XxxCopy_Restore

[Cousin Stanley]

About once a month I save a backup copy of my Win98_SE system
using xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone ....

However, I've never had the opportunity/misfortune
to actually restore one of these xxcopy clone backups
in its entirety, only an odd trashed file here and there ....

I have 2 different Linux system available for recovery,
SystemResueCD and Knoppix ....

In the event of a catastrophic Windows failure,
following a reformat, what is the easiest way
to restore the previously saved xxcopy backup ....

A simple Bash shell script or a Python script under Knoppix
would be no problem, but I'm wondering
if there is there something already in the X zone
that is simlar to and as simple as xxcopy itself
that could be used ???

 

[Boomer]

About once a month I save a backup copy of my Win98_SE system
using xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone .... [snip]

In the event of a catastrophic Windows failure,
following a reformat, what is the easiest way
to restore the previously saved xxcopy backup ....

Forgive my ignorance about this program but if it's the one I am
thinking of, you can ask the author. He's quite responsive.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Cousin Stanley]

| Forgive my ignorance about this program but if it's the one I am
| thinking of, you can ask the author. He's quite responsive.
| E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

Cousin Boomer ....

Thanks for the input ....

However, xxcopy is a Windows program
from http://www.xxcopy.com ....

A Win95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP utility
which runs in command line mode.

I use it routinely under Windows
to make complete clone backups ....

In the event that Windows is T R A S H E D ,
then I can boot into Linux and still read the CD
that I previously saved using xxcopy under Windows ....

What I'm looking for is a Linux analog for xxcopy
so that I could easily copy everything back
and have a restored Windows system ....

 

[REMbranded]

"Cousin Stanley" <[email protected]> wrote:

About once a month I save a backup copy of my Win98_SE system
using xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone ....

However, I've never had the opportunity/misfortune
to actually restore one of these xxcopy clone backups
in its entirety, only an odd trashed file here and there ....

I have 2 different Linux system available for recovery,
SystemResueCD and Knoppix ....

In the event of a catastrophic Windows failure,
following a reformat, what is the easiest way
to restore the previously saved xxcopy backup ....

A simple Bash shell script or a Python script under Knoppix
would be no problem, but I'm wondering
if there is there something already in the X zone
that is simlar to and as simple as xxcopy itself
that could be used ???

I'm really not sure that a foreign OS will work.

If you use a boot manager you can simply boot to F:, format C:. and
then "xxcopy F:\ C:\ /clone".

This works very nicely. As discussed previously, you might be able to
make your F: partition active in fdisk and boot without a boot
manager. I've never tried this, but it was said to work.

My scheme is 3 partitions and a boot manager. I did a clean install,
went through the lengthy Windows update process, then I removed
everything I did not want (AOL, Backweb, etc) and ran regseeker to
clean up the registry. Then I installed the minimal programs (no AV or
anything else that is best served fresh) that I know I'll always use.
Then I set everything up, ISP dialers, mail and news programs, etc. to
the point the majority of the grunge work setting things up was done.

This is my base install. I cloned it to a partition and hid the
partition. Then I cloned it to another partition. One belongs to my
kids and one to me and the last is never used except to copy from.

When my kids partition needs it, I boot up on my partition, format the
kids partition and xxcopy the base install over. If mine needs it I
boot up on the kids partition and format mine before xxcopying the
base install over.

This bypasses the problem of copying files in use and provides a
crystal clean install that boots within minutes.

I had made a set of system backup CD's my first go around. It was
2-2.5 years before I ever needed it. I had Norton AV, which was badly
outdated and which I was never able to remove successfully. I had
several other programs that refused to leave also and the new install
was a flop. I chunked the CD's. <G>

It is worth pondering what you want on your backup. Do you want to
backup several browsers? Or would you prefer to go get the newest
releases after you use your backup somewhere on down the road?

My choice was to begin with a minimal install and a clean registry and
download and install the current browsers and such after the fact.
xxcopy works like a charm with this method. If you copy your C: to
your backup monthly take into account that you might copy over
whatever it is that trashes Windows.

Data files will require a plan. I don't really keep any data that I
want to retain, well, the few I do I put on CD's.

