Yes, documentation is a problem. Once you do know how to use it, it must
be tested fully. I think the best way to do that is to get a second hard
drive & restore the image to that. Here are the problems you face...
(1) Must be able to open box & properly install new drive.
(2) Will your BIOS recognize the size of your new hard drive?
(3) Must learn to run Drive Image from floppy.
--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR
(e-mail address removed)
| Ok. And very interesting
|
| In response, another point I would make is that with both Ghost and
Drive
| Image, you are able prior to completion of the process to check for
errors
| in the image (clone) you create, and to verify its contents. This
should go
| some way to reassuring doubting Thomases like me. But that said,
another HD
| would be cheap and it would be 'there.'
|
| The thing we both seem to have suffered from, you much less than me, I
| think, is the poor quality of the Help in these programs. At first, I
found
| Norton Ghost Help incomprehensible, and I had to read and reread it
many
| times. All Norton Help is the same. It seems to be composed by the
same,
| high-minded person, who is really doing us all a favour by imparting
his
| wisdom, so he will keep it short. The Help in Drive Image is a bit
better,
| perhaps because this program is a bit better, or simpler, than Ghost,
or at
| least, I found it so. That is until I started the process, and what I
read
| in the Help was not happening on screen: there was a resemblance, but
words
| and boxes appeared which I had no means of understanding. Perhaps I
am too
| literal, you might say, and I am well aware of the adage that after
some
| years, you develop a 'sense' for these things that transcends such
| imperfections and takes you through. Not in my case, I'm afraid,
hence the
| call to Amsterdam
|
| So in my eyes Drive Image was almost completely let down by its Help.
Here
| is a marvellous product that can so wondrous things (10 years ago,
cloning
| would have been a Wonder of the World), yet it can't be bothered to
explain
| itself in plain and clear language.
|
| Anyway, I am rabbiting on, so will stop
|
|
|
| PCR wrote:
| > Don't talk to that ornery cuss or to Colorado either!
| >
| > I am glad that Drive Image 2002 cured various problems, e.g., PB
| > Restore. Also, it is good to know you survived a harrowing
experience
| > in the restore, by the good services of Norton PCAnywhere & the good
| > folk at PowerQuest. Below, in the spirit of tit for tat, is a
| > harrowing experience of my own. You are correct to have a full
system
| > backup on CD. I suggest you also get a second hard drive, to calm
all
| > fears of the CDs getting temperamental again. And you never know--
it
| > could be altogether a different bugaboo with it, not the one you
| > already know how to solve. Anyway, you will need a second hard drive
| > to restore that CD to, should this one crash. The CD backup is
great,
| > but may as get another hard drive and put a full system backup there
| > too.
| >
| > ...Start.... or harrowing experience all my own......
| > Well, I don't know whether it would be the same for you, but this is
| > what I did on my Compaq 7470. Remember, this totally wiped out
| > everything & restored to factory default condition. This does an
| > Fdisk, so, if you want to backup first, it must be done to CD or
| > another HDD altogether.
| >
| > It took a phone call or two to Compaq to run my QuickRestore from
| > double CD's after an HDD crash, since the instructions that came
with
| > the them were lacking. They are bootable-- BUT I couldn't figure out
| > how to get them into the CD-R/W drive. It was dumbfounding. Here's
| > the actual process:
| >
| > 1. Turn on computer. (So that you'll be able to...
| > 2. Open CD tray; put in CD 1; close tray.
| > 3. Turn computer off, then on. CD will boot.
| > (Computer did stuff, some of it twice, maybe. How long?)
| > 4. When asked to insert a Diskette, hold down CNTR and press "R"
| > three times.
| > (Big secret? Lucky the guy was still on the line; he wanted
to
| > go; eventually, did.)
| > 5. At the error message (something like "Not ready reading drive
| > N"), hit "R" for "Retry".
| > (This took a second phone call; he said sometimes it takes 3
| > Retry's.)
| > 6. When prompted, put in QuickRestore CD 2.
| > 7. When prompted, put in QuickRestore CD 1, again.
| > 8. When prompted, remove it.
| > (Windows screen came up; it seemed to go back to DOS; it
| > rebooted to Windows again; it did some unzipping; it rebooted; it
did
| > a SystemSave; it rebooted; it installed some drivers; it asked some
| > questions, and I told all.)
| >
| > That's what I wrote, some of it from memory, during & after the
| > process. The only other item in my notes is, "NEVER NEEDED ANY
| > DISKETTE", capitalized. I remember wondering what that diskette
asked
| > for was supposed to be. I don't remember how much time passed
between
| > steps; overall, I believe it was less than an hour, maybe much less.
| >
| > This QuickRestore, to "factory", from the CDs, is far more involved
| > than the one from the D: partition. I don't really want to do it
| > again. So many reboots! And I may have left some out in the notes!
| > There is a lot to like about Compaq, but QuickRestore from CD's is
| > not one of them... well, it did work, though. I hope I haven't given
| > away a big secret.
| >
.........End.............................................................
| > ........
| >
| >> To get back to what PCR said, I use Drive Image 2002 to clone my HD
| >> to a CD-RW. I used it to replace Norton Ghost, which I found
flaky,
| >> and not therefore to be trusted.
| >>
| >> One side benefit not referred to in the product details and one I
| >> did not expect was the process 'cured' certain programs that were
| >> not working, or working properly, e.g. PB Restore
| >>
| >> A big word of caution, however. The Help in both programs is
| >> dreadful, if you are an ordinary user, like me. So much so, I had
| >> to telephone Power Quest, in Amsterdam, to talk me through. Give
| >> them credit, they did so without demur, and I succeeded, but only
| >> thanks to them. My concern was that the process wipes the HD and
| >> you are then totally reliant on the CD-R disks that contain your
| >> precious data. Any defect in those or other mistake in the process
| >> and you are stuffed completely. Early on in the process, the
| >> on-screen stuff and the Help just ran out, and it was guesswork for
| >> me to proceed further. Hence I wanted to know exactly what to do,
| >> and also what I should expect to happen when I did it. So we used
| >> Norton PCAnywhere, which I had trialed, so I did not need to buy
it.
| >> This meant the guy in Amsterdam could see what I was doing and talk
| >> to me live. Altogether a harrowing experience, and not for the
| >> faint-hearted.
| >>
| >> Another HD is a good idea, but my way I have disks separate from
the
| >> PC and I can carry around and store anywhere.
| >>
| >> Rod Speed wrote:
| >>> | >>>> PCR wrote:
| >>>>> I am not an expert in XXCopy. You must go to the site and see
| >>>>> whether there is a write-up on a full-system XXCopy one hdd to
| >>>>> another. Maybe Yabumoto has it covered.
| >>>>>
http://www.xxcopy.com/
| >>>>>
| >>>>> (a) Rod Speed has sworn XXCopy will not copy the Swap File
| >>>>> (Win386.swp).
| >>>>
| >>>> WHY on earth would ANYBODY want to copy the Swap File?
| >>>
| >>> Its not a question of want to, its claimed to be undesirable
| >>> to do that and the sort of cloning of a drive that is being
| >>> discussed tends to end up with the swap file included in a
| >>> brute force copy of everything, at least at the command level.
| >>>
| >>> In practice he's mangled the story all over again.
| >>>
| >>> When something other than xxcopy is used, most of
| >>> the time the attempt to copy everything fails when it
| >>> gets to the locked swap file that it isnt allowed to read.
| >>>
| >>> xxcopy just carrys on regardless and lists the swap
| >>> file as not copyable and so the problem doesnt arise.
|
|
of the SFNs, if copied.