Imaging C: with an External HD >>>>3 Questions<<<<

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rocky 2
  • Start date Start date
R

Rocky 2

I know I asked this before, but stated it the wrong way I guess. CAN I
do a complete backup of C: to an External HD, with the intent of just
using it for reinstalling my C: drive, NOT for trying to install another
OS. OR isn't that possible, because the External can't be booted, to
reinstall the C: Drive. I bought this 80 gig external, and now it just
sits here, a big waste of $$$$. I guess I'm just disgusted with Circuit
City for saying it could be done. >>>If not, can I just back up my docs.
and other things on the pc like some downloaded programs etc. to the
External HD, and just reinstall them, and then reinstall my OS from my
Dell CD, in case of a crash, at least I'd have that info. ona CD. ALSO
is there a way to put critical updates on a CD?.>>>
My Apologies for reposting some of these questions.
TIA
 
it can be done. It depends on the software you use.

You can use items like Powerquest Drive Image, Acronis True Image There are
probably others too that will support an external harddrive using USN or
firewire.
 
I know I asked this before, but stated it the wrong way I guess. CAN I
do a complete backup of C: to an External HD, with the intent of just
using it for reinstalling my C: drive, NOT for trying to install another
OS. OR isn't that possible, because the External can't be booted, to
reinstall the C: Drive. I bought this 80 gig external, and now it just
sits here, a big waste of $$$$. I guess I'm just disgusted with Circuit
City for saying it could be done. >>>If not, can I just back up my docs.
and other things on the pc like some downloaded programs etc. to the
External HD, and just reinstall them, and then reinstall my OS from my
Dell CD, in case of a crash, at least I'd have that info. ona CD. ALSO
is there a way to put critical updates on a CD?.>>>
My Apologies for reposting some of these questions.
TIA
Click to expand...


There is no problem and the people at CC were correct in that it can
be done. I just did the exact same thing, except in my case I bought
an internal 80 gig drive as a slave. It's non bootable also.
You need software to do it. I used both Drive Image 7 and Norton
Ghost. Norton Ghost is much faster on my old system (P-III 600 Mhz) by
a factor 3, so I prefer that.
Norton Ghost will do either a complete backup of your C drive to that
disk or will create a clone of your partitions either disk to disk or
partition to partition.
I use the backup about once a week, it takes only about 45 minutes on
my system (about 12 gig)
Norton Ghost will let you create a disaster recovery disk to boot into
incase you C drive fails and/or had to be replaced. In case you don't
have one you can boot from the ghost CD itself or from the winXP CD if
you have to go that route. Ghost runs in PC DOS and will let you
recreate your entire system to your C drive.
Drive Imgae 7 does the same thing but it runs in Windows and takes
about 3 hours to create an image on my system.

Both will also let you restore selective files from their image in
case you only want to recover some accidentally lost data.

It's a great thing to do, and your external hard drive is just ideal
for it.

Your external drive doesn't have to be bootable for your purpose. It's
only needed to store the image or ghost files. You can even burn the
images to a set of CD's from there. Drive image 7 will even create
bootable CD's for you if you so choose. I haven't tried that with
Ghost yet.

In a nutshell, your drive is perfect for what you want to do but you
will need 3d party software to do it. I suggest Norton Ghost or Drive
Image 7, which I believe is now also licensed by Symantec.

Hope that helps

==VernMan==
 
I know I asked this before, but stated it the wrong way I guess. CAN I
do a complete backup of C: to an External HD, with the intent of just
using it for reinstalling my C: drive, NOT for trying to install another
OS. OR isn't that possible, because the External can't be booted, to
reinstall the C: Drive. I bought this 80 gig external, and now it just
sits here, a big waste of $$$$. I guess I'm just disgusted with Circuit
City for saying it could be done. >>>If not, can I just back up my docs.
and other things on the pc like some downloaded programs etc. to the
External HD, and just reinstall them, and then reinstall my OS from my
Dell CD, in case of a crash, at least I'd have that info. ona CD. ALSO
is there a way to put critical updates on a CD?.>>>
My Apologies for reposting some of these questions.
TIA
Click to expand...


There is no problem and the people at CC were correct in that it can
be done. I just did the exact same thing, except in my case I bought
an internal 80 gig drive as a slave. It's non bootable also.
You need software to do it. I used both Drive Image 7 and Norton
Ghost. Norton Ghost is much faster on my old system (P-III 600 Mhz) by
a factor 3, so I prefer that.
Norton Ghost will do either a complete backup of your C drive to that
disk or will create a clone of your partitions either disk to disk or
partition to partition.
I use the backup about once a week, it takes only about 45 minutes on
my system (about 12 gig)
Norton Ghost will let you create a disaster recovery disk to boot into
incase you C drive fails and/or had to be replaced. In case you don't
have one you can boot from the ghost CD itself or from the winXP CD if
you have to go that route. Ghost runs in PC DOS and will let you
recreate your entire system to your C drive.
Drive Imgae 7 does the same thing but it runs in Windows and takes
about 3 hours to create an image on my system.

Both will also let you restore selective files from their image in
case you only want to recover some accidentally lost data.

It's a great thing to do, and your external hard drive is just ideal
for it.

Your external drive doesn't have to be bootable for your purpose. It's
only needed to store the image or ghost files. You can even burn the
images to a set of CD's from there. Drive image 7 will even create
bootable CD's for you if you so choose. I haven't tried that with
Ghost yet.

In a nutshell, your drive is perfect for what you want to do but you
will need 3d party software to do it. I suggest Norton Ghost or Drive
Image 7, which I believe is now also licensed by Symantec.

Hope that helps

==VernMan==
 
My experience is slightly different. I find drive image to be the fastest.
That is assuming you use winXP with .net version. It will create the image
from windows. Takes me about 10 minutes to back up a 32G partition with
approximately 9G of data.

I have also tried Ghost, True Image and BootitNG images and they are all
slower.

Now, if you use the version of Drive image prior to .net and you end up
rebooting in order to image the system partition , then it is quite slow. In
this case it would take between 40-50 minutes to back up the same partition.
 
My experience is slightly different. I find drive image to be the fastest.
That is assuming you use winXP with .net version. It will create the image
from windows. Takes me about 10 minutes to back up a 32G partition with
approximately 9G of data.

I have also tried Ghost, True Image and BootitNG images and they are all
slower.

Now, if you use the version of Drive image prior to .net and you end up
rebooting in order to image the system partition , then it is quite slow. In
this case it would take between 40-50 minutes to back up the same partition.
Click to expand...


I use XP home with Powerquest Drive Image 7 version 2.0.0.305
Bought it last year I think, before they went to Symantec.
P-III 600 Mhz 512 MB ram
Never heard of the .net version, so now you got me intrigued. I love
the program but it takes several hours to image a 30 gig partition
with 12 gig data. I tought it was my slow PC and because it ran in
windows instead in PC Dos like Ghost.
Is the .net version an upgrade for licenced customers? The fact that
you may have a newer and faster PC still doesn't explain why you have
the exact opposite experience with Ghost vs. DI 7. In my case it only
takes about 45 minutes in Ghost and close to 3 hours in DI 7, which is
fine (I run it unattended while I watch a movie) but still...
I'd like to give that .net a shot, if I can get it still that is
Thanks for the info!

==VernMan==
 
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