Free imaging backup of system drive

[Mike Echo]

I'm on a roll as I don't usually post much and this is my second in as
many days but here goes.

Can you drive image a freshly installed drive (eg Ghost or whatever the
freeware equivalent is if one exists) and keep the burnt CD/DVD so that
when your C: drive gets full of rubbish you have a pristine backup to
put on?

Is this possible and if so, what is the best way to go about it? I
suppose you would need some way of booting to enable the image to be
installed. Is there a good freeware drive imaging programme?

This came about as I have just built this AMD380064 box and already I
see a problem showing up in device manager. I was thinking this might be
a good way around having to reinstall when things get flaky down the
track.

TIA, etc,
R.

 

[Fran]

Partition Saving
http://www.partition-saving.com/

 

[SamF.]

Yes,

I keep my images, I have several on a separate partition in the
computer.

If data you gather is important you may want to consider how this will
be saved.

I am not a computer person so I don't know if this is considered the
"Right way" to do it.

This has been useful for me. It has allowed me to play with free ware
and not ruin my computer.

 

[In_Parentheses]

I'm on a roll as I don't usually post much and this is my second in as
many days but here goes.

Can you drive image a freshly installed drive (eg Ghost or whatever
the freeware equivalent is if one exists) and keep the burnt CD/DVD so
that when your C: drive gets full of rubbish you have a pristine
backup to put on?

Is this possible and if so, what is the best way to go about it? I
suppose you would need some way of booting to enable the image to be
installed. Is there a good freeware drive imaging programme?

This came about as I have just built this AMD380064 box and already I
see a problem showing up in device manager. I was thinking this might
be a good way around having to reinstall when things get flaky down
the track.

TIA, etc,
R.

Hi ME,

What you should do is install your Operating System on that box first,
let it detect all hardware, get through the additional "activation" of
XP (if that is your OS), and *then* make an image of it.

Because you cannot image to the same partition s the one you are
imaging, a separate partition for this would be advisable. If the
imaging software supports compressing the image, use the highest
compresion rate in order to make it fit to whatever media you are going
to burn it to. (An uncompressed image of an eight GB partition will
be... eight GB!

Burn the image to DVD (perhaps even twice, to have a spare copy), and
store them in a safe, dry an cool place until you need them, which
hopefully will be never.

Make sure you have a bootable CD with the imaginig program; so that,
even if your OS become completely screwed up, you still can access the
image with the program and restore it to the Hard Disk.

Hope this Helps

 

[Onno Voors]

Is there a good freeware drive imaging programme?

Yes, there is:

http://www.partition-saving.com/

It doesn't even need a separate partition anymore.

 

[Roger Johansson]

http://www.partition-saving.com/

That site is down today, but you can use this site.

http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/index.html

It doesn't even need a separate partition anymore.

You probably mean you don't have to have a fat16 partition to save the
images on anymore. You can save the images on an ntfs partition, but..
you cannot save the image to the partition you are imaging, no imaging
software can do that afaik.

And you need to create a few small files from windows for saving images
in, because this program cannot create new files on an ntfs partition,
but it can use and expand already existing files. This is no problem,
just something you need to know.

"Q 9- Is Partition Saving compatible with Windows NT, 2000 or XP?
Answer: Yes, but you need to boot from a DOS floppy disk or CDROM and
have access to a FAT partition (please read also question 7). From
version 3.00 you could also create saving files on NTFS partition, but
for this you have first to create files from Windows with the dedicated
option then boot to DOS to perform saving."

Partition Saving, the latest version, is also available on Hiren's Boot
CD 8.1, if you can find it. So you don't have to use a boot floppy
disk.

 

[Elf Wizard]

That site is down today, but you can use this site.

http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/index.html


You probably mean you don't have to have a fat16 partition to save the
images on anymore. You can save the images on an ntfs partition, but..
you cannot save the image to the partition you are imaging, no imaging
software can do that afaik.

And you need to create a few small files from windows for saving images
in, because this program cannot create new files on an ntfs partition,
but it can use and expand already existing files. This is no problem,
just something you need to know.

"Q 9- Is Partition Saving compatible with Windows NT, 2000 or XP?
Answer: Yes, but you need to boot from a DOS floppy disk or CDROM and
have access to a FAT partition (please read also question 7). From
version 3.00 you could also create saving files on NTFS partition, but
for this you have first to create files from Windows with the dedicated
option then boot to DOS to perform saving."

Partition Saving, the latest version, is also available on Hiren's Boot
CD 8.1, if you can find it. So you don't have to use a boot floppy
disk.

Hi Roger, Hi all,

I like Partition Saving.
I tried with a boot FreeDOS floppy. Other users reported that created
FreeDOS boot USB sticks. If you tried it with another free FOS
didtribution, please let us know.

Thanks!!!
Giorgos.

 

[Onno Voors]

Onno Voors wrote:



You probably mean you don't have to have a fat16 partition to save the
images on anymore. You can save the images on an ntfs partition, but..
you cannot save the image to the partition you are imaging, no imaging
software can do that afaik.

from http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/HOWTO.html#Chapitre_4 :

=
In case you have only one partition (so saving file will be on saved
partition), you must choose "element on itself" or "element on itself
without swap files" option.
=

 

[Roger Johansson]

from http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/HOWTO.html#Chapitre_4 :

In case you have only one partition (so saving file will be on saved
partition), you must choose "element on itself" or "element on itself
without swap files" option.

Wow, I didn't know that he had made saving image to the imaged
partition itself possible.

That's great for people who have only one partition.

My brain is now updated on this issue, thanks.