Bad drive rebuild

[LaRoux]

I have a friend with an XP Pro system that is having some trouble with the
harddrive. It hasn't outright failed yet but errors are becoming more and
more frequent.

His configuration is a Disk 0 12GB with Win98 on a 10GB partition and a 2GB
Compaq Restore partition. He later added a 60GB Disk 1 where he installed XP
in a Dual-boot. It's this 60GB drive that is having the trouble.

He has backed up everything he can think of that comprises his data to an
internal DVD-R drive but I'd like to try to save the full configuration so
that he won't have to reinstall all of his apps.

This is all complicated by his desire not to spend any money. He says he
doesn't need the 98 installation any longer so my thought is to wipe the
Disk 0 and reinstall XP there. He'll just have to get by on 12GB. I've
looked at NTbackup and it doesn't look like it will backup to DVD (is this
correct?). I can loan him an External USB drive but beyond this, I'm not
sure what the best way to backup/restore the entire system without using
something that costs money. Any suggestions?

 

[Malke]

I have a friend with an XP Pro system that is having some trouble with the
harddrive. It hasn't outright failed yet but errors are becoming more and
more frequent.

His configuration is a Disk 0 12GB with Win98 on a 10GB partition and a 2GB
Compaq Restore partition. He later added a 60GB Disk 1 where he installed XP
in a Dual-boot. It's this 60GB drive that is having the trouble.

He has backed up everything he can think of that comprises his data to an
internal DVD-R drive but I'd like to try to save the full configuration so
that he won't have to reinstall all of his apps.

This is all complicated by his desire not to spend any money. He says he
doesn't need the 98 installation any longer so my thought is to wipe the
Disk 0 and reinstall XP there. He'll just have to get by on 12GB. I've
looked at NTbackup and it doesn't look like it will backup to DVD (is this
correct?). I can loan him an External USB drive but beyond this, I'm not
sure what the best way to backup/restore the entire system without using
something that costs money. Any suggestions?

Normally one would just image the drive onto another, good hard drive. I
prefer TrueImage but there are other good imaging programs. BootIT NG
has a trial version that would work and if you do want to purchase the
program it's very inexpensive. It's a lot geekier to use than TI is
though. However, I would be extremely hesitant to image a failing hard
drive. You can try of course and if the result is full of errors then
just do a clean install onto a known-good drive. The 12GB drive is
really too small. I personally wouldn't install XP onto anything smaller
than 40GB and that would be pushing it if your friend has a lot of
programs and data.

Malke

 

[LaRoux]

How well or do these products deal with going from 2 drives to one?
Specifically, do you think I'll have problems having the original MBR on
Drive 0 but the imaged OS on Drive 1 and then restoring the OS to Drive 0?

 

[Malke]

How well or do these products deal with going from 2 drives to one?
Specifically, do you think I'll have problems having the original MBR on
Drive 0 but the imaged OS on Drive 1 and then restoring the OS to Drive 0?

I think I'm getting a glimmer of what you mean and if I'm wrong please
correct me. Your friend had Win98 installed on C: (Drive 0) and XP on
some other drive. XP's boot files are on C: and if you image Drive 1 the
boot files will be missing. In that case, after you image the drive (now
Drive 0), just boot with the XP install cd (with only the one Drive 0
connected) and go into the Recovery Console. Do:

COPY D:\i386\ntldr C:\ [enter] [assumes the optical drive is D:\]
COPY D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\ [enter]

then rebuild the boot configuration boot.ini file by

BootCfg /Rebuild [enter]


Malke