Hard Drive cloning with XCOPY

  • Thread starter Thread starter William B. Lurie
  • Start date Start date
I am seeking a method of obtaining a runnable copy of
my hard drive. Starting with a reinstalled XP defeats
that purpose. It loses my old work. "Install time system"
is a term unfamiliar to me.
 
*Vanguard* said:
William B. Lurie said in


Could you reference the other thread (since you disconnected from it with this post) where I said to use XCOPY? A search in OE didn't show me saying to use XCOPY but then I don't keep messages over 10 days old yet I did a search in Google Groups and didn't find an applicable post there, either. No copy operation will work when ran under the OS that is running and runs the copy command (unless it uses the shadowing that Microsoft's Backup, a crippled version of Diskeeper, uses).
Click to expand...
Vang, here's the etxt of the message, which I saved.
I don't have the original, and I thought it was your
suggestion. If not, I apologize for suggesting that
your procedure didn't play. As you've seen, I've gotten
advice from at least 10 people, some MVPs, some in
direct conflict with each other. The last set said
"Go back and do Drive Image again and do it right",
more or less. Okay, that's my next step. Or whatever you
suggest. Advice that implies that I should start with a newly
installed XP and lose a year's work, I'd prefer not to hear.
WBL
 
*Vanguard* said:
William B. Lurie said in


Could you reference the other thread (since you disconnected from it
Click to expand...

with this post) where I said to use XCOPY?

A search in OE didn't show me saying to use XCOPY but then I don't

keep messages over 10 days old yet I did a search in Google

Groups and didn't find an applicable post there, either.

No copy operation will work when ran under the OS that is

running and runs the copy command (unless it uses the shadowing

that Microsoft's Backup, a crippled version of Diskeeper, uses).

That certainly makes sense to me, yet you've seen posts like the
one I spliced in, saying it does work. But of course, I'll
believe it when I see it.
William B. Lurie
 
» mrtee « said:
Please try TrueImage from www.acronis.com. It works. Create an image on a 2nd HDD and restore it to a 3rd.

I create the image by booting from the TI CD and click Create Image or the image can be reated while running Windows (your choice).
Click to expand...
Mr. Tee:

I went to that site.
I found this statement there:

It is not possible to restore images of a system partition;

But that's exactly what I want to do......
I want to make an exact, runnable, copy of the one
partition on my Master Hard Drive. Please be more
specific on which trial I should download, and what it will
accomplish.
Thank you.
 
Richard said:
Apologies for the extra post. I hit the send button by mistake when I was
going through Bill's reply.

Bill, in all your comments you refer to cloning and copying and making exact
bootable copies and all the ways you have tried have, apart from one
exception which I vaguely remember, ended in failure. Why will you not put
the past behind and use Drive IMAGE in the way that it was designed to
perform. Make images and restore when necessary, as bootable " clones". It
works day in day out for myself and many thousands of others.

to sum up, in a no insult intended manner, RTFM.

Richard.
Click to expand...
Richard, I have Drive Image 7.0 ....bought and paid for.
It has two applicable modes. One makes a copy, the other
makes an image. You have DI too. Please be explicit as to
what you do that works, and I'll try to follow it. I
feel I've tried all their possibilities, and I have yet
to succeed.
WBL
 
That " It is not possible to restore images of a system partition;" is for the FREE TRIAL. I presume that no one would buy the program if all functionality were included in a trial.

Buy the program $49.99.

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| Mr. Tee:
|
| I went to that site.
| I found this statement there:
|
| It is not possible to restore images of a system partition;
|
| But that's exactly what I want to do......
| I want to make an exact, runnable, copy of the one
| partition on my Master Hard Drive. Please be more
| specific on which trial I should download, and what it will
| accomplish.
| Thank you.
|
| --
| William B. Lurie
 
Andrew E said:
Richard is dead wrong,you can copy xp in its entiretee.
If a file or folder is missing,boot to xp cd,install xp,select,repair
this copy of xp.Also,in the DOS window did you get prompts from
time to time,if no,youre spaceing of the XCOPY text was off.
Click to expand...

XCOPY should not be used to copy entire drives. Period.

It can cause serious file name corruption with the short (8+3)
versions of the file names for files that use long file names. These
short names are not actually copied - only the long name is. The
short name is then recalculated after the copy.

