everthing
>> working just like your regular HDD does.
> Be aware that the new HDD will not be able to run WinXP on another computer
> because WinXP will recognize that it's in a new environment.
That is just plain wrong. You'll only have a problem if the motherboard
chipset is significantly different and even then its completely trivial to
repair the install to allow for the different chipset.
> The "boot-up" from DVD will involve "restoring" it from
> image file form to hard drive sector form first, and THEN
> you should be able to boot the OS. That can take a lot time.
More bullshit on the time.
> A faster way would be to clone the image of the 1st HDD
> sector-by-sector onto a 2nd HDD that would act as a backup.
> THAT image (called a "clone") would be directly bootable.
Pity you need to buy the second hard drive. Makes
a lot more sense to just have what you need for the
new hard drive if you ever do see a hard drive failure.
Most dont have a boot drive failure so it makes no sense
to have the second hard drive for that unlikely situation.
It does however make a lot of sense to have an image
on DVD in case you ever do have a hard drive failure.
> You can do that with True Image if the entire contents of
> the 1st HDD are transferred to the entirety of the 2nd HDD.
> If you want to just transfer a specific partition from the 1st HDD and to put
> it among other partitions on the 2nd HDD, you can use Ghost or Casper XP
> (assuming that you have WinXP). With Casper XP, you can even use a free trial
> version, downloadable from:
>
www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
Pity its such a limited dud.
> As with all NT/2K/XP clones, isolate it from its "parent" when booting it up
> for the 1st time. (Thereafter, it's OK if it can see its "parent" OS
> partition when booting.)
Or dont bother cloning for backup at all. Use image files instead.