How can I restore full system from a backup

[Rajeev]

I got Windows XP Pro SP2. When I reboot my PC it complains that the HD is in
imminent danger of failure. I plan to replace the HD. I have backed up using
XP's backup utility choosing "Backup All Information on this computer" to an
external USB - HD. Now I am unsure of how to go about restoring from the
backup once I replace the HD. I don't have any XP CDs as the PC came with
pre-installed XP on it.
Is there a way I will be able to restore. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Not with the kind of backup in XP. You need a full system backup using a
program like Acronis True Image or Ghost. And you better have an XP cd on
hand to do any needed repairs when you restore to the new hard drive.

 

[Rajeev]

Seems I am stuck now that I don't have CD. Also will need buying Acronis or
Ghost.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Anna]

Seems I am stuck now that I don't have CD. Also will need buying Acronis
or
Ghost.
Thanks for the help.

Rajeev:
I recently sent the following information to someone who has a similar
problem to yours, i.e., involving establishing & maintaining a comprehensive
backup system. Perhaps this info will be of some value to you.

While the XP operating system does include a backup utility, it's neither
very user-friendly nor very good as a comprehensive backup program. You
really should consider a third-party backup program such as the Acronis True
Image program suggested by a number of other respondents.

A disk cloning/disk imaging program such as the previously mentioned Acronis
True Image program can be used in routine fashion to "clone" the contents of
your internal HDD to another HDD, either internal or external. By so doing
you would have, for all practical purposes, an exact duplicate of your
source drive (your day-to-day working HDD) including the operating system,
your programs/applications, and all your user-created data. What better
backup system can one have?

In your particular case you would simply connect a new HDD as a secondary
HDD in your system and use the disk-cloning program to clone the contents of
your current boot drive to the new HDD; then connect/configure your
newly-cloned HDD as your new boot drive.

Alternatively, you could purchase a USB external enclosure together with a
new HDD; install that HDD in the enclosure and perform the disk-cloning
operation that way. Then remove the HDD from its enclosure and install the
newly-cloned HDD as your new boot drive.

The advantage of the latter process is that you would now have a USB
external enclosure which you could use for future systematic routine backup
purposes using your disk-cloning program. Naturally this would entail the
purchase of another HDD since you've indicated your present disk is failing.
So that in the event at some later point your internal HDD was no longer
usable because it too became defective or the operating system on that drive
became so corrupt that the drive would be dysfunctional, you could clone the
contents of your USBEHD back to that internal HDD (assuming it was
mechanically/electronically non-defective) or to a new HDD should that be
needed. Thus, you entire system
would be restored to its former functional state.

By & large these disk imaging programs when employed for basic disk-to-disk
cloning purposes are relatively simple & straightforward to use and they're
quite effective in maintaining a near-failsafe backup system.

While the Acronis program is a fine program, for a variety of reasons we
much prefer the Casper 4.0 disk-cloning program - see
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/. It's an extremely simple
program to use even for an inexperienced user, reasonably quick in
operation, and quite effective. There's virtually no learning curve in
undertaking the disk cloning process as one navigates through the few
easy-to-understand screens with a final mouse-click on the button on the
screen which will trigger the disk-cloning process. After undertaking one or
two disk-cloning operations it should take the user no more than 20 seconds
or so to get to that point.

The Casper 4.0 program is also capable of scheduling the disk-cloning
process on a daily, weekly, or other time period selected by the user so
that you could arrange for automatic backups at pre-determined times.

There's a trial version available (see above link) although it's somewhat
crippled but it will give you a good idea as to how the program works. And I
can provide further details about the program should you be interested.

The Acronis program also has a trial version available, so take a look at
that one also at http://www.acronis.com.

In any event, give a disk-cloning program some serious consideration.
Anna

 

[Rajeev]

Thanks Anna.

My next question is will I still need XP CDs for any further work after disk
cloning works.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You should have one, period. If you have to perform a repair install or
reinstall Windows you will need one. If you need to add Windows components
you will need one.

 

[Xandros]

If you are simply replacing a hard drive the clone will be fine as you won't
need drivers. If you were swapping out a mother board you might very well
need an XP Cd to do a Repair Install.

 

[dg]

I got Windows XP Pro SP2. When I reboot my PC it complains that the HD
is in imminent danger of failure.