The XOSL site isn't currently coming up?

www.xosl.org/

But the Ranish site has a working link for this boot manager:

http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm

 

[Duddits]

About once a month I save a backup copy of my Win98_SE system
using xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone ....

However, I've never had the opportunity/misfortune
to actually restore one of these xxcopy clone backups
in its entirety, only an odd trashed file here and there ....

I have 2 different Linux system available for recovery,
SystemResueCD and Knoppix ....

In the event of a catastrophic Windows failure,
following a reformat, what is the easiest way
to restore the previously saved xxcopy backup ....

A simple Bash shell script or a Python script under Knoppix
would be no problem, but I'm wondering
if there is there something already in the X zone
that is simlar to and as simple as xxcopy itself
that could be used ???

This is what I have burned for a rainy day;-)
http://www.sysresccd.org/

SystemRescueCd

Description: SystemRescueCd is a linux system on a bootable cdrom for
repairing your system and your data after a crash. It also aims to provide
an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and
editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system
utilities (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic ones (editors,
midnight commander, network tools). It aims to be very easy to use: just
boot from the cdrom, and you can do everything. The kernel of the system
supports most important file systems (ext2/ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs, vfat,
ntfs, iso9660), and network ones (samba and nfs).

Should make life much easier if you need to restore Windows.

regards

Dud

 

[Cousin Stanley]

| I'm really not sure that a foreign OS will work.

I'm not either as I've never done it, but I have used Linux
on this box to create and copy files to where I wanted them
on disk and these files were subsequently 100% usable under Windows ....

This success gives me some confidence that a complete restore via Linux
of a saved Windows system might work, but until I try it myself
or hear for sure from someone else that it works or not,
I just don't know ....

| If you use a boot manager you can simply boot to F:, format C:.
| and then "xxcopy F:\ C:\ /clone".
| ....

Using a boot manager is a good idea and is an option
that I had completely spaced off ....

Even though I have my Windows system leaned down
to about 625 MB so that it all fits nicely on a single CD
without using compression, I'm trying to eliminate the need
to maintain it on a hard-disk drive as I need the space ....

A significant portion of this leaning effort was achieved
by using Change_of_Address, COA2, from PC Mag, but I don't
know where the Last_Freeware_Edition of this program
can be found ....

| This bypasses the problem of copying files in use
| and provides a crystal clean install that boots within minutes.

This is what I'm trying to achieve,
but by first restoring from a CD copy
instead of hard-disk ....

The machine I use is a 4.5 year old Compaq and rebuilding
the system from scratch is a MAJOR pain since I only
have the Compaq System Restore CD, not a full Windows install CD ....

This Restore CD provides Win98 First Edition, then I have
to use another Win98 Second Edition Update CD, then all subsequent
updates and configs ....

| It is worth pondering what you want on your backup.
| Do you want to backup several browsers? Or would you prefer
| to go get the newest releases after you use your backup somewhere
| on down the road?

I only want to backup/restore the base Windows install itself
as I install everything else to different partitions ....

Browser-wise I use IE6, which is installed on the Windows system
partition, and Mozilla 1.5 which is installed on a separate partition
including 13 MB that Mozilla originally dumped on the C:\ drive
and was subsequently moved via COA2 ....

I think that using a boot manager and retaining the xxcopy /clone
on the HDD as you have suggested may be the best option for the moment
until I can figure out how to restore without the /clone online,
and I'm off to look for XOSL ....

Thanks for the info ....

 

[Cousin Stanley]

Cousin Dud ....

I have a bootable System Rescue CD
and have experimented with it a bit ....

http://www.sysresccd.org/

What I'm trying to figure out is what Linux commands/programs
are the easiest to use to copy everything back to the hard-drive
from the CD in one fell swoop in a manner analogous to xxcopy ....

I create the backup under Windows with only one simple command line
.... xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone and then burn this to a CD ....

When I want to restore it via Linux using the System Rescue CD,
what should the command-line look like ???

I have no problem with simple Bash shell scripts under Linux,
but I'm wondering if there is an xxcopy analog that could be
as simple as the single line that created it originally ....

 

[REMbranded]

"Cousin Stanley" <[email protected]> wrote:

A significant portion of this leaning effort was achieved
by using Change_of_Address, COA2, from PC Mag, but I don't
know where the Last_Freeware_Edition of this program
can be found ....

