Casper Expertise Anyone?

[pwrichcreek]

I've downloaded a trial version of Casper 4.0. When I use
the wizard to initiate a "copy entire hard disk" operation,
it displays the message "Drive 3 is currently is use. All
data on this disk may be lost if you continue." Disk 3 is an
external hard disk that I want to use for the image and
where I have data that I do not want to lose.

Is there someone here who has experience with Casper and
would know whether there is any way I can use the external
drive for both the Casper image and the other data that I
want to store there? The external drive is about 2.5 times
the size of the system disk that I want to copy from, so
there is no problem with the capacity. Is there something I
can do with partitioning that would enable this? I've looked
on the Casper web site and cannot find any reference to this
issue. Is there a Casper forum or discussion group?

TIA,

Phil

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I've downloaded a trial version of Casper 4.0. When I use
the wizard to initiate a "copy entire hard disk" operation,
it displays the message "Drive 3 is currently is use. All
data on this disk may be lost if you continue." Disk 3 is an
external hard disk that I want to use for the image and
where I have data that I do not want to lose.

Is there someone here who has experience with Casper and
would know whether there is any way I can use the external
drive for both the Casper image and the other data that I
want to store there? The external drive is about 2.5 times
the size of the system disk that I want to copy from, so
there is no problem with the capacity. Is there something I
can do with partitioning that would enable this? I've looked
on the Casper web site and cannot find any reference to this
issue. Is there a Casper forum or discussion group?

TIA,

Phil

Casper is a cloning utility. It makes immediately bootable
copies of a partition - on another partition on the same HD or
on another partition on another HD - it doesn't make an "image
file" that is just a big file (usually compressed) which can be
stored on any media, such as an external USB HD or on a
DVD. Furthermore, the one limitation on FSS's free trial copy
is that the *entire* source HD's contents are copied to the
*entire* surface of the destination HD, the partitions on the
source HD being scaled up to fit on the destination HD if need
be. While that is perfect for moving your entire system to a
larger HD, that would also stop you from copying just one
partition from a HD that contains several partitions and put that
partition among several partitions on the destination HD. This
latter feature *can* be done with the paid version of the utility.

In your case, in which you want to put the clone on an
external USB drive, you may be SOL because it won't be
bootable (unless your BIOS knows how to boot from USB
media). If all you want to do is move all your files to the
external USB HD, you may be able to accomplish that, but
don't expect it to be bootable. And if there are already partitions
on the USB HD, you will overwrite them all with the free trial
version.

For free software that can make image files, check out the
15-day free trial version of Acronis's True Image:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/

*TimDaniels*

 

[Anna]

I've downloaded a trial version of Casper 4.0. When I use
the wizard to initiate a "copy entire hard disk" operation,
it displays the message "Drive 3 is currently is use. All
data on this disk may be lost if you continue." Disk 3 is an
external hard disk that I want to use for the image and
where I have data that I do not want to lose.

Is there someone here who has experience with Casper and
would know whether there is any way I can use the external
drive for both the Casper image and the other data that I
want to store there? The external drive is about 2.5 times
the size of the system disk that I want to copy from, so
there is no problem with the capacity. Is there something I
can do with partitioning that would enable this? I've looked
on the Casper web site and cannot find any reference to this
issue. Is there a Casper forum or discussion group?

TIA,

Phil

Phil:
Understand that the Casper 4.0 program is a disk-to-disk "cloning" program.
It is not designed to create a "disk image" of your source HDD, rather it
will, in effect, create a bit-for-bit copy of the HDD you are cloning - in
your case your internal HDD.

It is true that if you would use the Casper 4.0 program to make that
disk-to-disk copy, *all* the data presently residing on your USB external
HDD (I'm assuming it's a USB device) will be gone, to be replaced by the
contents of the HDD you have cloned.

However...

The Casper 4.0 program does have the capability of cloning the contents of
your internal HDD to a specific partition that you designate on the
"destination" drive, i.e., the recipient of the clone. So if you set up your
USBEHD with, for example, two partitions, you can use one of those
partitions to be the recipient of the contents of the drive you are cloning.
Naturally this assumes that partition will be large enough to contain the
cloned contents of the source drive. And, of course, the other partition
large enough to contain the present data on that USBEHD that you wish to
retain.