See http://onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips#newdisk for a simple exercise that
you can do to demonstrate how the short file names can be changed by
XCOPY. And use REGEDIT and search the registry for references to
Micros~1 or Progra~1 to see just how often these short versions of
file names are actually used.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
» mrtee « said in news:[email protected]:
That " It is not possible to restore images of a system partition;"
is for the FREE TRIAL. I presume that no one would buy the program
if all functionality were included in a trial.

Buy the program $49.99.
Click to expand...

A trial version that you cannot trial its FULL functionality is a worthless trial. It's not a trial version. It's a crippled version, so crippled to be worthless to verify that it actually works in YOUR environment on YOUR platform. The trial has a 15-day limit. Apparently they didn't bother to actually code to check the 15 days were up. Or maybe they fear users are going to keep setting their clocks back to get past the 15-day trial period, so use a hashed registry data value that tracks the number of uses of the trial and limit the number of uses to, say, 10 or 15. Potential customers must take it on faith that restores will work? Oh, that's a good trial. NOT!

With the choice between a crippled trial version and another product that doesn't mention it is crippled (although it could be), maybe you might want to check out the imaging software at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/. It's half the cost of Acronis TrueImage. I haven't used it so I don't how its features compare against, say, DriveImage, but other users have remarked that it works well. They have their own news server at terabyteunlimited.com (port 1198 instead of 119) where you might query users if they have used DriveImage and/or TrueImage, too, to see what they say regarding a comparison between them. I didn't see a link at acronis.com for forums or news servers that would engender a user community to share woes and help.
 
It will copy all files in their entirety if one uses XCOPY in the Recovery Console, there, the "files in use" don't apply, but it may not copy over the bootlaoders properly, then one needs to fix that, like a pro for example. You think too narrowly, and not out of the box.

But, for what (and the time he is spending making an image using some the cheapest or free programs out there) he is trying to do, he has wasted more than enough time just making another installation, copy over the needed files, and install the needed apps, and use that when needed by setting it to active status. He then can go back and forth.

Hell, my second HDD installation software can do what he needs, and most of them do anyway. Best for him to get BootItNG and try that for a while, it is cheaper, easier to setup and use, does what he wants, and if he doesn't like it, he can remove it at no charge.
 
XCopy doesn't work in the RC.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
'Not happy John! Defending our democracy',
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/29/1088392635123.html

It will copy all files in their entirety if one uses XCOPY in the Recovery Console, there, the "files in use" don't apply, but it may not copy over the bootlaoders properly, then one needs to fix that, like a pro for example. You think too narrowly, and not out of the box.

But, for what (and the time he is spending making an image using some the cheapest or free programs out there) he is trying to do, he has wasted more than enough time just making another installation, copy over the needed files, and install the needed apps, and use that when needed by setting it to active status. He then can go back and forth.

Hell, my second HDD installation software can do what he needs, and most of them do anyway. Best for him to get BootItNG and try that for a while, it is cheaper, easier to setup and use, does what he wants, and if he doesn't like it, he can remove it at no charge.
 
I am corrected, it is simply "copy", and can copy files and folder as needed. But it isn't used in making a bootable drive, etc. I keep forgetting that Xcopy is bootdisk, or cmd option


XCopy doesn't work in the RC.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
'Not happy John! Defending our democracy',
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/29/1088392635123.html

It will copy all files in their entirety if one uses XCOPY in the Recovery Console, there, the "files in use" don't apply, but it may not copy over the bootlaoders properly, then one needs to fix that, like a pro for example. You think too narrowly, and not out of the box.

But, for what (and the time he is spending making an image using some the cheapest or free programs out there) he is trying to do, he has wasted more than enough time just making another installation, copy over the needed files, and install the needed apps, and use that when needed by setting it to active status. He then can go back and forth.

Hell, my second HDD installation software can do what he needs, and most of them do anyway. Best for him to get BootItNG and try that for a while, it is cheaper, easier to setup and use, does what he wants, and if he doesn't like it, he can remove it at no charge.
 
William B. Lurie said:
It didn't work when I tried it that way, both in Copy and Drive Image mode.
I will, however, talk to you aside and try it again, maybe
this evening.
Click to expand...

Bill I notice that you have sent me some emails . I have deleted them
unread.

If I feel that I have something to contribute I will do it here on this News
Group.

Richard.
 
(-:

That's because I told him I would help him!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Richard said:
Bill I notice that you have sent me some emails . I have deleted them
unread.

If I feel that I have something to contribute I will do it here on this News
Group.

Richard.
Click to expand...
As you wish, Richard. I find one-on-one easier to track than
a newsgroup with hundreds of postings a day, and sometimes hard
to track. Chacun a son gout.
Bill
 
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