Disk imaging advise

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi

I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case of a crash. I
have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder is in the first
partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do or do I need to do the
whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?

2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering Acornis True
Image Workstation.

Many Thanks

Regards
 
John said:
I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case of a
crash. I have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder is in the
first partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do or do I
need to do the whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you wish to accomplish.
2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering Acornis
True Image Workstation.
Click to expand...

That's good. The best one is the one that you can understand and will
utilize periodically - in parallel with your more frequent backup plan.

Symantec/Norton Ghost
BootItNG

And I am sure other people can chime in with others (or you can google
groups search.)
 
John said:
Hi

I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case of a crash. I
have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder is in the first
partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do or do I need to do the
whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?

2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering Acornis True
Image Workstation.
Click to expand...


I've used Acronis twice now and it was easy to use...
worked *perfectly*. My free trial will soon be up and I will be buying it!
 
Did you image just the partition or the whole disk?

I used DVD+R DL disks to burn straight from Acronis Home Trial using a Sony
drive. Even though the operation was completed the disks became unusable.
Any ideas?

Thanks

Regards
 
John said:
Hi

I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case of a crash. I
have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder is in the first
partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do or do I need to do
the whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to restore the system to the
state it was in before the problem arose then it's simple, image the
complete disk.
2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering Acornis True
Image Workstation.
Click to expand...

I use Acronis True Image Home version 10 on both XP and Vista. It works
fine. Others are Symantec Ghost, BootIt NG, Terabyte Unlimited Image for
Windows and Casper XP.
 
John said:
Hi

I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case of a crash. I
have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder is in the first
partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do or do I need to do
the whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?

2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering Acornis True
Image Workstation.

Many Thanks

Regards
Click to expand...

I have removable hard drives and clone my C drive as a form of backup. I
use Ghost2003, boot from floppy or cd and can create a clone of approx. 25gb
in less than 15 minutes. I then swap drives and run off the clone to insure
success. Couldn't be simpler. A Ghost created clone would have both of
your partitions.
 
True Image 10 is all you need. I think that one is cheaper. Don't go near
Ghost. Nowhere near as reliable.
 
John said:
Did you image just the partition or the whole disk?

I used DVD+R DL disks to burn straight from Acronis Home Trial using a
Sony
drive. Even though the operation was completed the disks became unusable.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

That can be because of a faulty DVD disk or drive. Just buy another hard
disk and attach internally. Dirt cheap and easy. If you don't like to open
your machine or if it is a laptop, then get an external HD and attach via
USB and do it that way.

Greg.
 
Rock said:
Depends on what you want to do. If you want to restore the system to the
state it was in before the problem arose then it's simple, image the
complete disk.


I use Acronis True Image Home version 10 on both XP and Vista. It works
fine. Others are Symantec Ghost, BootIt NG, Terabyte Unlimited Image for
Windows and Casper XP.
Click to expand...

Word of caution though - with True Image 10 there is an option, when doing a
backup either manually or as a task, to VALIDATE the backup after it is
completed. It adds considerable time to the whole process but it is worth
it. Backups can SAY they run properly in ANY backup program and for unknown
reasons, it isn't always true. The VALIDATE option always picks up a backup
that stuffed up so you can do it again.
 
John said:
Did you image just the partition or the whole disk?
Click to expand...

One of each.

For the first time I used it...it was just one partition.


The next time (on another machine) the entire HD (which had two partitions)

worked just fine both times
 
John said:
I need to disk image my xp pro so I can restore easy in case
of a crash. I have two questions;

1. My xp pro drive has two partitions and WINDOWS folder
is in the first partition. Would disk imaging the first partition do
or do I need to do the whole disk to ensure MBR images as well?

2. What is a good disk imaging software? I was considering
Acornis True Image Workstation.
Click to expand...


It depends on which cloning utility you use. Acronis True
Image clones the entire hard drive. Ghost and Casper can
clone a single partition or several partitions and put them
on the destination HD even if there are already several
partitions already there. Casper, as I recall assumes you
want to copy the MBR to the destination HD, and Ghost
will give you the option of copying the MBR or not. True
Image is a highly-rated archiving utility, and so are Ghost
and Casper, et. al. But for cloning individual partitions,
True Image can't do it.

BTW, the major HD manufacturers make available
downloadable cloning utilities that will work with their
own HDs. These utilities are meant to be used by customers
who are upgrading their HDs to a larger size, so the utilities
will copy *all* the partitions onto the destination HD and
adjust the sizes of the partitions upwards proportionally to
fit the new HD. If you intend always to clone the entire HD,
this is a free alternative.

*TimDaniels*
 
Any program you care to name for whatever purpose will be "iffy" with dodgy
memory. You cant blame one program for that!!
 
Timothy Daniels said:
It depends on which cloning utility you use. Acronis True
Image clones the entire hard drive. Ghost and Casper can
Click to expand...

TI also allows you to backup single partitions or just folders.
 
Hmmm, True Image seems to clone individual partitions here.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Daniels" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: Disk imaging advise
 
Diamontina Cocktail said:
TI also allows you to backup single partitions or just folders.
Click to expand...


What do you mean by "backup"? True Image can make
*image files* of a partition - which must go through the
"restore" process before use. Because images are *files*,
they can undergo compression so they will take up less
space in the archive medium. What is being discussed is
*cloning* - the creation of byte-for-byte copies of the
original which also contain the boot files and usually the
MBR so that they can be directly booted. Clones are
handy to have if the original hard drive malfunctions.

*TimDaniels*
 
"Joe At Work" work:
Hmmm, True Image seems to clone individual partitions here.
Click to expand...


Do you mean "clone" (i.e. make a byte-for-byte copy, including
the boot files, and usually the MBR as well, onto a bootable device)
or "image" (i.e. a file, like any other file, that can be compressed,
which contains the contents of a partition, and which must be
"restored" from its archiving medium onto a bootable device)?

If you really mean "clone" and if you are correct, then the online
User Manual for True Image needs updating because it only
mentions cloning an entire hard drive.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
What do you mean by "backup"? True Image can make
*image files* of a partition - which must go through the
"restore" process before use. Because images are *files*,
Click to expand...

You obviously dont fully understand the program. As I said, it can backup
JUST files or JUST folders if you want.
 
Diamontina Cocktail said:
You obviously dont fully understand the program. As I said, it can backup JUST
files or JUST folders if you want.
Click to expand...


And you don't understand what a clone is and how True Image
does its cloning. I suggest you download the User's Guide from
http://us1.download.acronis.com/pdf/TrueImage10.0_ug.en.pdf
and read chapter 13. You will see that there is no provision for
cloning just a single partition and putting on another HD which
already has other partitions. True Image instead will copy *all*
the partitions from the source HD and put the copies on the
destination HD either as the same sizes they had on the source
HD or proportionately expanded to fill the destination HD.
Cloning is not a new feature of True Image, but file and folder
backups apparently are, but they are not bootable and therefore
are not "clones" of a bootable OS. Your confusion stems from
thinking that "clone" and "copy" mean the same thing.

*TimDaniels*
 
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