Now I can't recall offhand whether the trial version of the Casper 4.0
program will allow this partition-to-partition disk cloning capability, but
the full version surely does.

We consider the Casper 4.0 a superior disk-cloning program and assuming the
disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) capability of the program meets
your specific needs, we highly recommend it.
Anna

 

[pwrichcreek]

Tim, Thanks for your reply.

If all you want to do is move all your files to the
external USB HD, you may be able to accomplish that, but
don't expect it to be bootable.

I believe Casper offers (for $10 I think) a boot CD that
lets you run Casper. Using this capability,
one can copy from the non-bootable HD back to the system disk.

Phil

 

[pwrichcreek]

Anna, thanks for your reply.

The help file of the trial version states:

"While the trial version of Casper is fully operational, it
does not support volume resizing. For example, using the
trial version of Casper to copy a 10GB drive to a new 100GB
hard disk will result in a 10GB copy being created on the
100GB hard disk; the additional 90GB of space on the new
hard disk will remain unpartitioned space."

Is "volume resizing" what you referred to as "partition-to-
partition disk cloning" that might be absent from the trial version?

Is it possible to partition my USB external drive such that
the existing data remains intact?

Phil

 

[Timothy Daniels]

:

I believe Casper offers (for $10 I think) a boot CD that
lets you run Casper. Using this capability, one can copy
from the non-bootable HD back to the system disk.

I hadn't heard of that one. That sounds cool for doing the
equivalent of an image restoration. The copy on the USB HD
remains unbootable, though.

I mislead you on the capability of the free trial version of
Casper by saying that it will scale up the partitions to fit the
new HD. That is a capability of the *paid* version of Casper -
and a capability of several manufacturers' free cloning utilities that
they make available for use with their own brand of HDs. One
such manufacturer is Seagate/Maxtor. I've heard that their utility
is a version of True Image, but at least one or both of the HDs
must be of their own make or the utility will balk.

As for Casper putting a partition among several on the destin-
ation HD, the paid version can do that, and that seems not to be
listed as being disabled in the free version. In their description,
FSS says that the unused space on the destination HD will remain
unpartitioned space, which seems to mean that the unused space
will be untouched. In the paid version (which I use), Casper
can copy a partition to unallocated space without disturbing any
pre-existing partitions on the destination HD. You just tell it
which expanse of unallocated space to use, and Casper will
create a partition there of the size you specify, and the copy to
it will proceed. You don't have to format the partition as the copy
process includes transferring the formatting information along with
the file data. I have also found that you can *downsize* a partition
in the copy operation providing that the data in the source partition
will fit in the destination partition. IOW, if the fragmented data fits
in X number of bytes of the existing partition, you can copy it to a
partition of size X. Casper apparently knows when its copying
formatting plus data, and when it's copying just formatting.
Understand, though, that what I think the free version will do is
just supposition. Backup your data before trying it.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Robert]

Phil:
Understand that the Casper 4.0 program is a disk-to-disk "cloning" program..
It is not designed to create a "disk image" of your source HDD, rather it
will, in effect, create a bit-for-bit copy of the HDD you are cloning - in
your case your internal HDD.

It is true that if you would use the Casper 4.0 program to make that
disk-to-disk copy, *all* the data presently residing on your USB external
HDD (I'm assuming it's a USB device) will be gone, to be replaced by the
contents of the HDD you have cloned.

However...

The Casper 4.0 program does have the capability of cloning the contents of
your internal HDD to a specific partition that you designate on the
"destination" drive, i.e., the recipient of the clone. So if you set up your
USBEHD with, for example, two partitions, you can use one of those
partitions to be the recipient of the contents of the drive you are cloning.
Naturally this assumes that partition will be large enough to contain the
cloned contents of the source drive. And, of course, the other partition
large enough to contain the present data on that USBEHD that you wish to
retain.

Now I can't recall offhand whether the trial version of the Casper 4.0
program will allow this partition-to-partition disk cloning capability, but
the full version surely does.

