Software to backup the operating system on drive C

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian
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Brian

I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that
will write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on
drive C then restore the system when I put the new drive into my
computer,
I'm considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the
operating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't have an
operating system to use).

Hoping for a reply

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that
will write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on
drive C then restore the system when I put the new drive into my
computer,
I'm considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the
operating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't
have an operating system to use).
Click to expand...

Is your machine a desktop or laptop or handheld or what?

*TimDaniels*
 
Brian said:
I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that will
write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on drive C
then restore the system when I put the new drive into my computer, I'm
considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the ope-
rating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't have an
operating system to use).
Click to expand...

What would the point of making backups be if there is no way of restoring them?
 
Brian said:
I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that
will write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on
drive C then restore the system when I put the new drive into my
computer,
I'm considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the
operating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't have an
operating system to use).
Click to expand...

The help system for DI7 says that if you can't boot to windows (eg because
your HD is blank) you use the PowerQuest Recovery Environment (PQRE)
instead..

Quote: "Restore the entire drive using the System Restore Wizard from the
PowerQuest Recovery Environment (PQRE) on the bootable PowerQuest CD"

There is a whole section with step by step notes but the formatting is lost
when I paste it below.

Send me an email (Remove BOX to get my real address) and I'll send you the
instructions with formatting.

Whatever you decide to do - Always remove the old drive that contains your
data before you attempts the restore - It's too easy to overwrite it or
reformat it by mistake if you leave it in the system. Also WinXP can get
well confused if it's booted with two identical drives installed.

Colin

Restoring a Single Drive Using the PQRE
============================

If you cannot restore a file or folder while the machine is online (because
you cannot boot into the operating system or because of a lack of free hard
drive space), you can use the System Restore wizard from the PowerQuest
Recovery Environment (PQRE) to return a drive on the machine to full
functionality.

You can also use the PQRE to perform a bare metal recovery of a machine if
you have suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure.

Under the PQRE, you can restore a single drive, multiple drives, or multiple
drives using a system index file (.sV2i).

IMPORTANT! The PQRE requires a minimum of 256 MB of RAM to run.
Insert the PowerQuest CD into the media drive of the machine.
Immediately reboot the machine.

You may need to modify your system to make it bootable from the CD. See I
can't boot from the CD..
(Optional) If necessary, you can install special RAID or SCSI drivers for
the machine's hard disk subsystem by pressing <F6> when prompted during the
boot into PQRE.

See I can't access the local drive where my backups are saved.
Watch the computer screen. When the prompt "Press any key to boot from CD"
appears, you have approximately five seconds to press a key to begin booting
into the PQRE from the CD.
(Optional) From the Time Zone drop-down list of the PQRE main window, select
the time zone location you are in relative to the location of the backup
image store.
(Optional) Select the language in which you want the System Restore wizard
and Backup Image Browser to display.
Click System Restore.
IMPORTANT! Drive letters under the PQRE may not match those in the Windows
environment.
Click Restore drives, then click Next.
Click Single drive, then click Next.
Specify the location of the backup image file to restore, or click Browse
and navigate to the backup image file you want.
If you click Browse and cannot see or browse the network from the Open
dialog, type the name of the machine and share that holds your backup
images, in the File name text box (example: \\machine_name\share_name\),
then press <Enter>. Select a backup image file, then click Open to add it to
the text field.
If you are still unable to see your network after typing the machine name
and share name, you may need to map a drive to see and browse the network.
See Network Connectivity During a Restore from the PQRE for more
information.
If the backup image was assigned a password, you must enter it now.
Click Next.
Select the drive where you want to restore the backup image file.
Note that some of the drives listed may be invalid selections because there
is not enough free space for the restored backup image file or because you
do not have rights to the drive.
(Optional) To free disk space, select a drive, then click Delete Drive. This
will free space if a single drive space on the hard drive is not adequate.
IMPORTANT! When you click Delete Drive, the drive is only virtually deleted
at that point; the actual deletion of the drive takes place after you click
Finish in the wizard. If you change your mind before clicking Finish, go
back to the Restore Destination dialog and click Undo Delete to "restore"
the drive.
Click Next.
Select or deselect the restore options you want.
The options available will depend on the restore location you selected in
the previous step.
Restore options Description
Verify backup image before restore This option is useful if you want to
determine whether a backup image file is valid or corrupt prior to the start
of a restoration. The backup image is checked to see that the internal data
structures in the backup image file match the data that is available, and
the backup image file can be uncompressed (if you selected a compression
level at the time of creation) and create the expected amount of data. If
the backup image is invalid, the restoration will not continue.
This option is selected by default.
Check for file system errors after restore Enable error checking. The hard
drive is checked for errors after the backup image file has been restored.
Resize drive to fill unallocated space Expand the drive that is being
restored to occupy the destination drive's remaining free space.