<snip>

I already have a HD that caused a similar message. I backed it up using an
image program as others suggested (I used Norton Ghost) and did a "low
level format" on that HD using a utility from the HD manufacturer. The HD
is a Maxtor so I used MaxBlast or PowerMax (I'm not sure) to do this. This
drive is working fine since then, it was about 4 years ago.

BTW, if your PC came with Windows preinstalled, there should be some
utility on it to create at least factory restore CDs. My new portable has a
program on it to create "Factory" (like brand new) restore CDs or DVDs,
"Current Status" restore CDs or DVDs and "Drivers and Programs" CD.

dg

 

[John H Meyers]

[You can't restore] with the kind of backup in XP.
You need a full system backup
using a program like Acronis True Image or Ghost.
And you better have an XP cd on hand to do any needed repairs
when you restore to the new hard drive.

I assume you mean that you "can't restore"
only if you have no OS on the new hard disk,
and are thus unable to run NTbackup to perform the restore.

May I then change the premise, and ask a related question?

I have an authorized, licensed XP Pro with its "volume" key
that I used to install XP on my desktop,
and I back up my entire drive, plus "System State"
using Windows Backup (NTbackup),
saving the single backup file on an external USB drive
(my system can not boot from an external drive,
nor do I want to "clone" my drive, because that would waste
a 300GB backup drive to clone a 14GB internal drive,
and not have all 300GB for storage of multiple backups,
plus any other files that I want).

My question:

If I wipe my drive (or install a new drive)
and re-install XP Pro, is there anything that I can not
completely restore from my complete NTbackup of my current system?

In particular, are all user profiles and registry hives
(even of the user performing the backup and restore)
fully restorable?

[I need this answer for myself, thanks]


Second question, on behalf of the OP:

What if the OP temporarily "borrowed" any copy of XP
and installed on his new (or repaired/reformatted) drive,
then used its now installed OS to restore his own complete NTbackup?

Would the complete restoration of his own backup now "overlay"
and replace the non-"activated" temporarily installed OS,
and thus make it merely a "momentarily borrowed" copy of Windows,
no longer present at all after being merely used as a vehicle
for a complete restoration of his properly activated own copy of XP?

If this would work, what, if anything, would be wrong with that?

Thanks, on behalf of both me and my OP.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

My question:

If I wipe my drive (or install a new drive)
and re-install XP Pro, is there anything that I can not
completely restore from my complete NTbackup of my current system?

In particular, are all user profiles and registry hives
(even of the user performing the backup and restore)
fully restorable?

You can use your backup to restore your setup in total, or you can
re-install XP, you can't do both.

 

[Anna]

[You can't restore] with the kind of backup in XP.
You need a full system backup
using a program like Acronis True Image or Ghost.

[SNIP]

May I then change the premise, and ask a related question?

I have an authorized, licensed XP Pro with its "volume" key
that I used to install XP on my desktop,
and I back up my entire drive, plus "System State"
using Windows Backup (NTbackup),
saving the single backup file on an external USB drive
(my system can not boot from an external drive,
nor do I want to "clone" my drive, because that would waste
a 300GB backup drive to clone a 14GB internal drive,
and not have all 300GB for storage of multiple backups,
plus any other files that I want).

[SNIP]


John:
May I just address the above portion of your latest post and leave the
remainder of your query to other responders?

Using virtually any modern disk-cloning program (our favorite is the Casper
4.0 program), a user can create a partition on the HDD that will be the
recipient of the clone. So that in your case you could simply create a
partition on your 300 GB HDD (I'm assuming it's an external USB HDD) that
would be sufficient to retain the cloned contents from your internal
("source") HDD - for example in your case about 20 GB or whatever you deem
to be a reasonable amount of disk space for current & future needs. So that
the remainder of the disk space on your 300 GB HDD could be used for
whatever other purposes you have in mind.

So do give serious consideration to using a comprehensive disk-cloning
program which comes close to providing a failsafe backup system.
Anna

 

[John H Meyers]

You can use your backup to restore your setup in total,
or you can re-install XP, you can't do both.

But you have to do both, since it takes an already-installed
running Windows to run the restore program (NTbackup.exe),
unless it can be run directly from "recovery" on CD (can it?)

All the questions asked earlier (about Windows' built-in NTbackup,
not about "ghosting" a drive) remain open, thanks.

