Drive Image/Backup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mick
  • Start date Start date
M

Mick

Hello All,

Got WinME and kids and I am sick of reformatting the HDD every time they
download a crappy piece of software/virus. Can someone point me in the
direction of some freeware that will allow me to backup C:\ to a CDROM so I only
have to use a boot disk and restore what has changed since last backup? I have
tried ARJ and Karens Replicator but they don't do what I want (ARJ loses LFN's
and Replicator only works if Windows is running - I need something to work under
DOS)

TIA
 
Hello All,

Got WinME and kids and I am sick of reformatting the HDD every time
they download a crappy piece of software/virus. Can someone point me
in the direction of some freeware that will allow me to backup C:\ to
a CDROM so I only have to use a boot disk and restore what has changed
since last backup? I have tried ARJ and Karens Replicator but they
don't do what I want (ARJ loses LFN's and Replicator only works if
Windows is running - I need something to work under DOS)

TIA
Click to expand...

http://perso.club-internet.fr/guiboure/en/index_frame.html
 
Got WinME and kids and I am sick of reformatting the HDD every time they
download a crappy piece of software/virus.
Click to expand...

Isn't that a bit drastic? I never reformat just for a virus, etc.,
rather I use "disinfectants." Better yet, I never get infected because
I have antivirus and use software that is not designed to get
infected.

You might want to sit down and teach your kids about surfing safely
too.
 
Hello (e-mail address removed),
You wrote on 01 Aug 2003 12:06:35 GMT:
Isn't that a bit drastic? I never reformat just for a virus, etc.,
rather I use "disinfectants." Better yet, I never get infected because
I have antivirus and use software that is not designed to get
infected.
Click to expand...

I make it a standard practice every 6 months or so. You wouldn't believe how
much faster things go after a reformat.
You might want to sit down and teach your kids about surfing safely
too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like they listen... ;-)
 
Hello Steve,
You wrote on Fri, 01 Aug 2003 15:09:13 +0100:
How about dual OSs?
Click to expand...
Using a boot manager such as XOSL ( www.xosl.org ) means you can set
the kids up with their very own OS, so any software they install will
only trash their setup. Couple it with a drive imaging utility and
you'll have the problem covered both ways.
Click to expand...
Works great with my home machine, plus it gives the kids a chance to
experiment with the computer and learn about what's a good idea and
what's not without too much risk.
Click to expand...

Thought about it, but bought cheap computers for the kids instead. Doesn't stop
the "Dad, my computer won't work" cries I hear every few months though ;-)

Currently looking at Diskman (http://diskman.no-ip.com/) which is free but
requires registration so the author can keep track of how many ppl are using it.
The only problem I have with all these disk cloning/imaging programs is that
they require large HDD's or dual HDD's to work. Having bought cheap computers,
I only got small HDD's :-(
 
Having bought cheap computers,
I only got small HDD's :-(
Click to expand...

Well, you might get good deals by scanning for new (or possibly even
refurbished) drives at Price Watch. It's where I go to get *my* price
quotes...the only downside is that it's mostly OEM stuff so do your
research first.

http://www.pricewatch.com/
 
On that special day, Steve H, ([email protected]) said...
Another trick is to pull a HD power cable and an IDE cable up into a
free slot ( tie a bit of string around them so you can pull them
forward out of the casing ) and simply plug the secondary drive in as
and when you need it.
Click to expand...

Please keep in mind that there are hard disks that need a different
jumper setting for "alone in the computer" and "slave hard disk
present". I fyou don't reset it properly after such an imaging, and
remove the slave disk, all things might happen.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)
 
On that special day, Steve H, ([email protected]) said...


Please keep in mind that there are hard disks that need a different
jumper setting for "alone in the computer" and "slave hard disk
present". I fyou don't reset it properly after such an imaging, and
remove the slave disk, all things might happen.
Click to expand...
I've found it sufficient to leave the secondary hard drive as a
master, though there's no harm in setting it to a slave.
Cable select can be problematical, I've found.

As long as it's connected either to the secondary IDE channel, or the
second connector on the primary channel it'll just appear as a
secondary master ( or slave, depending on the jumper setting ).
Might shove the CD-ROM down a letter or two, but this isn't an issue
when ghosting partitions.

Can't remember when I last came across a drive that was configured as
'stand alone', and meant it - at least, not one that affected drives
on the secondary IDE channel.