Advanced Restore Options Description
Set drive active (for booting OS) Use Set drive active to make the restored
drive the active partition (the drive the machine boots from). Only one
drive can be active at a time. To boot the machine, it must be on the first
drive, and it must contain an operating system. When the machine boots, it
reads the partition table of the first drive to find out which drive is
active and boots from that location. If the drive is not bootable or you are
not certain that it is, have a boot disk ready.
Set drive active is valid for basic disks only (not dynamic disks).
Partition type Click Primary partition to restore as a primary partition.
Click Logical partition to restore as a logical partition inside an extended
partition. (This option is not applicable for dynamic disks.)
Restore original disk signature Restores the original physical disk
signature of the hard drive.
Disk signatures are included in Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Advanced
Server, and Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition (SP3 and later) and are
necessary before the hard drive can be used.
This option is recommended for advanced users.
Restore MBR Restore the master boot record. The master boot record is
contained in the first sector of the first physical hard drive. The MBR
consists of a master boot program and a partition table that describes the
disk partitions. The master boot program looks at the partition table to see
which primary partition is active. It then starts the boot program from the
boot sector of the active partition.
This option is recommended for advanced users.

Click Next.
(Optional) Select Reboot after finish if you want the machine to reboot
automatically after the backup images are restored.
Click Finish > Yes to restore the backup image.
 
I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that
will write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on
drive C then restore the system when I put the new drive into my
computer,
I'm considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the
operating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't have an
operating system to use).
Click to expand...

True Image 8 (www.acronis.com) has a Linux-based bootable rescue disc
(floppy or CD) that supports a pretty wide range of hardware, but
you'd want to test it with your system. You'd also want to do an
integrity test after the backup but before attempting the restore. It
will write to DVDs - check the faq at their site.

If you can buy or borrow an external HD, this is much faster than CD
or DVD. Personally, I make 2 separate backups before wiping out my
main drive; one on HD, and one on DVD, but some consider me overly
cautious.
 
CWatters said:
[....................]
WinXP can get well confused if it's booted with two
identical drives installed.
Click to expand...


That only happens when the drive with the newly
copied WinXP is booted for the 1st time. If the
old WinXP is visible then, the new WinXP will point
back to some files in the original WinXP. By having
the old WinXP invisible during that 1st boot up, the
confusion is avoided. Thereafter, the new WinXP
can see the old WinXP at boot time, and it won't
"get confused". Curiously, the new WinXP can see
*other* WinXPs besides the copied one during its
1st boot up, and it won't be confused by *them*.
There seems to be some feature within itself that
it looks for in recognizing its "identical twin" that
gets changed after the 1st boot up.

*TimDaniels*
 
CWatters said:
The help system for DI7 says that if you can't boot to windows (eg because
your HD is blank) you use the PowerQuest Recovery Environment (PQRE)
instead..

Quote: "Restore the entire drive using the System Restore Wizard from the
PowerQuest Recovery Environment (PQRE) on the bootable PowerQuest CD"

There is a whole section with step by step notes but the formatting is lost
when I paste it below.

Send me an email (Remove BOX to get my real address) and I'll send you the
instructions with formatting.

Whatever you decide to do - Always remove the old drive that contains your
data before you attempts the restore - It's too easy to overwrite it or
reformat it by mistake if you leave it in the system.
Click to expand...
Also WinXP can get
well confused if it's booted with two identical drives installed.
Click to expand...

