Utility for copying/restoring Windows XP partitions?

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

John Doe

I use PartitionMagic 8 with Windows XP. But I have to boot to the CD in
order to work the operating system partition. I have researched this in
the archives, more than once. I am getting familiar with the keywords
like "error 27" and "cannot lock drive". And there is another error
which comes up on the second reboot. I also have to delete BOOT.INI.
Backing up the operating system partition is possible, but it ain't
easy.

I seem to recall being in Windows XP doing some partition work on the
reboot, but not anymore. It's desirable because it is a whole lot
faster.

So is there any other utility which can successfully backup and restore
the Windows XP partition? Especially if Symantec doesn't further the
great work of PowerQuest, I think it's time to start looking for
another disk manager.

Thank you.
 
John said:
I use PartitionMagic 8 with Windows XP. But I have to boot to the CD in
order to work the operating system partition. I have researched this in
the archives, more than once. I am getting familiar with the keywords
like "error 27" and "cannot lock drive". And there is another error
which comes up on the second reboot. I also have to delete BOOT.INI.
Backing up the operating system partition is possible, but it ain't
easy.

I seem to recall being in Windows XP doing some partition work on the
reboot, but not anymore. It's desirable because it is a whole lot
faster.

So is there any other utility which can successfully backup and restore
the Windows XP partition? Especially if Symantec doesn't further the
great work of PowerQuest, I think it's time to start looking for
another disk manager.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Casper XP.


Odie
 
Casper XP.
Click to expand...
Casper as in The Friendly Ghost?

I've been trying to get Norton Ghost 2003 to work on a Dell system with one
SATA drive and one IDE drive. First try, ghost locked up in DOS mode.
Couldn't reboot without deleting the partition that ghost created and
setting the main partition to active.

Symantec seemingly has no clue on how to fix this. Googling I found out that
setting the drive mode from native to combination got me a little bit down
the road. Now ghost runs in DOS, but the copy fails. Says "Can't find drive
with specified disk ID." I tried the suggestions at Symantec's site, it
still doesn't work.

So I'm ready to either get another ghosting program or an SATA drive.

Has anyone tried Casper XP in a system with both SATA and IDE drives?
 
Tom said:
Casper as in The Friendly Ghost?
Click to expand...


It is. Get it here: http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/

I've been trying to get Norton Ghost 2003 to work on a Dell system with one
SATA drive and one IDE drive. First try, ghost locked up in DOS mode.
Couldn't reboot without deleting the partition that ghost created and
setting the main partition to active.

Symantec seemingly has no clue on how to fix this. Googling I found out that
setting the drive mode from native to combination got me a little bit down
the road. Now ghost runs in DOS, but the copy fails. Says "Can't find drive
with specified disk ID." I tried the suggestions at Symantec's site, it
still doesn't work.

So I'm ready to either get another ghosting program or an SATA drive.

Has anyone tried Casper XP in a system with both SATA and IDE drives?
Click to expand...

I've used it extensively with IDE and a mixture of IDE and SCSI. It has
never once hiccupped. The website clearly states it works with SATA and
I have no doubts about it.

I did think they had an eval version at one stage. However, I am doing
beta testing on this product and I can assure you it is the easiest,
most effective image copier I have ever come across. About 5 clicks
gets the job done.


Odie
 
Casper as in The Friendly Ghost?

I've been trying to get Norton Ghost 2003 to work on a Dell system with one
SATA drive and one IDE drive. First try, ghost locked up in DOS mode.
Couldn't reboot without deleting the partition that ghost created and
setting the main partition to active.

Symantec seemingly has no clue on how to fix this. Googling I found out that
setting the drive mode from native to combination got me a little bit down
the road. Now ghost runs in DOS, but the copy fails. Says "Can't find drive
with specified disk ID." I tried the suggestions at Symantec's site, it
still doesn't work.

So I'm ready to either get another ghosting program or an SATA drive.

Has anyone tried Casper XP in a system with both SATA and IDE drives?
Click to expand...


Give Acronis TI8 a try.
 
I can assure you it is the easiest,
most effective image copier I have ever come across. About 5 clicks
gets the job done.
Click to expand...

Odie, thanks for the info. I'm curious, have you ever used bootit ng?
 
Al said:
Give Acronis TI8 a try.
Click to expand...

I'm beta testing for them as well.

Absolutely nowhere *near* (not by miles) the ease of use of Casper.

Sure, it has more functions than Casper - but who on earth needs most of
them?


Odie
 
Absolutely nowhere *near* (not by miles) the ease of use of Casper.

Sure, it has more functions than Casper - but who on earth needs most of
them?
Click to expand...

It looks like Casper dedicates the backup hard disk to your primary XP
partition, allowing you to quickly swap in the backup disk and be back
online. Sort of like a mirror that you run only at selected times; if
I had 3 HDs in one system to back up, I'd need 3 spare HDs as Casper
targets. Is that roughly accurate, or am I missing something on their
web site?

