Clean Install of WinXP - Best Way to Back UP?

[jboriii]

I have just completed a clean install of WinXP.
All updates have been downloaded, programs like codecs, drivers ect
installed and I've set up the PC exactly the way I want.
All this takes up 4GB. I have 2 232GB hard drives.

What is the best way to back this up?
Can I just clone the 4GB to the second hard drive or to a DVD?


thanks in advance,
JimBob

 

[Keith Wilby]

I have just completed a clean install of WinXP.
All updates have been downloaded, programs like codecs, drivers ect
installed and I've set up the PC exactly the way I want.
All this takes up 4GB. I have 2 232GB hard drives.

What is the best way to back this up?
Can I just clone the 4GB to the second hard drive or to a DVD?


thanks in advance,
JimBob

I use Norton Ghost to make an image of the drive. Seems to work well.

Regards,
Keith.

 

[Paul Atreides]

I have just completed a clean install of WinXP.
All updates have been downloaded, programs like codecs, drivers ect
installed and I've set up the PC exactly the way I want.
All this takes up 4GB. I have 2 232GB hard drives.

What is the best way to back this up?

Hi,

A Drive Snapshot image to the second hard disk and backup the file to a
DVD. http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

Greetings.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have just completed a clean install of WinXP.
All updates have been downloaded, programs like codecs, drivers ect
installed and I've set up the PC exactly the way I want.
All this takes up 4GB. I have 2 232GB hard drives.

What is the best way to back this up?

Its generally best to use a decent modern imager. I like True Image.

Can I just clone the 4GB to the second hard drive

Yes, but that isnt a very efficient way to do things. Its better to use an imager.

I actually image a clean install a few times during a clean install,
basically so that if I do something stupid, I dont have to start over
from scratch again, I can just step back to the last image instead.

or to a DVD?

You cant clone to a DVD but you can certainly image to one.

 

[Rod Speed]

I use Norton Ghost to make an image of the drive. Seems to work well.

I prefer True Image for a number of reasons.

TI will create an image after booting from what it calls the rescue CD.
This is convenient when imaging a system with a problem before doing
anything to it, for safety. Ghost 9 and 10 will only create an image after
Ghost has been installed on the system.

TI will also clone a drive from the rescue CD too. Thats
much more convenient when upgrading the boot hard drive.

Ghost does incremental images dangerously and that can bite.

 

[Keith Wilby]

I prefer True Image for a number of reasons.

TI will create an image after booting from what it calls the rescue CD.
This is convenient when imaging a system with a problem before doing
anything to it, for safety. Ghost 9 and 10 will only create an image after
Ghost has been installed on the system.

TI will also clone a drive from the rescue CD too. Thats
much more convenient when upgrading the boot hard drive.

Ghost does incremental images dangerously and that can bite.

I must admit to never having heard of TI but I've downloaded the trial
version and I like it. Is it easy to split the drive image up such that it
will span across a number of DVDs? I didn't see an option for doing that.

Thanks.
Keith.

 

[Rod Speed]

I must admit to never having heard of TI but I've downloaded the trial
version and I like it. Is it easy to split the drive image up such
that it will span across a number of DVDs? I didn't see an option
for doing that.

Yes, you can specify the size of the bits, and dont have to
remember what size is appropriate for say DVDs etc either.

 

[Keith Wilby]

Yes, you can specify the size of the bits, and dont have to
remember what size is appropriate for say DVDs etc either.

Thanks. I've just ordered the boxed product from Amazon for a measly £16.
Now that's cheap!

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks. I've just ordered the boxed product from Amazon for a measly
£16. Now that's cheap!

Yeah, that's the other thing that I keep forgetting to mention, its usually cheaper than Ghost 9 and
10 too.

 

[Garrot]

TI will create an image after booting from what it calls the rescue CD.
This is convenient when imaging a system with a problem before doing
anything to it, for safety. Ghost 9 and 10 will only create an image after
Ghost has been installed on the system.

TI will also clone a drive from the rescue CD too. Thats
much more convenient when upgrading the boot hard drive.

Ghost2003 does all that so why not 9 and 10? I can boot to Ghost2003 boot
floppy and do all of that. It will burn the image directly to cdr or dvd-r
too, including spanning multiple disks. Only problem with Ghost2003 is it
has an issue with SATA drives so it is useless to me now.

 

[Garrot]

Its generally best to use a decent modern imager. I like True Image.

No open source software that can do all of that? I own Partition Magic 8.0
but don't even use it any more since I got Gparted for free from
Sourceforge. No free imaging software that is good?

