R
Rod Speed
Timothy Daniels said:
Correct. But you have never been able to show why
you cant just restore an image in that particular situation.
You have never been able to show why you cant
just restore an image in that particular situation.
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Imaging an Entire Partitoned Hard Drive - Is this possible ?
Correct. But you have never been able to show why
you cant just restore an image in that particular situation.
You have never been able to show why you cant
just restore an image in that particular situation.
I
Irwin
I understand what you want. You don't want images of your drive, which
are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact copy of your
partition to boot into in the case of corruption of your primary boot
partition with no loss of time. This is certainly can be done with
something like Partition Magic, which doesn't image the partition but
will make an exact copy. There are issues, though.
1. You have to make the copy over and over to keep it current, which is
no different I guess than backing up over and over.
2. If you copy to the same drive, you have to make sure the boot.ini
file of the cloned partition points at the right place. It won't help
if it points to the corrupted partition. If memory serves me correctly,
when copying the boot partition with partiition magic, it will
correctly rewrite both boot.ini files with a menu to choose one of the
now two bootable partitions.
3. Beware copying the boot partition to a different drive. I tried that
once and it was a disaster. I was later told that there is something
called a disk signature, maybe. And if you copy the boot partition to
drive two but the disk signature still tells it that is on disk one, it
will still try to use disk one. I was told that this could be fixed in
the registry, but I don't have the details. It certainly didn't work
properly for me but I am told it can be done.
I always try to have two working operating systems on every system,
because it makes some things easier. I personally agree with you that
it is worthwhile, though I will state clearly that if people don't know
what they are doing it is a recipe for disaster. And actually, for
people like me who sometimes know what they are doing, it still can be
a disaster and has been. But I still think it is a good idea more times
than not.
Irwin
are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact copy of your
partition to boot into in the case of corruption of your primary boot
partition with no loss of time. This is certainly can be done with
something like Partition Magic, which doesn't image the partition but
will make an exact copy. There are issues, though.
1. You have to make the copy over and over to keep it current, which is
no different I guess than backing up over and over.
2. If you copy to the same drive, you have to make sure the boot.ini
file of the cloned partition points at the right place. It won't help
if it points to the corrupted partition. If memory serves me correctly,
when copying the boot partition with partiition magic, it will
correctly rewrite both boot.ini files with a menu to choose one of the
now two bootable partitions.
3. Beware copying the boot partition to a different drive. I tried that
once and it was a disaster. I was later told that there is something
called a disk signature, maybe. And if you copy the boot partition to
drive two but the disk signature still tells it that is on disk one, it
will still try to use disk one. I was told that this could be fixed in
the registry, but I don't have the details. It certainly didn't work
properly for me but I am told it can be done.
I always try to have two working operating systems on every system,
because it makes some things easier. I personally agree with you that
it is worthwhile, though I will state clearly that if people don't know
what they are doing it is a recipe for disaster. And actually, for
people like me who sometimes know what they are doing, it still can be
a disaster and has been. But I still think it is a good idea more times
than not.
Irwin
C
chrisv
Rod said:Wacko, you seemed to have forgotten that I proved in this thread that
TrueImage CAN SO DO!
Perhaps he is wise-eoungh to have you filtered, Rod^Hn.
I
Irwin
I understand what you want. You don't want images of your drive, which
are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact copy of your
partition to boot into in the case of corruption of your primary boot
partition with no loss of time. This is certainly can be done with
something like Partition Magic, which doesn't image the partition but
will make an exact copy. There are issues, though.
1. You have to make the copy over and over to keep it current, which is
no different I guess than backing up over and over.
2. If you copy to the same drive, you have to make sure the boot.ini
file of the cloned partition points at the right place. It won't help
if it points to the corrupted partition. If memory serves me correctly,
when copying the boot partition with partiition magic, it will
correctly rewrite both boot.ini files with a menu to choose one of the
now two bootable partitions.