Sounds like it fills a different niche than TI8, which allows multiple
generations of backups and backups from multiple PCs on a single HD,
and compresses and splits them if desired so they can be copied to
optical media.
 
Odie Ferrous said:
Casper XP.
Click to expand...

... I don't touch partitioning / boot managers with a barge pole.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by that?



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Click to expand...
 
I wrote:

....

Maybe I wasn't clear enough.

I will be looking for a utility like PartitionMagic 8 which will copy
and restore the Windows XP partition to the same hard disk drive. I'm
talking about multiple partitions on the same hard disk drive.

My idea of a disk manager is a utility which manipulates multiple
partitions on the same hard disk drive.

Apparently the applicable advice is to look at Acronis TI8.

Thanks.
 
Ranish parition manager (free) and Partition Magic 8.05 (make sure
you've got the latest update) will both do this just fine.

After you've made the copy (eg. primary active bootable partition 1 to
partition 2) you simply make sure the 2nd copy is hidden, non-bootable
and you're done.

The problem you probably have is when you've got two primary active
bootable partitions visible -- that's a no-no and will make XP get
hiccups. Hide all copies of the primary XP boot partition and you'll be
fine.

---

Another way is to use Ghost 2003 and to backup the entire parition to
files on another parition/CD/DVD. CD/DVD is nice because you'll never
lose everything when a virus/HD crash strikes -- this will erase both
your primary and backup copies on the HD -- and works great.

(Acronis True Image is another recommended product others have used.)
 
John said:
I wrote:

...

Maybe I wasn't clear enough.
Click to expand...

Evidently so.

In your own words,

"So is there any other utility which can successfully backup and restore
the Windows XP partition? Especially if Symantec doesn't further the
great work of PowerQuest, I think it's time to start looking for
another disk manager."


Hence my response about Casper XP which, in my own experience, is the
best for the above, simple task.


Odie
 
Odie Ferrous said:
Evidently so.

In your own words,

"So is there any other utility which can successfully backup and
restore the Windows XP partition? Especially if Symantec doesn't
further the great work of PowerQuest, I think it's time to start
looking for another disk manager."


Hence my response about Casper XP which, in my own experience, is
the best for the above, simple task.
Click to expand...

Assuming the system has a spare disk (or perhaps removable media) to
use for that task.



Odie
--

RetroData
Data Recovery Experts
www.retrodata.co.uk

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Click to expand...
 
David Chien said:
Ranish parition manager (free) and Partition Magic 8.05 (make sure
you've got the latest update)
Click to expand...

From where?

....
The problem you probably have is when you've got two primary active
bootable partitions visible -- that's a no-no and will make XP get
hiccups. Hide all copies of the primary XP boot partition and
you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

I wish. I've been doing PartitionMagic to manipulate partitions
since version 4 came out.

I understand it works for you, but there's something wrong on my
system even with a fresh install of Windows XP SP1.

Thanks.
 
John said:
Assuming the system has a spare disk (or perhaps removable media) to
use for that task.
Click to expand...

On all my recovery systems, the operating system partition is 10GB in
size.

For each system, I have a spare 10GB drive that I keep aside - I
reinstall all my systems at least once a month to keep them as clean as
possible.

Obviously I wouldn't use an old 10GB drive to backup critical data, but
for the operating system, programs, tweaks and configuration, it saves
the 8 hours or so needed to recreate each system. (Full restore takes
under 10 minutes.)

Odie
 
Ranish parition manager (free) and Partition Magic 8.05 (make sure
you've got the latest update) will both do this just fine.

After you've made the copy (eg. primary active bootable partition 1 to
partition 2) you simply make sure the 2nd copy is hidden, non-bootable
and you're done.

The problem you probably have is when you've got two primary active
bootable partitions visible -- that's a no-no and will make XP get
hiccups. Hide all copies of the primary XP boot partition and you'll be
fine.

---

Another way is to use Ghost 2003 and to backup the entire parition to
files on another parition/CD/DVD. CD/DVD is nice because you'll never
lose everything when a virus/HD crash strikes -- this will erase both
your primary and backup copies on the HD -- and works great.

(Acronis True Image is another recommended product others have used.)
Click to expand...



There is One Flag byte in the Boot Sector that can be changed with a Tool
From PM simple and I have used it, it turns the boot flag off.
 
David Chien said:
After you've made the copy (eg. primary active bootable partition 1 to
partition 2) you simply make sure the 2nd copy is hidden, non-bootable
and you're done.
Click to expand...
That is not necessary.
The problem you probably have is when you've got two primary active
bootable partitions visible -- that's a no-no and will make XP get
hiccups. Hide all copies of the primary XP boot partition and you'll be
fine.
Click to expand...
You cannot get multiple actives with standard utilities.

The real problem is other copies of a boot volume on the initial boot of the
copy.
 
Ranish parition manager (free) and Partition Magic 8.05 (make sure
typing in "Ranish Partition Manager" in yahoo.com to search brings up:
http://www.ranish.com/part/ immediately

Partition Magic updates directly from Symantec.com - contact them
directly.
 
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