disk-imaging software

[Victor]

I'm considering buying a Maxtor One Touch 80GB USB 2.0
External Hard Drive with perhaps the Acronis True Image 6.0
software or Norton Ghost. My question is after I make an
image of my pcs drive(s) on the external device can I still
use the external drive for other stuff? It's 80gb which is
double the size of my current internal drive.

Another concern. When I want to buy a new pc and transfer
the system from my old one, just how easy is it using
ghosting software? Will I need to install a system on the
new pc first? If the new pc doesn't come with a system
installed will I be able to just plop in a backup cd (or
floppy), plug in the external hard disk and then let it
copy?

Thanks for your help.
ps. Which imaging software is better for this purpose?

 

[Ted Zieglar aka \Rocky\]

BAR - and OP: You cannot use imaging software to transfer your installation
to a new computer, unless the new computer has hardware that is identical in
every way with the old computer. Ghost points this out explicitly in their
documentation.
--
Ted Zieglar
formerly "Rocket J. Squirrel"

Q1: I have experience with Ghost and it works very successfully [Partition
Magic 8 didn't]. If you create an 'Image File' of the Primary Hard Drive,
then Ghost actually compresses the data, so you should end up with lots of
spare capacity.

Q2: If you have an appropriate version of XP [any which are not an OEM
version] then you can move or transfer your use of XP to a new system.
Simply relocate the Hard Drive and perform a repair installation to set the
XP system to the new environment. You can buy your new PC without the OS.
Alternatey, if you have Ghost and your 'Image File' on the USB Hard drive,
then on the new PC you can boot off the Ghost floppy boot disk with the USB
Drive attached, then 'restore' the image file onto the new PC's Hard drive.
Turn off the PC and follow 'repair installation' steps below.

You need to do a repair installation to set the Windows XP system from one
PC to the new environment of another. To do this follow the steps below:


1.Do Not BOOT into Windows XP on first boot after Motherboard or Hard Drive
change! If booting from CD is not an option, return to BIOS and make sure
booting from CD is the first boot option.

2.If your computer does not support booting from the CD, check your OEM or
Motherboard makers web site for updated BIOS.

3.Perform a Repair Install by following the step by step below.
When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows
installations.

Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to
start the repair.

Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not
press any key to boot from CD when the message appears.

Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your
applications and settings will remain intact.

I'm considering buying a Maxtor One Touch 80GB USB 2.0
External Hard Drive with perhaps the Acronis True Image 6.0
software or Norton Ghost. My question is after I make an
image of my pcs drive(s) on the external device can I still
use the external drive for other stuff? It's 80gb which is
double the size of my current internal drive.

Another concern. When I want to buy a new pc and transfer
the system from my old one, just how easy is it using
ghosting software? Will I need to install a system on the
new pc first? If the new pc doesn't come with a system
installed will I be able to just plop in a backup cd (or
floppy), plug in the external hard disk and then let it
copy?

Thanks for your help.
ps. Which imaging software is better for this purpose?

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?uyBtcnRlZSCr?=]

True Image from www.acronis.com.

From the FAQs page at http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/faq.html#17:
How can I prepare my Windows XP, NT or 2000 system for cloning or migrating the data to different hardware?
In order to clone your Windows system or migrate it to different hardware, you should first prepare Windows using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep). According to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 298491: "One problem from duplicating an installation of Windows 2000 is that each cloned computer has the same security identifier (SID) and computer name. This may prevent the cloned computers from functioning correctly in a workgroup or a domain. To work around this problem, administrators use the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep.exe) to remove configuration settings that are unique to the computer such as the computer name and SID. The resulting image can then be safely reused for installation on other computers." This issue also exists in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP, and thus computers running those operating systems must be prepared as well.

To download Microsoft System Preparation tool, click on your operating system: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP.

In brief, here is how you prepare your disk drive to create a master clone image or to migrate data:

Create Acronis True Image 8.0 bootable rescue media with Rescue Media Builder available in Acronis True Image 8.0 program menu.

1.. Run sysprep.exe. Microsoft give you the option to specify the following keys:

1.. -nosidgen - If you plan to erase all data from the original hard disk and/or do not plan to use both original and new hard disks in different computers simultaneously, use this option.
2.. -mini - if you plan to migrate your operating system to a computer with different hardware.
2.. Prepare to reboot the computer. First, put the Acronis True Image 8.0 bootable rescue media in the CD drive and boot the system. Now run the program and create an image of the prepared hard disk.
3.. Install the new hard drive into your computer or take the image you just made to your new computer.
4.. Boot from Acronis True Image 8.0 rescue media again and restore the image to the new hard drive or computer.
5.. Reboot the computer.
We recommend you to read Microsoft articles regarding using sysprep on your operating system, available at the following links: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP.

So, yes it can be done.


--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| BAR - and OP: You cannot use imaging software to transfer your installation
| to a new computer, unless the new computer has hardware that is identical in
| every way with the old computer. Ghost points this out explicitly in their
| documentation.
| --
| Ted Zieglar
| formerly "Rocket J. Squirrel"
|
|