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Ghost2003 does all that so why not 9 and 10?

Ghost2003 is a completely different product to 9 and 10.
9 and 10 are PowerQuest's V2i renamed, the result of
Symantec buying out PowerQuest to get that technology.

I can boot to Ghost2003 boot floppy and do all of that.

You cant even have a boot floppy with 9 and 10,
and it isnt a DOS app either. Ghost2003 is.

You can have a bootable CD with 9 and 10, but its PE based,
not DOS, and they have chosen to only allow restores from that,
not image creation or cloning. If you want to do image creation
or cloning, you have to install 9 or 10 and do that from there.

It will burn the image directly to cdr or
dvd-r too, including spanning multiple disks.

So will TI, tho it appears that the OP doesnt want to do it that way.
Its not a great idea to burn directly when there is more than a couple
of DVDs involved, because you need to be there to put the new blank
in the drive as required. Its better if you have the space on the hard
drive to write the DVD sized files to the hard drive and then burn them
to the DVDs later, basically because you have to spend less time
stuffing DVDs into the drive as required.

Only problem with Ghost2003 is it has an issue
with SATA drives so it is useless to me now.

That isnt the only problem. The other massive problem is that its DOS
based so you can only use devices that have DOS drivers available.

And its a complete pain in the arse for very basic stuff like NIC support too.
Still doable, but nowhere near as convenient as with TI which handles all that
crap automatically and since it runs at the XP level if you want to, anything
that is visible to the XP system is visible to TI too.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

No open source software that can do all of that?

Not anything like as well.

I own Partition Magic 8.0 but don't even use it any more since I got Gparted
for free from Sourceforge. No free imaging software that is good?

There isnt much around and its nothing like as capable, particularly with
the modern stuff like incremental images and not running on DOS etc.

 

[max]

Not anything like as well.


There isnt much around and its nothing like as capable, particularly with
the modern stuff like incremental images and not running on DOS etc.

I'll second that. I use TI to image to an external HD several times
during a new install - after the initial CD install, after all the XP
updates are downloaded and installed, and after all the apps are
installed. This makes it easy to roll back if anything goes wack.

Once it's all working fine, I delete all but the last one, copy that
to DVDs just in case, and set a pattern of regular images going.

It doesn't take much time during the process, and has saved me
countless hours over the last few years.

max

 

[Rod Speed]

I'll second that. I use TI to image to an external HD several times
during a new install - after the initial CD install, after all the XP
updates are downloaded and installed, and after all the apps are
installed. This makes it easy to roll back if anything goes wack.

Once it's all working fine, I delete all but the last one, copy that
to DVDs just in case, and set a pattern of regular images going.

It doesn't take much time during the process, and has saved me
countless hours over the last few years.

And it works very well indeed with old dinosaurs that you are doing
a clean install with too. Image the entire physical drive before you
do anything, across the lan to somewhere with enough space.
Then do the clean install and image that too. That way if there is
some problem with getting the clean install configured the way
the original install was, you can always restore the safety image,
check out the detail of the config or drivers etc, restore the image
done after the clean install and apply the setting/drivers etc.

 

[Garrot]

And its a complete pain in the arse for very basic stuff like NIC support too.
Still doable, but nowhere near as convenient as with TI which handles all that
crap automatically and since it runs at the XP level if you want to, anything
that is visible to the XP system is visible to TI too.

OK, thx. Think I will buy TI if I can't find a free utiltity that will do
the same thing.

 

[Garrot]

There isnt much around and its nothing like as capable, particularly with
the modern stuff like incremental images and not running on DOS etc.

OK, I will get TI then, thx.

 

[Garrot]

OK, I will get TI then, thx.

Well, I was going to get it until I saw how expensive it is. Kind of steep
for a one trick pony, don't you think?

 

[Rod Speed]

Well, I was going to get it until I saw how expensive it is.

No it isnt.
http://shopper-search.cnet.com/search?part=&q="true+image"
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q="true+image"+acronis&btnG=Search&lmode=online&scoring=p
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle="true+image"

Kind of steep for a one trick pony, don't you think?

It isnt a one trick pony either.

 

[Garrot]

No it isnt.
http://shopper-search.cnet.com/search?part=&q="true+image"
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q="true+image"+acronis&btnG=Search&lmode=online&scoring=p
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle="true+image"

Thanks, that's much better than the price at the Acronis website. They want
over $80.00 for it. Thing is I need a Canadian distributor so I can avoid
Canada customs. I'll look around for a copy.

It isnt a one trick pony either.

OK, I'll find out when I get it.