Not only WinXP.
Colin

Restoring a Single Drive Using the PQRE
============================

If you cannot restore a file or folder while the machine is online (because
you cannot boot into the operating system or because of a lack of free hard
drive space), you can use the System Restore wizard from the PowerQuest
Recovery Environment (PQRE) to return a drive on the machine to full
functionality.

You can also use the PQRE to perform a bare metal recovery of a machine if
you have suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure.

Under the PQRE, you can restore a single drive, multiple drives, or multiple
drives using a system index file (.sV2i).
Click to expand...
IMPORTANT! The PQRE requires a minimum of 256 MB of RAM to run.
Click to expand...

Bloody hell! Does it show that on the box before they sell it?
Does it say that before you break the seal and agree with their terms
for giving it back?
Does the software warn before you make a backup that you may not be
able to restore when your memory is less than 256MB?

Geez, speaking of bloatware.

[snip]
 
Brian said:
I need to replace a faulty drive and are looking for a program that
will write an image to DVD's so I can backup my operating system on
drive C then restore the system when I put the new drive into my
computer,
I'm considering "Drive Image" but I don't know if you can restore the
operating system from DVD's when booting up in DOS (as I won't have an
operating system to use).

Hoping for a reply

Regards Brian
Click to expand...

Thanks for your replies.
I'm told that I should be able to use a imaging program like Drive
Image and plug in my new hard drive as a second hard drive then copy
from the old hard drive to the new hard drive using drive image and
this will create the partitions etc on the new drive.
Will this work?
Do I need to partition the new drive first as one partition?

The old drive is partitioned in to 6 parts.
I'm using a desktop computer

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
I'm told that I should be able to use a imaging program
like Drive Image and plug in my new hard drive as a
second hard drive then copy from the old hard drive to
the new hard drive using drive image and this will create
the partitions etc on the new drive.
Will this work?
Do I need to partition the new drive first as one partition?

The old drive is partitioned in to 6 parts.
I'm using a desktop computer
Click to expand...


Great. Desktops are easy, and cloning a HD onto
another HD is standard fare for Drive Image. I use
Drive Image 7.01 (which now forms the bulk of
Symantec's Ghost 9.0 due to the buyout of Power
Quest), and it will copy - file formatting and all -
everything in one partition to another HD without
having to create the partition yourself on the
destination HD. I'm not an expert on the Master
Boot Record, but I would recommend that you
tell Drive Image to copy over the MBR when you
copy the 1st partition. You can use WinXP's
Disk Management to keep track of the disk space
on the 2nd HD (rt-click My Computer, select Manage,
then select Disk Management.).

If the original HD is jumpered as Master (or at the
end position on a dual IDE cable if you're using
Cable Select), jumper the 2nd HD as Slave (or put
it in the cable's mid position for Cable Select). This
is only so that you don't have to readjust the BIOS'
boot sequence. (Drive Image doesn't care or even
know if you're copying Master-to-Slave or Slave-to-
Master.) The only caution that should be added is
that you have the 2nd HD isolated from the 1st HD
when booting up the 2nd HD for the 1st time. (That
was 1st mentioned in this forum by Rod Speed/
Folkert Rienstra/etc.) You can just disconnect the
1st HD's IDE cable to do that. Thereafter, you can
have both HDs visible to each other during boot-up,
and the booted system will just see the other HD as
a file structure. Again, you can see the layout of the
partitions and how they are named by using Disk
Management. If you're comfortable with using the
BIOS to set parameters, you can select which HD
boots by just adjusting the boot sequence in the BIOS.
Otherwise, you can adjust the boot.ini file at C:\boot.ini
on each HD so you use WinXP's boot manager to
select which partition on which HD to load the OS from
if both HDs are running at the same time. If you run
just one HD at a time, you're in the vanilla of vanilla
worlds, and you should have no trouble.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
Great. Desktops are easy, and cloning a HD onto
another HD is standard fare for Drive Image. I use
Drive Image 7.01 (which now forms the bulk of
Symantec's Ghost 9.0 due to the buyout of Power
Quest), and it will copy - file formatting and all -
everything in one partition to another HD without
having to create the partition yourself on the
destination HD. I'm not an expert on the Master
Boot Record, but I would recommend that you
tell Drive Image to copy over the MBR when you
copy the 1st partition. You can use WinXP's
Disk Management to keep track of the disk space
on the 2nd HD (rt-click My Computer, select Manage,
then select Disk Management.).

