Automated System Restore without floppy.

[Andrew]

Hi,

I am interested in using the Automated System Restore in Windows XP,
which is supposed to absolutely require a floppy drive for the restore
function (but not the backup) according to Microsoft and many
independent internet sites.

No problems in using on my old computer with floppy drive, but on my new
computer I have no floppy drive; in its place I have a card reader
(drives E: F: G: and H.

Now in Windows XP it is possible to alter the drive letter for a drive.
eg it is possible to make the E: drive into the A: drive (though this
seems to be lost when rebooted.)

My question is, during an Automated Restore in Windows is it possible to
reboot from the Windows XP disk, change the drive letter and then do a
normal ASR using an SF card (ie was drive E: now A instead of a floppy.

I realize I could easily test this myself but I would prefer not to
chance stuffing up my new computer after spending several days
recovering from the previous crash.

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Rock]

Hi,

I am interested in using the Automated System Restore in Windows XP, which
is supposed to absolutely require a floppy drive for the restore function
(but not the backup) according to Microsoft and many independent internet
sites.

No problems in using on my old computer with floppy drive, but on my new
computer I have no floppy drive; in its place I have a card reader (drives
E: F: G: and H.

Now in Windows XP it is possible to alter the drive letter for a drive. eg
it is possible to make the E: drive into the A: drive (though this seems
to be lost when rebooted.)

My question is, during an Automated Restore in Windows is it possible to
reboot from the Windows XP disk, change the drive letter and then do a
normal ASR using an SF card (ie was drive E: now A instead of a floppy.

I realize I could easily test this myself but I would prefer not to chance
stuffing up my new computer after spending several days recovering from
the previous crash.

No, it needs the floppy drive. You could get an external floppy.

Frankly I found the ASR restore process to be quite cumbersome. It has to
first install a fresh copy of XP, then restore the data from the ASR backup.
The couple of times I did it as a test, not all programs came back working
properly. I gave up on that and went to a drive imaging program.

These are fast and reliable. It creates a compressed image of the drive
which can be stored on external media such as a USB drive or DVD (though DVD
is much slower and requires quite a few disks depending on the size of the
drives and partitions. Restores can be done quickly - much faster than the
ASR process. Programs that do this are Acronis True Image (currently at
version 10), Norton Ghost 10, and Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows.
Acronis True Image seems to be the favorite at the moment.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I am interested in using the Automated System Restore in Windows XP,
which is supposed to absolutely require a floppy drive for the restore
function (but not the backup) according to Microsoft and many
independent internet sites.

No problems in using on my old computer with floppy drive, but on my new
computer I have no floppy drive; in its place I have a card reader
(drives E: F: G: and H.

Now in Windows XP it is possible to alter the drive letter for a drive.
eg it is possible to make the E: drive into the A: drive (though this
seems to be lost when rebooted.)

My question is, during an Automated Restore in Windows is it possible to
reboot from the Windows XP disk, change the drive letter and then do a
normal ASR using an SF card (ie was drive E: now A instead of a floppy.

I realize I could easily test this myself but I would prefer not to
chance stuffing up my new computer after spending several days
recovering from the previous crash.

Cheers

Andrew

I do not know the answer to your question but I am
uncomfortable with your approach. After spending s
everal days recovering from a crash, you are willing to
trust a stranger's advice, without knowing if it is correct
until you suffer the next crash.

A far safer approach would go like this:
- Get an imaging program, e.g. from Acronis.
- Get yourself a second-hand disk. 10 GBytes should do nicely.
- Create an image of your system partition. Park it on drive D:.
- Boot the machine with your Acronis Recovery CD and
restore the image to the second-hand disk.
- Test the second-hand disk.
- Repeat the process every six months.

This method is risk-free and it gives you a guaranteed
result. It's cheap too when compared with the time you
spent recovering from your recent crash.

 

[Andrew]

I do not know the answer to your question but I am
uncomfortable with your approach. After spending s
everal days recovering from a crash, you are willing to
trust a stranger's advice, without knowing if it is correct
until you suffer the next crash.

Well no, actually. But I felt that it might be worth testing if someone
else had indicated that it would work. Otherwise I will forget it.

Andrew

 

[chriske911]

Andrew pretended :

Well no, actually. But I felt that it might be worth testing if someone else
had indicated that it would work. Otherwise I will forget it.

some computers are able to boot from an USB flash disk
this device would get the A: assigned to it but I found it to fail
without exception once you get a bit further in the restore process

so no, don't try it and use an imaging tool like so many others here
have advised you

grtz

 

[Andrew]

some computers are able to boot from an USB flash disk
this device would get the A: assigned to it but I found it to fail
without exception once you get a bit further in the restore process

so no, don't try it and use an imaging tool like so many others here
have advised you

grtz

Thanks for that info. I will have a look at Acronis.

Cheers

Andrew