We consider the Casper 4.0 a superior disk-cloning program and assuming the
disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) capability of the program meets
your specific needs, we highly recommend it.
Anna- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi Anna,
If you recall, I brushed on the subject of creating an external hard
drive for my existing system which is a Dell Dimension 8200 with XP.
At the time you recommended getting a PCI card so that I would be USB
2 compatible and along with Casper XP is there anything else that I
should get or be concerned with?


Thanks,

Robert

 

[pwrichcreek]

Tim, thanks for your reply.

Lots of good information.You answered some of the same
questions I posed in my reply to Anna.

I think I'm in a sortof catch-22 situation. My only backup
resides on the external USB. But to test Casper, I may need
to allow it to trash that data. If Murphy's Law springs into
action, that testing will fail, but only after my only
backup (on the USB) has been destroyed! Oh yes, of course
immediately after the test fails and the backup is destroyed,
I'll experience a catastrophic failure of the system drive!!

Seriously, I think I'll just verify with FSS which features
are and are not disabled in the free version and proceed
from there.

Phil

 

[Anna]

Anna, thanks for your reply.

The help file of the trial version states:

"While the trial version of Casper is fully operational, it
does not support volume resizing. For example, using the
trial version of Casper to copy a 10GB drive to a new 100GB
hard disk will result in a 10GB copy being created on the
100GB hard disk; the additional 90GB of space on the new
hard disk will remain unpartitioned space."

Is "volume resizing" what you referred to as "partition-to-
partition disk cloning" that might be absent from the trial version?

Is it possible to partition my USB external drive such that
the existing data remains intact?

Phil

Phil:
At this point you would really need a third-party tool such as Partition
Magic to reartition your USBEHD so as to retain the present data on that
drive. Basically you would shrink the existing partition to whatever size is
practical depending upon the present size of the existing data, and then
create a remaining partition from the new unallocated disk space.

Another alternative (should a third-party tool such as the one mentioned
above is unavailable) would be to simply copy the existing data on the
USBEHD to one or more CDs or DVDs, then use XP's Disk Management utility to
delete the existing partition on the EHD, then create/format the two
partitions you desire. After which, of course, you would simply copy back
the data on the CD's or DVD's to one of the two now-existing partitions. I
don't know if this is practical in your case since it would obviously depend
upon the volume of your existing data.

As I previously informed you the retail version of Casper 4.0 will meet your
objectives.
Anna

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I think I'll just verify with FSS which features are and
are not disabled in the free version and proceed from
there.

Phil

That sounds reasonable and prudent.
In the future, you might want to consider using an
external eSATA box. It would offer the convenience
of an external HD with the convenience of immediate
bootability in case the main internal HD croaked. It
would involve getting an eSATA PCI or PCIe
expansion card if you don't have a SATA port on
your motherboard, or getting a back-panel adapter
if your motherboard does have SATA ports. You'd
also have to get an eSATA cable, but all hardware is
readily available from online suppliers.

The Box:
http://www.kingwin.com/product_pages/z135eu_bk.asp
Search Nextag.com, PriceGrabber.com, Froogle.com, etc.
with "Z1-35EU" for prices.

The eSATA card:
http://www.siig.com/ViewProductList.aspx?catid=250
Search the usual suspects using the model nos.

eSATA adapter brackets:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/external-sata-solutions.htm

eSATA cables:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/sata-cables-shielded.htm
http://www.svc.com/esata-cable.html

*TimDaniels*

 

[Anna]

Phil:
Understand that the Casper 4.0 program is a disk-to-disk "cloning"
program.
It is not designed to create a "disk image" of your source HDD, rather it
will, in effect, create a bit-for-bit copy of the HDD you are cloning - in
your case your internal HDD.

It is true that if you would use the Casper 4.0 program to make that
disk-to-disk copy, *all* the data presently residing on your USB external
HDD (I'm assuming it's a USB device) will be gone, to be replaced by the
contents of the HDD you have cloned.

However...

The Casper 4.0 program does have the capability of cloning the contents of
your internal HDD to a specific partition that you designate on the
"destination" drive, i.e., the recipient of the clone. So if you set up
your
USBEHD with, for example, two partitions, you can use one of those
partitions to be the recipient of the contents of the drive you are
cloning.
Naturally this assumes that partition will be large enough to contain the
cloned contents of the source drive. And, of course, the other partition
large enough to contain the present data on that USBEHD that you wish to
retain.