3. Beware copying the boot partition to a different drive. I tried that
once and it was a disaster. I was later told that there is something
called a disk signature, maybe. And if you copy the boot partition to
drive two but the disk signature still tells it that is on disk one, it
will still try to use disk one. I was told that this could be fixed in
the registry, but I don't have the details. It certainly didn't work
properly for me but I am told it can be done.
I always try to have two working operating systems on every system,
because it makes some things easier. I personally agree with you that
it is worthwhile, though I will state clearly that if people don't know
what they are doing it is a recipe for disaster. And actually, for
people like me who sometimes know what they are doing, it still can be
a disaster and has been. But I still think it is a good idea more times
than not.
Irwin
are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact copy of your
partition to boot into in the case of corruption of your primary boot
partition with no loss of time. This is certainly can be done with
something like Partition Magic, which doesn't image the partition but
will make an exact copy. There are issues, though.
1. You have to make the copy over and over to keep it current, which is
no different I guess than backing up over and over.
2. If you copy to the same drive, you have to make sure the boot.ini
file of the cloned partition points at the right place. It won't help
if it points to the corrupted partition. If memory serves me correctly,
when copying the boot partition with partiition magic, it will
correctly rewrite both boot.ini files with a menu to choose one of the
now two bootable partitions.
3. Beware copying the boot partition to a different drive. I tried that
once and it was a disaster. I was later told that there is something
called a disk signature, maybe. And if you copy the boot partition to
drive two but the disk signature still tells it that is on disk one, it
will still try to use disk one. I was told that this could be fixed in
the registry, but I don't have the details. It certainly didn't work
properly for me but I am told it can be done.
I always try to have two working operating systems on every system,
because it makes some things easier. I personally agree with you that
it is worthwhile, though I will state clearly that if people don't know
what they are doing it is a recipe for disaster. And actually, for
people like me who sometimes know what they are doing, it still can be
a disaster and has been. But I still think it is a good idea more times
than not.
Irwin
T
Timothy Daniels
Irwin said:I understand what you want. You don't want images of your drive,
which are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact
copy of your partition to boot into in the case of corruption of
your primary boot partition with no loss of time. This is certainly
can be done with something like Partition Magic, which doesn't
image the partition but will make an exact copy. There are issues,
though.
I have Partition Magic, but it first "compacts" the
partitions on the destination drive before doing the
copy, and the overall process takes too long.
1. You have to make the copy over and over to keep it current,
which is no different I guess than backing up over and over.
My "incremental backups" are done simply by
dragging 'n dropping a couple directories to the
lastest partition on the destination drive. Total
backups take about 5 to 9 minutes.
2. If you copy to the same drive, you have to make sure the boot.ini
file of the cloned partition points at the right place. It won't help
if it points to the corrupted partition. If memory serves me correctly,
when copying the boot partition with partiition magic, it will
correctly rewrite both boot.ini files with a menu to choose one of
the now two bootable partitions.
Yes, the boot.ini file on the primary system must
have an entry added to point to the new partition,
and the new partition must have its boot.ini file
extended to point to other partitions on the drive.
I just have a generic boot.ini file that points to all
possible partitions in the system, and I use it to
select partitions to boot, not named systems.
3. Beware copying the boot partition to a different drive. I tried
that once and it was a disaster. I was later told that there is
something called a disk signature, maybe. And if you copy the
boot partition to drive two but the disk signature still tells it that
is on disk one, it will still try to use disk one. I was told that this
could be fixed in the registry, but I don't have the details. It certainly
didn't work properly for me but I am told it can be done.
Rod Speed's tip for handling that problem is to
be sure that the "parent" system is not visible to
the clone when the clone boots up for the 1st time.
After the clone has established its own identity by
its 1st boot-up, it can subsequently be booted with
its "parent" visible to it, and the "parent" system
will only appear to it as just another partition with
an accessible file structure - which makes subsequent
drag 'n drops between the two systems real easy.
I always try to have two working operating systems on every system,
because it makes some things easier. I personally agree with you
that it is worthwhile, though I will state clearly that if people don't know
what they are doing it is a recipe for disaster. And actually, for people
like me who sometimes know what they are doing, it still can be a
disaster and has been. But I still think it is a good idea more times
than not.