I can't help with COA, but I have a copy of MoveIt here:

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/moveit11.html


------------ And now a word from our sponsor ---------------------
For a secure high performance FTP using SSL/TLS encryption
upgrade to SurgeFTP
---- See http://netwinsite.com/sponsor/sponsor_surgeftp.htm ----

 

[My Name]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

I can't help with COA, but I have a copy of MoveIt here:

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/moveit11.html

I've got a copy of COA that has the following license agreement.
I don't see anything in it that would prevent me from providing
a copy, but I'm not a lawyer. If interested let me know.

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[Richard Steven Hack]

What I'm trying to figure out is what Linux commands/programs
are the easiest to use to copy everything back to the hard-drive
from the CD in one fell swoop in a manner analogous to xxcopy ....

I create the backup under Windows with only one simple command line
.... xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone and then burn this to a CD ....

When I want to restore it via Linux using the System Rescue CD,
what should the command-line look like ???

I have no problem with simple Bash shell scripts under Linux,
but I'm wondering if there is an xxcopy analog that could be
as simple as the single line that created it originally ....

Have you tried the mtools utilities? Mcopy has a -s switch for
recursive copies including directories and their contents.

Check it out here: http://mtools.linux.lu/

Here is a quote from the mcopy command section:
=======================================================
The mcopy command is used to copy MS-DOS files to and from Unix. It
uses the following syntax:

mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile targetfile
mcopy [-bspanvmQT] [-D clash_option] sourcefile [ sourcefiles... ]
targetdirectory
mcopy [-tnvm] MSDOSsourcefile

Mcopy copies the specified file to the named file, or copies multiple
files to the named directory. The source and target can be either
MS-DOS or Unix files.

The use of a drive letter designation on the MS-DOS files, 'a:' for
example, determines the direction of the transfer. A missing drive
designation implies a Unix file whose path starts in the current
directory. If a source drive letter is specified with no attached file
name (e.g. mcopy a: .), all files are copied from that drive.

If only a single, MS-DOS source parameter is provided (e.g. "mcopy
a:foo.exe"), an implied destination of the current directory (`.') is
assumed.

A filename of `-' means standard input or standard output, depending
on its position on the command line.

Mcopy accepts the following command line options:

t
Text file transfer. Mcopy translates incoming carriage return/line
feeds to line feeds when copying from Dos to Unix, and vice-versa when
copying from Unix to Dos.

b
Batch mode. Optimized for huge recursive copies, but less secure if a
crash happens during the copy.

s
Recursive copy. Also copies directories and their contents

p
Preserves the attributes of the copied files

Q
When mcopying multiple files, quits as soon as one copy fails (for
example due to lacking storage space on the target disk)

a
Text (Ascii) file transfer. Mcopy translates incoming carriage
return/line feeds to line feeds.

T
Text (Ascii) file transfer with charset conversion. Differs from -a in
the Mcopy also translates incoming PC-8 characters to ISO-8859-1
equivalents as far as possible. When reading DOS files, untranslatable
characters are replaced by '#'; when writing DOS files, untranslatable
characters are replaced by '.'.

n
No confirmation when overwriting Unix files. Mcopy doesn't warn the
user when overwriting an existing Unix file. If the target file
already exists, and the -n option is not in effect, mcopy asks whether
to overwrite the file or to rename the new file (2.5 Name clashes) for
details). In order to switch off confirmation for DOS files, use -o.

m
Preserve the file modification time.

v
Verbose. Displays the name of each file as it is copied.
========================================================

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

Cousin Dud ....

I have a bootable System Rescue CD
and have experimented with it a bit ....

http://www.sysresccd.org/

What I'm trying to figure out is what Linux commands/programs
are the easiest to use to copy everything back to the hard-drive
from the CD in one fell swoop in a manner analogous to xxcopy ....

I create the backup under Windows with only one simple command line
.... xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone and then burn this to a CD ....

When I want to restore it via Linux using the System Rescue CD,
what should the command-line look like ???

I have no problem with simple Bash shell scripts under Linux,
but I'm wondering if there is an xxcopy analog that could be
as simple as the single line that created it originally ....