Now I can't recall offhand whether the trial version of the Casper 4.0
program will allow this partition-to-partition disk cloning capability,
but
the full version surely does.

We consider the Casper 4.0 a superior disk-cloning program and assuming
the
disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) capability of the program meets
your specific needs, we highly recommend it.
Anna

Hi Anna,
If you recall, I brushed on the subject of creating an external hard
drive for my existing system which is a Dell Dimension 8200 with XP.
At the time you recommended getting a PCI card so that I would be USB
2 compatible and along with Casper XP is there anything else that I
should get or be concerned with?
Thanks,
Robert


Robert:
First of all, please note that the program we're discussing here is the same
one I previously informed you about in a different thread, i.e., the Casper
4.0 program, *not* the Casper XP program.

While I'm aware of some users who thought well of the Casper XP program, we
were *not* one of them. We worked with the Casper XP program for a time and
we weren't thrilled with that program for a variety of reasons.

We are, on the other hand, strong proponents of the Casper 4.0 program. We
find it to be a superior disk-cloning program for reasons that we have
indicated in our numerous postings to this and related newsgroups re this
program. In terms of a disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) cloning
program - (it is *not* designed for "disk-imaging") - we find the Casper 4.0
program considerably superior to both the Acronis True Image & Symantec's
Ghost program (at least through the latter's version 11 program - we haven't
worked with their latest version 12). The ATI program is a fine program, and
as you (and others) have probably noticed, consistently gets favorable
reviews from posters to this newsgroup as well as from the "professional"
reviewers. But as a disk-cloning program, our preference is most certainly
the Casper 4.0 program.

So I wanted to make the above clear to you as well as others that we're
talking about the Casper 4.0 program.

As I recall, we had a rather lengthy exchange of postings concerning your
particular objective re cloning the contents of your internal HDD to a
USBEHD. I believe you had indicated that your system supported only USB 1.0
(1.1) and I (and I believe others) recommended you purchase a PCI card
providing USB 2.0 capability. I believe I furnished you with step-by-step
instructions re using the Casper 4.0 program to undertake the disk-cloning
process. If not, I'm reasonably sure you've come across a number of my posts
in which I provided details (as simple as they are) re using the Casper 4.0
program. I don't believe there is anything else you should be "concerned"
with.
Anna

 

[WaIIy]

We are, on the other hand, strong proponents of the Casper 4.0 program.

Hi Anna,

Who is the "we" that you refer to in your posts ?

 

[Anna]

Hi Anna,

Who is the "we" that you refer to in your posts ?

Wally:
In my writings I frequently use the "we" in the editorial sense of that
pronoun. It's simply a habit I've acquired over the years. I frequently have
occasion to work with various groups of computer technicians whose
experiences & judgments parallel those of mine so I find myself using the
"we" in the sense of a collective viewpoint re the particular issue under
discussion.

I trust the above explanation satisfies your curiosity. I guess it's a hard
habit for me to break. Should you (and others) find my reference to "we"
somehow uncomfortable or puzzling please feel free to substitute the
singular personal pronoun of "I", e.g....
"I am, on the other hand, a strong proponent of the Casper 4.0 program."

And, by the way, I am...
Anna

 

[WaIIy]

Wally:
In my writings I frequently use the "we" in the editorial sense of that
pronoun. It's simply a habit I've acquired over the years. I frequently have
occasion to work with various groups of computer technicians whose
experiences & judgments parallel those of mine so I find myself using the
"we" in the sense of a collective viewpoint re the particular issue under
discussion.

I trust the above explanation satisfies your curiosity. I guess it's a hard
habit for me to break. Should you (and others) find my reference to "we"
somehow uncomfortable or puzzling please feel free to substitute the
singular personal pronoun of "I", e.g....

I'm curious why you use the Royal "We". Your explanation is lacking
and a bit haughty.

Okay, another one.

What exactly do you do for a living that brings you close to Casper all
the time ?