Backup question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Brooks
  • Start date Start date
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Michael Brooks

Friends,
Please let me know if it would be more appropriate to ask this question in
another forum.

I'm running Win2K professional SP4 on a single machine, with several user
accounts.

Suppose I use xcopy to do backups to another hard drive, and include
switches to copy all system and hidden files. (I might exclude certain junk
files) Then, if my main drive fails, can I simply pop the backup drive into
the place where the failed drive was, and continue as though nothing
happened? Or do I have to do something special to be able boot from the good
drive or restore things to their previous state?

Thanks for any info!
 
You might consider using the Windows backup utility to backup your System
State. That would be of great use for a recovery.
 
Michael Brooks said:
Friends,
Please let me know if it would be more appropriate to ask this question in
another forum.

I'm running Win2K professional SP4 on a single machine, with several user
accounts.

Suppose I use xcopy to do backups to another hard drive, and include
switches to copy all system and hidden files. (I might exclude certain junk
files) Then, if my main drive fails, can I simply pop the backup drive into
the place where the failed drive was, and continue as though nothing
happened? Or do I have to do something special to be able boot from the good
drive or restore things to their previous state?

Thanks for any info!
Click to expand...

Your idea is good but it has one flaw: xcopy won't pick up
locked files. To implement your idea, you must do either of
the following:
a) Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD (www.bootdisk.com), or
b) Temporarily install your hard disk as a slave disk in some other
Win2000/XP PC.

Also, to make the disk bootable, it may be necessary to do this:
- Mark the partition as "active".
- Boot the machine into Recovery Console, then run these commands:
fixboot
fixmbr

Lastly, after you have created your backup disk, you ***must***
test it!

Having said all this, using a commercial program such as Acronis
DriveImage would take the sting out of this sort of thing!
 
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