Copy the Recovery partition

[Charles W]

I have a Dell Dimension. The WinXP "Recovery Disk" for this computer is on
the same disk as the working WinXP but at a different partition.

If the Hard Disk crashes, I have no way to reinstall the WinXP back to a new
Hard Disk.

My question is

Is there a way to copy the "Recovery Disk" from its partition to an external
CD and make this CD bootable so that should anything happen to the existing
Hard Disk, I can reinstall the WinXP from the CD back to a new Hard Disk?

If possible, I would like to use whatever tools there are in the WinXP. I
don't want to have to buy some fancy third party programs.

Thanks in advance

Charles.

 

[sgopus]

Regardless of your wants, your best bet is to use Acronis True Image and
Image the entire drive, recovery partition and system partition.

 

[Rob]

Regardless of your wants, your best bet is to use Acronis True Image
and Image the entire drive, recovery partition and system partition.

There is a free drive image package:

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

 

[Anteaus]

Agree. Recovery partitions do not always work, plus they may reinstall the
original promotional-junk along with the OS. An image that you can verify is
a better bet.

-

 

[Bill Sharpe]

I have a Dell Dimension. The WinXP "Recovery Disk" for this computer is on
the same disk as the working WinXP but at a different partition.

If the Hard Disk crashes, I have no way to reinstall the WinXP back to a new
Hard Disk.

My question is

Is there a way to copy the "Recovery Disk" from its partition to an external
CD and make this CD bootable so that should anything happen to the existing
Hard Disk, I can reinstall the WinXP from the CD back to a new Hard Disk?

If possible, I would like to use whatever tools there are in the WinXP. I
don't want to have to buy some fancy third party programs.

Thanks in advance

Charles.

I know HP allows you to create recovery disks and delete the recovery
partition. Does Dell have a similar arrangement? Check your documentation.

This puts your computer back into its factory-shipped configuration.
Generally that's not quite what you want. I'd agree with the Acronis
True Image suggestion, even if it costs a few bucks.

Bill

 

[ju.c]

Yes. You need to unhide the 'DellRestore' partition. Then Windows will see it and you can copy it to
a DVD.

To make the DVD bootable requires some custom work.

I'd love to make the image for you, give me a week or two. I'm busy. Maybe sooner.


ju.c