Freeware for Backup Image of XP?

[So It's Come To This?]

I'm thinking of taking the SP2 plunge but don't want to re-do all of my
settings in case I have to reformat. Is there a free prog that can allow me
to make an image backup of my XP settings?

 

[burris]

I'm thinking of taking the SP2 plunge but don't want to re-do all of my
settings in case I have to reformat. Is there a free prog that can allow me
to make an image backup of my XP settings?

Go to http:www.xxclone.com and try the xxclone program.

Still in beta and free at the moment. Will do a complete clone to
another HDD or another partition....and make that drive bootable if
something goes wrong.

burris

 

[burris]

Go to http:www.xxclone.com and try the xxclone program.

Still in beta and free at the moment. Will do a complete clone to
another HDD or another partition....and make that drive bootable if
something goes wrong.

burris

Sorry... the URL should have been

http://www.xxclone.com.

 

[buzz Light Beer]

This may be an alternative to making an image and then having to use
it, if you have troubles w/ SP2.
I use VMware Work Station. So, I am planning on creating a Virtual
drive and installing a *test* copy of Windows XP. Then, installing
SP2. After I am completely happy< yeah, sure> that SP2 is not gonna
f**k up my box, Ill just delete the virtual drive and install it on my
real drive.
Now, if you use either Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP Pro, you can
down load Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 < 45-Day Free Trial > and try the
same thing.
bLB

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[JumboJim]

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm

 

[scootgirl.com]

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm

I think that program just does drive cloning, not partition to image
creation.

Karen
http://scootgirl.com/

 

[REM]

I think that program just does drive cloning, not partition to image
creation.

A clone is useful too. But DrvImagerXP does both:

http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/2/13-2-39.shtml

The author seems to have dropped out of sight, where clone maxx is
still an active site.

 

[Mark Carter]

A clone is useful too. But DrvImagerXP does both:

What happens if you've resized partitions since the last clone? Wont
that confuse the software, as it sees that the stream of bytes that it
saved now now longer matches the size it was expecting?

 

[Roger Johansson]

What happens if you've resized partitions since the last clone? Wont
that confuse the software, as it sees that the stream of bytes that it
saved now now longer matches the size it was expecting?

I do not know DrvImagerXP specifically, but I know many of the other
partition clone programs.

As long as the partition is big enough there is no problem how big it is.

The software copies only the used sectors and restores them on the
currently available space.

You can buy a new hard disk, set up suitably sized partitions, and
restore earlier made partition images on it, for example.

The freeware Save Partition is included on the ultimate boot CD, by the
way. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

or you can get it from the authors site
http://www.partition-saving.com/


To make it easier for others to use Partition Saving without reading long
text files I can give some easy directions:

Get the program: http://www.partition-saving.com

Make a bootable floppy disk, either from some dos system or windows.
savepart.exe is very small, just 215kB, but you may have to remove some
file to make place for it on a windows rescue disk.
Or you can put it alone on a floppy and load it after loading a bootable
floppy disk. I put the two other small files on the floppy too, drvpart.sys
and Allocxms.com, just in case savepart has some use for them.

Reboot into the floppy disk and start savepart.exe.

In all these screens, use tab, arrow keys, and enter to navigate. You may
need to use the US-american keyboard layout to write file names, if your
boot floppy does not set your country keyboard correctly.

First screen: Choose save an element. It means save a partition, a disk, or
another part of a disk.

Second screen: Choose disk number, usually zero for the first hard disk in
your system, where your C: drive is.

Third screen: Choose partition to save. In the third column it gives you
the real names, choose C:

Fourth screen: What do you want to save?
Choose "occupied sectors". No use in saving unused parts of the partition.

Fifth screen: Choose a filename to save to. Use D:\saved.par for example.
Use a partition you know has enough space for the file.

Sixth screen: Choose maximum size of the saved file. This is probably a
safety measure in case something would go wrong. Default is 2GB and you can
use that unless you think the file will be bigger than that.
Maybe it is better to choose a lower value based on your own estimates.

The size of the saved file will be approximately half of the used part of
your C: drive. In my case 800MB resulted in a 390MB file with compression
level 1.

Seventh screen: Choose level to deflate, choose level 1

Now the copying starts, and you see a screen showing the progress and a
time estimate of how long it will take, BUT this screen is very misleading
in its estimates, both the time and the progress bar show what would happen
if the partition was absolutely full, and if the whole maximum size of the
saved file was to be used.

So the process will stop a lot faster than one is lead to believe, and it
looks like only a part of the process has been completed.
Don't worry though, it has done what you told it to do when it says the
copying is ended.
Look at the center of the screen close to the top, where it say "running"
as long as the copying is going on, and it says "ended" when it has ended
the copying process.

Choose to not let it create a bat file if you like, and reboot into your
normal windows operatingsystem.

Check out the created file, it should have half around the size of the
content of your C: drive.

Restoring is even simpler, just start savepart from the boot floppy again
and choose to restore an element.
In the next screen choose the file you saved, either by writing its name
including path, or looking for it and use enter to choose it.
Push the OK button.