--

 

[John H Meyers]

Using virtually any modern disk-cloning program (our favorite is the Casper
4.0 program), a user can create a partition on the HDD that will be the
recipient of the clone. So that in your case you could simply create a
partition on your 300 GB HDD (I'm assuming it's an external USB HDD)
that would be sufficient to retain the cloned contents
from your internal ("source") HDD

I need the flexibility to retain a variable-depth history of backups,
each of which may be full, or partial, or just System State, etc.,
on a drive already partitioned (one partition) and in use,
and also not to have to destroy an entire previous single "clone" backup
the moment the first byte of a new backup begins to overwrite the old
(this is a pitfall which has bitten anyone
who has ever crashed right in the middle of such an operation),
so I am looking for the answers to the questions about NTbackup.exe
(and about whether a full restore, including "System State,"
fully replaces any interim "borrowed" OS that could be used
to "bootstrap" the restore process), though I appreciate
the alternative suggestions you have kindly offered,
for which I thank you very much.

--

 

[Anna]

I need the flexibility to retain a variable-depth history of backups,
each of which may be full, or partial, or just System State, etc.,
on a drive already partitioned (one partition) and in use,
and also not to have to destroy an entire previous single "clone" backup
the moment the first byte of a new backup begins to overwrite the old
(this is a pitfall which has bitten anyone
who has ever crashed right in the middle of such an operation),
so I am looking for the answers to the questions about NTbackup.exe
(and about whether a full restore, including "System State,"
fully replaces any interim "borrowed" OS that could be used
to "bootstrap" the restore process), though I appreciate
the alternative suggestions you have kindly offered,
for which I thank you very much.

John:
Well that being the case, i.e., you need "generational" backups, would not a
disk-imaging program such as the Acronis program serve your needs? (Casper
4.0 being a disk-to-disk cloning program does not have disk-imaging
capability).

So by using such a disk-imaging program you could easily create incremental
or differential backups of your system at any particular point in time and
maintain these backups (or "archives" as Acronis calls them) on a single
partition of your USB external HDD. And again you would have the advantage
of having a complete backup of your system at any particular prior point in
time. The recovery/restoration process involving such is generally
straightforward & effective.
Anna

 

[Rajeev]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Xandros. Yes I am not planning replacing any other hardware, so think just
cloning will work for me.

Last night I unplugged the HD and replugged it and after doing bit of
vacumming and it seems its not reporting that error - though makes
click-click nose once in a while.

As you have said DG, I think I noticed there is some similar option on the
bios. I will check what it says. I am planning buying a clonning product.
That will definitely help.

 

[Xandros]

If the drive is still clicking noticeably then you should backup your data
now. It could fail at any moment or it might last awhile but you can't tell.
If you have been warned of impending failure then I suggest you take steps
as soon as possible to protect your data. Over the years I have had many
hard drives fail. I've learned my lesson!

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

But you have to do both, since it takes an already-installed
running Windows to run the restore program (NTbackup.exe),
unless it can be run directly from "recovery" on CD (can it?)

All the questions asked earlier (about Windows' built-in NTbackup,
not about "ghosting" a drive) remain open, thanks.

Abandon NTbackup.

It sucks.

NO one here will tell you anything different.

Spend some cash and get a flexible backup system.

 

[John H Meyers]

NTbackup sucks.
NO one here will tell you anything different.

NTbackup is actually Veritas "Backup Exec" (slightly stripped down),
so I guess we now have an opinion as well on the Veritas product line,
although an opinion of this sort, not backed by any apparent knowledge
of even the answers to my simple questions, doesn't carry much weight.

I'd like to get an answer about the "restore" function of NTbackup,
but it appears either no one knows,
or that no one who knows feels like replying.

Spend some cash and get a flexible backup system.

Anyone who doesn't see the flexibility in "Backup Exec"
is apparently not looking.

It's also a little late for the OP,
who may have only his NTbackup at hand.

Thankfully he isn't hiring anyone here as a consultant,
who would only tell him what he might have done earlier,
and to dump on what he has been doing,
but in no way address his actual need or solve his problem.

--

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

It's also a little late for the OP,
who may have only his NTbackup at hand.

Thankfully he isn't hiring anyone here as a consultant,
who would only tell him what he might have done earlier,
and to dump on what he has been doing,
but in no way address his actual need or solve his problem.

The two questions he asked were answered.

His situation is probably beyond help and all of the replies showed
him how NOT to experience this situation again.

 

[John H Meyers]

His situation is probably beyond help

How does ASR manage to do it, then (or is ASR a fake?)

--