Melvin Cotterill said:
I posted a request for help regarding this subject matter, in this
Newsgroup, on 11/27/2004. I used the XCOPY command per
the instructions outlined in the response given by Andrew E.
Unfortunately this method did not work. XCOPY appeared to
function OK, however when I tried to boot up my machine it
halted and displayed the message " Error Loading OS".
No harm was done. I restored the hard drive jumpers to the
original settings and my machine functions as before.
By the way, all the program files(MS word, MS Excel etc,) that
were copied to the D:\ can be executed from the D: drive.
As expected, xCopy didn't copy the Master Boot Record and
whatever else is needed to make an OS bootable. But thanks
for the feedback that confirms what xCopy can and can't do.
It would be completely atypical of Microsoft to provide a utility
which would make it easy to copy an installed Windows OS.
Manufacturers such as Maxtor and Western Digital provide
free cloning software to promote upgrading to larger HDs (of
their own manufacture, natch), but after trying Maxtor's MaxBlast 3
cloning utility, but I was not able to get it to work for me, and the
Maxtor tech rep admitted that their software "wasn't very good".
There is probably a reason that companies such as Symantec
and Acronis and others make money by selling cloning utilities.
But if you're intent on free software, try xxClone at xxClone.com .
You have to sign up as a beta tester, but it's been in beta test for
a couple years, now, and it doesn't cost any money.
Otherwise, buy a cloning utility. You can amortize it over several
years as you use it to periodically archive your entire system to
another hard drive in order to have one immediately available
in the event of a crash of your primary hard drive. Back in my
stock day trading days, I kept a spare OS on a 2nd installed
hard drive, ready for booting in case the primary hard drive took
a dive. All that was necessary to get it up and running was to
re-start the PC, reset the BIOS's boot sequence (only necessary
if the primary hard drive was still visible), and away I'd go with a
recent clone of the OS. Total down time - 2 minutes. (I also had
both cable and DSL internet, each connected through a manual
switch box, in case one of the broadband connections crapped
out.)
What I have now for my school work is a pair of hard drives,
one for .NET development and one for Java development,
each a clone of an original Windows XP Pro. Both are fixed
and internal to the PC. A third is planned for Linux. In a
"mobile rack" (aka "drive caddy" and "removable tray") I can
slide in one of two large hard drives, each containing 4 backups
of one of the fixed hard drives. If one of the primary fixed hard
drives crashes, or if one of the C++ apps goes crazy and wipes
out system files, I can slip in a removable tray and be up and
developing again in a couple minutes. It gives much peace
of mind, and it's already saved me a bunch of anguish.
*TimDaniels*
