toni64 said:
Good morning!
my PC is going slower and slower : after installing and uninstalling many
softwares, I d like now to format all, reinstall XP Home and install only
the most needed softwares.
The main HD [C:] is NFTS 75 Gb.
For the backup I have an 320gb external HD, with 2 partitions : 120 [E:]
and 180 [F:], both NFTS. I d use the E: (which is totally empty), and not
touch F, which instead has already many stored documents
It is the first time I do such an operation so I want to be sure not to
make a mess. My final goal is having a new folder in E:, with the whole
content of C, freely accessible, so that I can copy docuemnts, program
settings, ecc ecc (everything I need, from IE bookmarks, to other program
settings) back to the newly formatted C with an easy copy'n'paste
My doubts are :
1) what's the difference between making an imagine and instead a partition
copy ? the imagine is a single file : can I open it and choose the needed
files and transfer them browsing in it like in a normal directory ?
2) using Ghost, or PartitionMagic, or any other (any suggestion is
welcome), will I have any risk to touch also the data contained in F ?
that must not happen.
3) finally, what do you suggest to accomplish successfully this delicate
procedure ?
I warmly thank you for any suggestion.
Toni
Toni:
As you have heard from a number of responders to your query you probably
should be looking at a disk-to-disk "cloning" type or program or a
disk-imaging program (I assume the latter is the type of program you
referred to in your query as "imagine").
The ones that have been mentioned, i.e., Symantec's Ghost and Acronis True
Image should be suitable for your objective, however, there's another
program I would like to bring to your attention - one that we think is
superior as a disk-cloning type of program.
The program I have in mind is the Casper 4.0 disk-cloning program (
Given your basic objective I wonder whether it would be best to undertake
the disk-to-disk cloning process rather than the disk imaging route. Without
going into too many unnecessary details at this point as to why the
disk-cloning approach would be a more practical undertaking in your
situation, just understand for the moment that the disk-cloning process is a
relatively simple & straightforward procedure
whereby the *entire* contents of your "source" HDD, i.e., your present 75 GB
HDD, will be "cloned" to your "E:" partition, one of the two partitions
currently residing on your external HDD (you didn't say but I assume this is
an external USB device). So for all practical purposes, following the
disk-cloning process, your "E:" partition will be a duplicate of your
current HDD. Thus you will be able to access all the data on that E:
partition without the need of undertaking a "recovery" type of operation
that would ordinarily be required when using the "disk imaging" type of
process. So that your E: partition would now serve as a comprehensive backup
of your system. Your present F: partition on your USBEHD would remain
intact.
However, your USB external HDD will not be bootable since this type of
device is not designed to be bootable in an XP environment. However, and
this is an extremely important point...
Now that you will have a bit-for-bit copy of your day-to-day boot HDD on
that E: partition following the disk-cloning operation, you will have
established a comprehensive backup program for yourself. So that if anything
goes awry with your day-to-day boot HDD, e.g., its XP OS becomes so
corrupted that the HDD is unbootable & dysfunctional or the HDD simply
becomes defective, you will have a complete uncorrupted backup on your E:
partition that you can clone back to your internal HDD or a new one should
the old internal HDD have become defective. Do you see the vital importance
of this?
The beauty of the Casper 4.0 program that we recommend lies in its
simplicity of use, speed of backup operations, and overall effectiveness.
The significant advantage of the Casper 4.0 disk cloning program over other
disk cloning programs that we're familiar with, e.g., Acronis True Image or
Symantec's Norton Ghost, is its ability to create *incremental* disk clones
following the creation of the original (first) disk clone. (We've generally
found that the first original disk clone created by the Casper 4.0 program
takes about the same amount of time to create as one would find with other
disk-cloning programs).
This ability to create "incremental clones" is possibly the strongest
advantage of the program. Employing what Casper calls its "SmartClone"
technology the program can create subsequent disk clones of the source HDD
usually at a fraction of the time it takes other programs to create a "full"
disk clone. This results in a decided incentive for users to undertake
frequent complete backups of their systems knowing that they can create
"incremental" disk clones in a relatively short period of time. Understand
that these "incremental" disk clones thus created are complete clones of the
source HDD.
Using the Casper program is simplicity itself, another substantial advantage
of this program. There's virtually no learning curve in undertaking the disk
cloning process as one navigates through the few easy-to-understand screens
with a final mouse-click on the button which will trigger the disk-cloning
process. After undertaking one or two disk-cloning operations it should take
the user no more than 20 seconds or so to get to that point. Simply stated,
the program is a joy to use.
BTW, the program is also capable of scheduling the disk-cloning process on a
daily, weekly, or other time period selected by the user.
The program is not particularly inexpensive as disk cloning programs go.
Cost for a single-license is $49.95. AFAIK, the program is available for
download only from the developer at
http://www.fssdev.com and this does not
include the "Casper Startup Disk" which sells for an additional $9.95. That
"Startup Disk" is a really essential piece of the program since in many
cases it would be the only way to effect a recovery of the system when the
installed Casper program could not be accessed from the Windows environment
because the program resides on a HDD that has failed or has become
unbootable. The usual scenario for using the Startup Disk is when the
recipient of the clone has been an external HDD - most likely a USB external
HDD - and the original source disk has become defective or dysfunctional
(unbootable) so that there is no opportunity to access the installed Casper
program. Since, as I previously mentioned, the USB external HDD containing
the cloned contents of the source drive is not bootable, one must use the
Startup Disk in that situation in order to clone the contents of the
external HDD back to a non-defective internal HDD in order to recover the
system.
Although the Casper 4.0 program is more expensive than other disk-cloning
type of programs we think it's well worth the extra cost for the reasons
I've previously indicated.
The developer does have a 30-day trial version available - see
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/. The trial version is somewhat
crippled in that the cloned partition on the destination drive will be the
same size as the partition on the source drive - they will not be expanded
to a larger size or to fill up available space on the new hard drive.
However, the trial version should give one some reasonable insight as to how
the program works. Note, however, that the trial version does not include
the program to create the "Startup Disk" described above. It must be
purchased separately.
Anyway, you may also want to try out the Acronis program since they have a
trial version available as well. I haven't checked lately but I don't
believe a trial version is available for the Norton Ghost program (I think
their current version is 12).
If you (or anyone coming upon this thread) wants a bit more detail about the
Casper 4.0 program as to step-by-step instructions (as simple as they are!),
so indicate and I'll post them.
Anna