This site has an interesting take on using Linux to backup a Windows
2000 system and then use the backup to restore Windows 2000 in a clean
and efficient state when the Windows system starts to slow down with
age.

Don't know if it's entirely relevant to your issue, but it seems
related.

http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~leblancj/labs/lin_win2k_dual_boot.html

 

[Cousin Stanley]

Richard ....

Thanks for the Mtools info ....
http://mtools.linux.lu/

These Unix tools look promising for restoring Windows files ....

 

[Cousin Stanley]

| This site has an interesting take on using Linux to backup a Windows
| 2000 system and then use the backup to restore Windows 2000 in a clean
| and efficient state when the Windows system starts to slow down with
| age.

Richard ....

Thanks for the info and the link ....
http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~leblancj/labs/lin_win2k_dual_boot.html

I'm using Win98, but I'll take a look and see what I can learn ....

 

[Kan Yabumoto]

About once a month I save a backup copy of my Win98_SE system
using xxcopy c:\ f:\ /clone ....

In the event of a catastrophic Windows failure,
following a reformat, what is the easiest way
to restore the previously saved xxcopy backup ....

Let me weight in to answer this question.

I believe you can restore the original volume to a bootable state.
First of all, I'm not sure why this thread started to get into
Linux. Why anyone wants to have a "foreign" OS to be involved
in a purely Microsoft's environment? I don't see much relevance here.
(Besides, my Linux experience is "below average".)

If the F: drive is a full backup copy of C: drive as implied
from the Counsin's XXCopy command line, the step-by-step
instruction that I described in the "clone article" (XXTB #10)

http://www.xxcopy.com/clone

should apply here. You have completed the key part of the
step in the article (XXCOPY C:\ F:\ /CLONE). It does not matter
whether you do the next step within a few minutes, or after a few
years! If you follow the complete steps in the article, you
should be able to make the "F: drive" bootable.

For those who are not familiar with (lazy to read) the article,
let me summarize the key elements here.

1. The MBR must be correctly initialized.

You may do so by putting the drive (originally F
as Disk 1 (that's how FDISK call the first disk
which is Disk 0 by NT/2K/XP), and

FDISK /MBR

You can run this command from the "DOS7" environment
that can be achieved using the WIN9X startup diskette.

2. The partition in the new disk (Disk 1) must be "activated".
This can be done in interactive mode of FDISK. Run FDISK
without argument, and follow the clumsy menu on the screen.
(it's hard to believe Microsoft does not do anything about it :-(

3. The boot sector must be correctly initialized.

You can do it by running the SYS command. Again,
the DOS7 environment allows you to initialize the
boot sector.

SYS A: C:

Let me add just one more point. A lot of people look at the
situation as a "restore" operation. If you carefully analyze
what I described here, the procedure I suggest is not
a "restore" or "recovery" operation of the original (C
drive. Rather, it is an attempt to make the backup disk
bootable on its own. After all, why bother with the original
drive (C which is in a corrupt state? If you are really
interested in using the original (C drive (e.g., your original
drive has superior features like 7200 rpm, more cache buffer, etc.)
and you insist on "restoring" the original disk based on the
backup volume on F:, then my suggestion is still follow the
above procedure first.

To come to think of it, I wonder why many people just run a
backup procedure without testing to see if the procedure really
gives that it promises. One good thing about the XXCOPY's
clone method is that you can test if the backup drive is really
bootable without affecting anything to the main disk. Anyone
who tries the XXCOPY /CLONE technique should go throught the
complete steps at least once. --- You should do the fire drill
before you see smoke

Once you make the backup drive bootable, you may do the same
operation from the bootable (backup) drive to the original drive
(that is, just clone the new drive to the old one --- this
time, please follow the Clone article exactly). You will
then have the added benefits of a clean partition, a freshly
formatted and a newly copied set of files (remember, with
XXCOPY's logical disk-copy method, the otherwise-time-consuming
defrag procedure comes free as a bonus).

Kan Yabumoto
The author of XXCopy

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

I believe you can restore the original volume to a bootable state.
First of all, I'm not sure why this thread started to get into
Linux. Why anyone wants to have a "foreign" OS to be involved
in a purely Microsoft's environment? I don't see much relevance here.