If the original HD is jumpered as Master (or at the
end position on a dual IDE cable if you're using
Cable Select), jumper the 2nd HD as Slave (or put
it in the cable's mid position for Cable Select). This
is only so that you don't have to readjust the BIOS'
boot sequence. (Drive Image doesn't care or even
know if you're copying Master-to-Slave or Slave-to-
Master.) The only caution that should be added is
that you have the 2nd HD isolated from the 1st HD
when booting up the 2nd HD for the 1st time. (That
was 1st mentioned in this forum by Rod Speed/
Folkert Rienstra/etc.) You can just disconnect the
1st HD's IDE cable to do that. Thereafter, you can
have both HDs visible to each other during boot-up,
and the booted system will just see the other HD as
a file structure. Again, you can see the layout of the
partitions and how they are named by using Disk
Management. If you're comfortable with using the
BIOS to set parameters, you can select which HD
boots by just adjusting the boot sequence in the BIOS.
Otherwise, you can adjust the boot.ini file at C:\boot.ini
on each HD so you use WinXP's boot manager to
select which partition on which HD to load the OS from
if both HDs are running at the same time. If you run
just one HD at a time, you're in the vanilla of vanilla
worlds, and you should have no trouble.

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information Timothy.
My drive is divided into partitions of C,D,E,F,G,H
I select the Copy drive image and Drive Image wants me to select a
partition rather than copy the while 60 gig drive to the new drive.
What am I doing wrong as I want to copy the whole hard drive and not
just a single partition of the hard drive?

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
My drive is divided into partitions of C,D,E,F,G,H
I select the Copy drive image and Drive Image
wants me to select a partition rather than copy the
while 60 gig drive to the new drive. What am I
doing wrong as I want to copy the whole hard drive
and not just a single partition of the hard drive?
Click to expand...


I have never had to copy a hard drive that had
more than one partition, and I as far as I know,
Drive Image should be named Partition Image.
Are you saying that you are unable to designate
individual source partitions specifically? As for
the destination hard drive, Drive Image just adds
another partition to the ones which may already
be there.

*TimDaniels*
the partitio
 
Timothy Daniels said:
I have never had to copy a hard drive that had
more than one partition, and I as far as I know,
Drive Image should be named Partition Image.
Are you saying that you are unable to designate
individual source partitions specifically? As for
the destination hard drive, Drive Image just adds
another partition to the ones which may already
be there.

*TimDaniels*
the partitio
Click to expand...

Hi Timothy.
Thanks for replying.
What I'd like to do is to completely copy my old hard drive (including
all the partitions to my new hard drive.
May be to do this I need to copy each partition starting with drive C
and I hope that Drive Image creates the partition on the new hard
drive each time.
I was hoping to tell drive image something like "Here is my old drive,
copy everything including all the partitions to my new drive and
re-create the partitions on my new drive".

Regards Brian
 
Did you ever hear about Ghost?

Brian said:
Hi Timothy.
Thanks for replying.
What I'd like to do is to completely copy my old hard drive (including
all the partitions to my new hard drive.
May be to do this I need to copy each partition starting with drive C
and I hope that Drive Image creates the partition on the new hard
drive each time.
I was hoping to tell drive image something like "Here is my old drive,
copy everything including all the partitions to my new drive and
re-create the partitions on my new drive".

Regards Brian
Click to expand...
 
I'm told that I should be able to use a imaging program like Drive
Image and plug in my new hard drive as a second hard drive then copy
from the old hard drive to the new hard drive using drive image and
this will create the partitions etc on the new drive.
Will this work?
Click to expand...

I believe so. Just be really carefull. I've seen a few posts from people who
have either formatted the wrong drive first or who have restored a backup to
the wrong drive. It's prossibly risky to assume that drive/partion letters
are the same under PQRE (or any other backup program) as they are under
Windows. I saw a magazine article that recommended making all partions a
slightly different size as a double check (eg instead of 4 x 20G partions
set it up as 18,19,20 and a 21 G partion).
 
