Is this a viable backup/restore strategy?

[Jeff W]

Hi Michael - i'm sorry - I'm missing something. If I network the two
machines, that implies a (significant?) extra step in getting the
machine that just lost it's disk up and running an O/S on a new disk.
There were times I had to do this with win98 (create a temporary win98
install in a junk directory), but seems more time consuming than
plugging the disk into another machine (and slower, as the network
connection will be slower than IDE/iDE) - so what I am I missing here?
thanks
/j

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

My response assumed they were connected already as I wasn't clear on whether
or not they were already networked.

Nonetheless, if the two are networked, with Drive Image and Ghost, you don't
need to be able to access the OS to run either application as they have boot
disk options. Assuming a network connection, you could boot PC 1 with the
image app's boot disks, restore the image file residing on PC 2 to PC 1, no
muss, no fuss no extra step.

You might consider networking the two systems now because once it is done,
the two work seamlessly together and that would save you the time and
trouble of having to remove the disk from PC 1, connect it to PC 2, go
through whatever restore process, disconnect it from PC 2, then reconnect to
PC 1.

Given the above steps, it would seem networking the two systems would be
quite a time saver once up and running.

 

[Jeff W]

agreed - my ideal method, I think, is now...

for backups, use an image backup for the partition that contains
XP. Backup the other partitions however you want to.

For restore, (thanks Sharon!)
1) add and format a new disk on the PC that had the failed disk: use the
disk prep tools on the XP setup CD to prep the drive, including
installing the Master Boot Loader .Once the drive is prepared, cancel setup.
2) Restore the image for the XP partition over the network (most imaging
programs support restoring over the network)
3) boot.
4) restore your other backups.

What gets hairy is if you lose the information in the boot sector of the
XP partition. This is when you get into repair-installs and such.