Three caveats pertain:
1) Don't boot the clone for the 1st time with its "parent"
visible to it.
2) Adjust the boot.ini files in both "parent" and clone
partitions. (I just use a generic boot.ini file that has
with lots of pointers.)
3) If you want to boot the new clone using *it's* boot.ini file,
its "active" flag must be set for its partition, and
its hard drive must appear at the head of the BIOS'
hard drive boot order.
*TimDaniels*
T
Timothy Daniels
Ron Reaugh said:Double talk. With TrueImage one boots from a recovery CD.
That functionality has nothing to do with imaging but how ones
keeps their HD.
The "recovery CD" merely copies the image file
back to a primary hard drive to re-create a bootable
system partition. That takes a long time. My method
has a bootable system that can be booted immediately
from an internal hard drive, and so it's much quicker to
be back up and running. The internal hard drive may
be mounted in a standard HD slot, or it can be on a
removeable tray such as those made by Kingwin:
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_cat.asp?CateID=25
I use the one with the fan in the bottom of the tray,
and it stays quite cool during use:
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=25&ID=136
A Froogle.Google or a Nextag or a Pricewatch search
can find prices on these tray/rack pairs going for
around $14 and extra trays for around $10. I love 'em.
I use shielded round cable with 'em, and I love those, too.
*TimDaniels*
T
Timothy Daniels
Irwin said:I understand what you want. You don't want images of your drive,
which are just files and not bootable clones. You want an exact
copy of your partition to boot into in the case of corruption of
your primary boot partition with no loss of time....
[.............]
Yes. Please see my reply elsewhere in this thread.
*TimDaniels*
I
Irwin
So, you are saying that you were able to copy the boot partition from
disc 1 to disk 2 and and the OS on disc 2 worked properly?
You know, I did that also, and it looked like it worked properly but
actually it wasn't. It isn't always easy to tell. The OS from disc 2
was actually using files from disc 1, which wasn't what I wanted but I
couldn't tell initially since the files were the same. It would be a
serious problem if they were not compatible or corrupted.
disc 1 to disk 2 and and the OS on disc 2 worked properly?
You know, I did that also, and it looked like it worked properly but
actually it wasn't. It isn't always easy to tell. The OS from disc 2
was actually using files from disc 1, which wasn't what I wanted but I
couldn't tell initially since the files were the same. It would be a
serious problem if they were not compatible or corrupted.
T
Timothy Daniels
Irwin said:So, you are saying that you were able to copy the boot partition from
disc 1 to disk 2 and and the OS on disc 2 worked properly?
Yes. You have to observe Rod Speed's tip and boot up
the clone for the 1st time without its "parent" visible to it.
That can be done by unplugging the "parent" HD temporarily
or by cutting off the "parent" HD's power. I do the latter with
a DPST switch in the "parent" HD's power cable. If you have
the "parent" HD in a removeable tray - such as the kind made
by Kingwin - you can use its power switch to do the same
thing.
You know, I did that also, and it looked like it worked properly but
actually it wasn't. It isn't always easy to tell. The OS from disc 2
was actually using files from disc 1, which wasn't what I wanted but I
couldn't tell initially since the files were the same. It would be a
serious problem if they were not compatible or corrupted.
That's a classic symptom of a clone's 1st boot-up with
the "parent" visible to it. Observe the 3 caveats that I listed,
and you won't have a problem.
*TimDaniels*
T
Timothy Daniels
Irwin said:So, you are saying that you were able to copy the boot partition
from disc 1 to disk 2 and and the OS on disc 2 worked properly?
You know, I did that also, and it looked like it worked properly but
actually it wasn't. It isn't always easy to tell. The OS from disc 2
was actually using files from disc 1, which wasn't what I wanted
but I couldn't tell initially since the files were the same. It would be
a serious problem if they were not compatible or corrupted.
Yes. Please see my reply elsewhere in this thread.
*TimDaniels*
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