Regards,
 
On that special day, Steve H, ([email protected]) said...
Can't remember when I last came across a drive that was configured as
'stand alone', and meant it - at least, not one that affected drives
on the secondary IDE channel.
Click to expand...

If you do attach the "master image drive" at the secondary IDE, it of
course won't have any effect on IDE1. I had thought you meant it to be
connected to the latter one.

BTW: I would still attach it as "slave" on IDE2, and have the CDrom
working as master, because I don't know about any CDrom that
distinguishes between "the only drive at IDE cable" and "another drive
present", yet i think I made the experience that some old motherboards
would have trouble with "seeing" a slave drive on IDE2 without a master
present (I am thinking of some MMX chipset like TXpro. But I may be
wrong).

There were hard disks that need specific settings for "only drive" and
"slave present", like IBM OEM drives. Some Quantum were even weirder
when UltraIDE came out (with the new 80-chord-cables). Once I had to set
two identical 20GB Quantums as "cable select", because only so they were
recognized by the mainboard BIOS (was it an Apollo3 chipset?).

But that was the only case I ever saw or heard of.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)
 
Hello Steve,
You wrote on Sat, 02 Aug 2003 13:40:11 +0100:
How large are the drives?
Essentially all you need is enough space ( on a separate partition )
to take an image file of the OS partition ( more of you want to image
the installed apps too ).
My OS partition is 1Gb, of which 675Mb is used - this compresses down
to an image file less than 400Mb using medium ( i.e. fast )
compression.
Click to expand...

Managed to get a Windows ME install (Internet Router) down to 270MB. Kids
computers are larger installs though.
Another option is to use hard drives in caddies. The caddies can be
found on ebay for less than a tenner each - sometimes cheaper if you
find a set of three or four. Couple these with one reasonably large
hard drive ( say 5 or 6 Gb ) and you can keep images of all the
computers in one place. You'd only need to plug the drive in when a
system needed refreshing.
Another trick is to pull a HD power cable and an IDE cable up into a
free slot ( tie a bit of string around them so you can pull them
forward out of the casing ) and simply plug the secondary drive in as
and when you need it. Not as neat as using caddies, but certainly a
'freeware' solution.
Click to expand...
If all computers are USB enabled, you might consider a USB drive case.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestions Steve.

They are not USB'd but I do have access to a 1.6GB SCSI HDD via the parallel
port and to a CDR via a network. Decided on using Karens Replicator to backup
to the CDR as well as Diskman4 to backup LFN's. This way all I need to do (from
DOS) is to drop in the CD and use a boot disk to run Diskman4 to copy files from
CD to C: and then restore LFN's.
 
Hello John,
You wrote on Tue, 05 Aug 2003 11:22:27 +1000:
Probably not. Though I am not an XXCopy expert. Why were you wanting
something to work under DOS ? Unless your system is totally trashed
your WinME system should still be usable and you could restore from
your backup in a DOS box. In the process deleting any trojans/virus's
and restoring deleted files.
Click to expand...

Because with Window running, you have the problem of open files etc., not being
copied/updated correctly. I take a snapshot of the HDD in Windows, but I need
to restore that snapshot in DOS for that reason. I should point out that I am
basically lazy and also wanted something that only required me putting in a CD
and a floppy, pressing the reset button and walking away :-).
Restoring your full drive with XXCopy does NOT take long. Because
only the "different/new" files are copied across. 90% + files should
still be fine. If that isn't the case then you need to very seriously
look at your/your childrens virus program and/or download habits.
Click to expand...

True and I wish it were that easy, but with all the
spyware/viruses/trojans/browser hijackers out there today that can fool and
bypass incremental updates/restorations, that's just too simplistic. I want to
restart from a known safe point and as time progresses, update that safe point
when I am satisfied to do so. So far I like the idea of using Karen's
Replicator (very fast) to create a HDD backup which is then burnt to CD and then
use Diskman4 for the restoration of LFN's after the CD has been copied back onto
the HDD.
 
Hi Mick,
You wrote on Tue, 05 Aug 2003 11:22:27 +1000:
Click to expand...

< snip >

"You wrote" ? This doesn't tell anyone who "You" is. There are also a
number of "Johns" in this newsgroup.

Have you changed your OE attribution settings ? Or done an email reply
and pasted into a usenet post ?

This is how most people here would have started the reply to my post :

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 11:22:27 +1000, John Fitzsimons

Even OE users.

You might like to check that out. If people miss that you are replying
to *their* post then chances are you might miss out on any additional
help from them that they thought of "later".

Regards, John.
 
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