Brian said:
Timothy Daniels said:
I have never had to copy a hard drive that had
more than one partition, and I as far as I know,
Drive Image should be named Partition Image.
Are you saying that you are unable to designate
individual source partitions specifically? As for
the destination hard drive, Drive Image just adds
another partition to the ones which may already
be there.
Click to expand...

[...]
What I'd like to do is to completely copy my old hard
drive (including all the partitions to my new hard drive.
May be to do this I need to copy each partition starting
with drive C and I hope that Drive Image creates the
partition on the new hard drive each time.
I was hoping to tell drive image something like "Here is
my old drive, copy everything including all the partitions
to my new drive and re-create the partitions on my
new drive".
Click to expand...


If it's Drive Image you're using, I think it will have to be
partition by partition. But it doesn't take any calculations
or planning. Just do 'em sequentially, and they'll end up
on the 2nd HD in the same order as on the 1st HD.
Just remember to tell Drive Image to copy the MBR
when it copys one of the partitions. If you haven't yet
bought your cloning utility, you'll have to buy Ghost 9.0
to get Drive Image's functionality. Ghost might have
more automation to offer, but I don't know.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
Brian said:
Timothy Daniels said:
:
My drive is divided into partitions of C,D,E,F,G,H
I select the Copy drive image and Drive Image
wants me to select a partition rather than copy the
while 60 gig drive to the new drive. What am I
doing wrong as I want to copy the whole hard drive
and not just a single partition of the hard drive?


I have never had to copy a hard drive that had
more than one partition, and I as far as I know,
Drive Image should be named Partition Image.
Are you saying that you are unable to designate
individual source partitions specifically? As for
the destination hard drive, Drive Image just adds
another partition to the ones which may already
be there.
Click to expand...

[...]
What I'd like to do is to completely copy my old hard
drive (including all the partitions to my new hard drive.
May be to do this I need to copy each partition starting
with drive C and I hope that Drive Image creates the
partition on the new hard drive each time.
I was hoping to tell drive image something like "Here is
my old drive, copy everything including all the partitions
to my new drive and re-create the partitions on my
new drive".
Click to expand...


If it's Drive Image you're using, I think it will have to be
partition by partition. But it doesn't take any calculations
or planning. Just do 'em sequentially, and they'll end up
on the 2nd HD in the same order as on the 1st HD.
Just remember to tell Drive Image to copy the MBR
when it copys one of the partitions. If you haven't yet
bought your cloning utility, you'll have to buy Ghost 9.0
to get Drive Image's functionality. Ghost might have
more automation to offer, but I don't know.

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

Thanks Tim,
One last question. Will Drive Image identify my new drive as I have
not formatted or partitioned the new hard drive?
I'm planning on removing my current second hard drive and removing m
external hard drive, which will have the Primary drive and the new
drive connected. Once I've transfered the contents of my Primary drive
to my new drive then my new prive will become the primary drive and
I'll reconnect the second internal drive and the external drive.
I'm hoping this procedure will work.

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
[....] Will Drive Image identify my new drive as I have
not formatted or partitioned the new hard drive?
Click to expand...


It won't name it or make it unique in any way, if
that's what you mean. Logically, it will look just
like the old drive.
I'm planning on removing my current second hard drive
and removing m external hard drive, which will have the
Primary drive and the new drive connected. Once I've
transfered the contents of my Primary drive to my new
drive then my new prive will become the primary drive and
I'll reconnect the second internal drive and the external drive.
I'm hoping this procedure will work.
Click to expand...


It should work as the operating system will just see what
it thinks is the old primary drive and the old secondary drive
and the external drive. Just remember to boot up the new
primary drive for the 1st time in isolation from the old
primary drive. Thereafter, they can be allowed to boot up
together with no problem. In such a case, the old drive will
be named something else by the running OS, perhaps
Local Disk G: or something similar, and it will look like
just another file structure. The OS booted off the new drive
will, of course, call itself Local Disk C: .

*TimDaniels*
 
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