Formatting a bootable Hard Disk

[sengke]

Hello! Friends:

My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk) to
my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back up to
it.

The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS with
the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?

If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as a
system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.


sengke

 

[Malke]

Hello! Friends:

My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk)
to my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back
up to it.

The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS
with
the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?

If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as
a
system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.

You don't do this from within Windows. You get an imaging program like
Acronis True Image (my preference), BootIT NG, or Symantec Ghost and you
clone your drive from outside of Windows. Then you put the cloned drive on
the shelf in an anti-static bag for safekeeping.

Malke

 

[Andrew E.]

If youve played with it then,back in diskmgmt.msc,format the hd,once thru,go
to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,once
its thru,C: is now on D: & is bootable.Also,D: being the new hd,also,the new
drive must be set as slave to C: on the same IDE cable...

 

[sengke]

Hello! Malke

Thanks for the advice.

Two more questions:

1. If I partition the new hard disk into two parts, can I clone two
different PCs on each of these partitions with bootable systems?

2. If one of the partition crashes, can I still use the other partition, or
does it mean the whole hard disk is gone?

sengke

 

[Malke]

Hello! Malke

Thanks for the advice.

Two more questions:

1. If I partition the new hard disk into two parts, can I clone two
different PCs on each of these partitions with bootable systems?

No. Use imaging instead of cloning. You can image a system and store as many
images as you have room for on an external hard drive. After you install
Acronis True Image (for example), you create a bootable CD. If you need to
restore the system onto the current hard drive or onto a new hard drive,
you boot with the CD you made which has the imaging program on it and
restore from there, pointing the restoration process to the desired image
stored on the external hard drive.

For further information about cloning, imaging, etc. go to www.acronis.com
(or to the website of the imaging program of your choice) and read all
about it.

2. If one of the partition crashes, can I still use the other partition,
or does it mean the whole hard disk is gone?

If the hard drive physically fails, the whole hard drive fails!

Malke

 

[sengke]

Hi! Malke

If one of the partition fails, then the whole hard disk fails, so what other
reasons to partition a hard disk, other than having a shorter time during
searching?

Thanks.

sengke

 

[Malke]

Hi! Malke

If one of the partition fails, then the whole hard disk fails, so what
other reasons to partition a hard disk, other than having a shorter time
during searching?

I usually don't partition hard drives (unless it is for a server). The only
advantage to keeping the operating system and programs on one partition and
the data on a separate partition is that this makes it very easy to quickly
replace just the operating system. Most of my desktop computers have at
least two hard drives. I don't bother partitioning the laptops at all. But
I back up my data separately and image all my machines regularly.

So it's your choice based on how you use your machines. If you continually
mess up Windows, then put your data on a separate partition or, even
better, a separate internal hard drive if you've got a desktop machine. If
you use Linux, it is always better to put /home on a separate partition or
hard drive because of frequent distro updates. But since you're posting in
an XP basics newsgroup, I assume that you're using XP. ;-)

So YMMV. Pick something and try it to see what you like best.

Malke