getting the OS on a CD

[SC Tom]

Another thing you might consider is, if you have a Western Digital, Seagate,
or Maxtor hard drive, whether it's an internal or external, you can get the
free copy of Acronis True Image from their respective web sites. It's not
the full-blown version- it doesn't do incremental or scheduled imaging, but
works very well. I have used it on both my desktop and my notebook with my
WD external drive with great results. At least that would keep you from
having to buy another copy, if you have one of the qualifying hard drives.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, SC Tom! Three of my drives are WD My Passport Essential, and one
is WD My Passport Elite. I'll check the website right away!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

No hidden partition with the OS ?

There is--but it seems to be a Toshiba one and isn't named, as far as I can
tell, in the manual. You're supposed to just follow directions for creating
a recovery CD and then for using it. (I didn't know this til Vanguard
pointed it out to me.)

 

[Jo-Anne]

I'm so grateful, SC Tom! I downloaded the program from the WD site,
installed it (after plugging in my WD drive; the installation program wanted
proof of my use of a WD product), and ran it on the netbook. It just
finished the first backup. I wish I had known a year or two ago about the
arrangement with Acronis. I bought two copies of the program for my other
computers, and all my backing up is to my WD external drives.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[SC Tom]

You're more than welcome! Glad I and the others could help.
I don't think they had the arrangement a year ago. The first I heard of it
was about 4 or 5 months ago.

 

[Twayne]

In

I just bought a Toshiba netbook running WinXP SP3. It didn't come
with a CD containing the OS. What's the best way to get the CD (in
case of need later on)? Do I ask Toshiba for it or Microsoft?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Yes. Toshiba should have all the utilities, drivers and OS disk that you
need.
Are you sure what you need isn't in a hidden folder on the hard drive?

Check your docs, or the ones on their site, for you machine and how to
restore it. If it's on-disk, there will be a way to make your own CDs.

Twayne


--
--
Often you'll find excellent advice on a newsgroup.
Before you use that advice though, consider the
ramifications of it being wrong or even dangerous;
how important IS that to you?
ALWAYS verify and confirm ANY advice from a
newsgroup!

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Yes. Toshiba should have all the utilities, drivers and OS disk that you
need.
Are you sure what you need isn't in a hidden folder on the hard drive?

Check your docs, or the ones on their site, for you machine and how to
restore it. If it's on-disk, there will be a way to make your own CDs.

Twayne

Thank you, Twayne! Yes, it turns out Toshiba has a hidden folder that is
used to create a recovery DVD. Vanguard found it for me. There was no
mention in the index to the manual, but it was in the table of contents. Now
all I have to do is get a DVD burner for my netbook.

Jo-Anne

 

[Doum]

=?Utf-8?B?QW50ZWF1cw==?= <[email protected]> écrivait

Alternatively, the Dell SP1 CD will probably be a more-or-less kosher
copy of XP, in those days Dell more-or-less stuck to Microsoft's spec.
An issue here is that you may need SP3 for the setup to work on a more
recent PC. You can in fact slipstream SP3 with the contents of the
Dell CD to make an up-to-date install CD. You can even include the
drivers for your hardware, although these can be added after setup.

A useful tool for making custom setup CDs:
http://www.nliteos.com/

BTW, when installing XP, you often need to go into the BIOS settings,
and change the SATA mode to legacy, or IDE mode. Otherwise the setup
will freeze after the first reboot. (because the SATA driver has not
yet been installed, but bare XP doesn't understand SATA)

While you slipstream SP3 you could also slipstream AHCI drivers (for SATA)
on your updated installation CD and you don't have to set SATA Mode to
Legacy in the BIOS.

HTH

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Anteaus! I think most of this is beyond my capabilities, but I've
done one reasonable thing: I've downloaded the Acronis imaging program from
the hard drive manufacturer's website and imaged the hard drive to an
external hard drive. I'll continue to do that regularly. I still need to get
a DVD burner, though, to create a Restore CD or to run one that I already
have.

Interestingly, the netbook I just bought from Toshiba didn't come with much
crapware. I uninstalled Norton right away but left Windows Media Player for
now. I don't know what I'll want to use--but I can always get rid of it, I
guess.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

=?Utf-8?B?QW50ZWF1cw==?= <[email protected]> écrivait





While you slipstream SP3 you could also slipstream AHCI drivers (for SATA)
on your updated installation CD and you don't have to set SATA Mode to
Legacy in the BIOS.

HTH

Thank you, Doum! As I mentioned to Anteaus, though, I'm not sure how capable
I am of doing some of this stuff. Maybe if someone were at my shoulder to
coach me...but the only person I know who could do that is, at the moment, a
continent away.

Jo-Anne