Next screen, choose what partition to restore it to.
This is, of course, the critical choice. Make a mistake here and you will
wipe out all the content of another partition, so be careful here.
But the display is easy to read and you should have no problem choosing the
C: drive.

Also this time the predicted times and the progress bar are giving the
impression that it will take a long time, but it took only a few minutes
for my 800MB C: drive to be restored.

 

[REM]

What happens if you've resized partitions since the last clone? Wont
that confuse the software, as it sees that the stream of bytes that it
saved now now longer matches the size it was expecting?

Yes, I think you'll need to retain partition sizes if you image or
clone. It's worth serious consideration as to what size your boot
partition is going to be (and stay).

I currently have 12.5 gigs used out of 34. I made a backup partition
that also is 34 gigs.

If creating a drive image, the entire backup partition is used, as the
program copies everything, even unused space.

Strangely, when creating an image with zip compression, 19.9 gigs of
space is used to image a drive that contains 12.5 gigs of data. Again,
this is due to the byte by byte method used by the program. Other data
can be stored in the slack space.

 

[REM]

I do not know DrvImagerXP specifically, but I know many of the other
partition clone programs.

As long as the partition is big enough there is no problem how big it is.

The software copies only the used sectors and restores them on the
currently available space.

Yes, but if you have two excess gigs in the restore partition there
will be 2 gigs of dead hard drive space.

It's best to decide and record partition sizes and to stick with them.
Should the partition be outgrown it will be necessary to start from
scratch, with a clean install on a newly sized partition, updates, set
everything up, etc. before creating a new image. That's why I went
with rather large partitions.

 

[Roger Johansson]

I currently have 12.5 gigs used out of 34. I made a backup partition
that also is 34 gigs.

If creating a drive image, the entire backup partition is used, as the
program copies everything, even unused space.

Strangely, when creating an image with zip compression, 19.9 gigs of
space is used to image a drive that contains 12.5 gigs of data. Again,
this is due to the byte by byte method used by the program. Other data
can be stored in the slack space.

There is no need for saving the un-used sectors.
It takes unnecessary time and space to do that.

Choose compression, but only the lowest level of compression, that is
fast and reduces the size to appr. half.

 

[Roger Johansson]

Yes, but if you have two excess gigs in the restore partition there
will be 2 gigs of dead hard drive space.

Not if you do it right, the empty space in the partition will be available.

I have used these programs many times, and after restoring a C: drive
image I have installed many new programs, using the rest of the space in
the partition, even though I saved and restored only the used sectors.

 

[John Corliss]

A clone is useful too. But DrvImagerXP does both:

http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/2/13-2-39.shtml

The author seems to have dropped out of sight, where clone maxx is
still an active site.

Note though (for others reading this thread):

"DrvImagerXP creates and restores drive images of FAT32 and NTFS
partitions for the Windows2000/XP operating systems."

Probably doesn't work for W9X and ME versions.

 

[REM]

John Corliss <[email protected]#> wrote:

Note though (for others reading this thread):

"DrvImagerXP creates and restores drive images of FAT32 and NTFS
partitions for the Windows2000/XP operating systems."

Probably doesn't work for W9X and ME versions.

That's correct I think, thanks for pointing it out.

Is anyone willing to confirm that it does\does not work on 9x-ME?

 

[Susan Bugher]

That's correct I think, thanks for pointing it out.

Is anyone willing to confirm that it does\does not work on 9x-ME?

found in a post I saved:

<q>
http://www.lexunfreeware.com/

The programs DrvImager (Ghost alike, but different) and DrvCloner <snip>
The programs will only work under Windows NT 5 (2K that is) or higher.
</q>

Susan

 

[scootgirl.com]

[snip]

It's best to decide and record partition sizes and to stick with them.
Should the partition be outgrown it will be necessary to start from
scratch, with a clean install on a newly sized partition, updates, set
everything up, etc. before creating a new image. That's why I went
with rather large partitions.

My mobo came with a OEM copy of Ghost. I can and have copied a partition of
one size to another partition larger or smaller with no problems. Too bad
Ghost wasn't freeware.

Karen
http://scootgirl.com/

 

[Roger Johansson]

My mobo came with a OEM copy of Ghost. I can and have copied a
partition of one size to another partition larger or smaller with no
problems. Too bad Ghost wasn't freeware.

The freeware Partition Saving works just as well, and is actually
significantly faster than Ghost, when used correctly.

Ghost has another advantage though, the saved image file can be opened
like a zip file and inspected, using the ghost explorer program, files
can be copied from it as well as into it, so you can change the setup
when it is packed into an image file.

Partition saving has no such explorer functions at all, it just saves and
restores partition images. That is why it is faster, there is no need to
find and save single files, it just copies all used sectors.

 

[lapwlover]

easeus to do backup. [FONT=&quot] Besides full backup, it also offers incremental backup and differential backup.

[/FONT]