Well, Linux can do things to and with Microsoft that Microsoft cannot
do to Linux. Linux can understand FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS whereas
Microsoft has no clue about ext2 and ext3 (except for one or two
freeware utilities that allow you to browse them from Windows). As
the article I cited mentioned, you can use Linux to backup a Windows
2000 system.

A LOT of people are starting to get Linux "rescue disks" to use to
restore bollixed up Windows systems. Not entirely necessary perhaps,
but there are advantages to having a fully operating OS from CD to
repair another system. Especially since tools on Linux for fixing
partitions and such are somewhat more advanced over Windows (at least
the freeware ones).

 

[REMbranded]

My Name <no@e/-\mail.com> wrote:

I've got a copy of COA that has the following license agreement.
I don't see anything in it that would prevent me from providing
a copy, but I'm not a lawyer. If interested let me know.

Sorry for the delay, I was on the way out when I read this and forgot
to get back. If I could find my Easter egg dye I would try an
experiment...

LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR PC MAGAZINE UTILITIES

Ziff-Davis grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license
to use the source code distributed with PC Magazine utilities for
educational, non-commercial purposes only. Under no circumstances
may you distribute any unaltered or altered version of the Software
through any means, including, without limitation, personal bulletin
boards, ftp sites, CompuServe, the Web, floppy disk or other storage
device, or under any name, including without limitation, your name,
Ziff-Davis' name or any third party's name, nor may you distribute or
market programs that contain altered or unaltered portions of the

It's a great program from what I've read, but they locked it up pretty
tightly, unfortunately, and it cannot be archived for the greater
good.

 

[Cousin Stanley]

Cousin Kan ....

Thanks for the feedback and thanks for providing xxcopy ....

I use xxcopy about once a month to /clone a copy of my Windows OS
to a different partition on a physically different disk drive,
and subsequently burn this /clone to CD for safe keeping ....

Retaining the /clone on hard-disk is a luxury that I can no longer afford
at this point, as I simply need the disk space for other purposes ....

Although I realize that the /clone could be made bootable in-place,
I've never really wanted to use it for this purpose, as it seems
to provide a very workable but temporary solution, when I would be
more interested in rebuilding the system back to the state
in which I normally use it, e.g. , the os in a different partition ....

The way in which I use the /clone is mostly as a file repository
in which to fish for recoverable files in the event that the originals
have been trashed ....

I also keep a Windows /clone stashed on a CD,
in the event of hardware failure or upgrade
or a software catastrophe in hopes that
I can restore this /clone and not have
to rebuild everything from scratch ....

At this point, using an alternate OS such as Linux
to restore Windows from the /clone seems to be
a simple and viable solution ....

Stick in the System Rescue CD with Linux SlackWare on it
stick in the /clone with Windows on it
mount the_clone
Xxxcopy cd_source hd_target /clone

I'm trying to figure out how to spell Xxxcopy in Linux ....

A Linux version of xxcopy would be WAY cool
at this point ....

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

At this point, using an alternate OS such as Linux
to restore Windows from the /clone seems to be
a simple and viable solution ....

Stick in the System Rescue CD with Linux SlackWare on it
stick in the /clone with Windows on it
mount the_clone
Xxxcopy cd_source hd_target /clone

I'm trying to figure out how to spell Xxxcopy in Linux ....

A Linux version of xxcopy would be WAY cool
at this point ....

Basically, you want to use the dd command. The dd command will
bit-read the CD /clone and write it to the target hard drive. While
dd does not the plethora of options XXCopy does, it basically does the
same concept on Linux. It has a number of useful options. Google for
the dd man page. There appear to be some issues about imaging to a
target drive that is a different size than the source drive, but for
imagine a drive to restore to the same drive, dd appears to be the way
to go. A lot of people are using dd to clone their Linux and Windows
systems, and corporate users use it to make image copies of Linux they
can rollout to other machines. There are ways of using some of the
Linux network utilities like ssh to take an image file made by dd and
pipe it to another machine for storage.

Check it out.

 

[Cousin Stanley]

| Basically, you want to use the dd command.
| ....

Richard ....

Thanks for the pointer to the dd command ....

I'll try and root out the man page ....