Need help to Clone a Drive. backup, please help??

[Crackles McFarly]

I have partitioned my drive into two sections. One very large section
and another much smaller one.

The smallest partition is 3x [three times] the size of the OS and
every currently on the drive. In other words, the smaller partition is
more than big enough to accept the data.

Question:
Can I CLONE the main drive on to the other partition?

It is assigned drive letter Z, so would this work or am I just plain
crazy?

thanks.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I have partitioned my drive into two sections. One very
large section and another much smaller one.

The smallest partition is 3x [three times] the size of the
OS and every currently on the drive. In other words,
the smaller partition is more than big enough to accept
the data.

Question:
Can I CLONE the main drive on to the other partition?

Since Symantec's Ghost and Future Systems Solutions'
CasperXP (and Casper) can both clone a single partition
from among several and put the clone among several
existing partitions, either of them could be used to do
what you want. After the cloning, run the "parent" OS
and adjust the boot.ini file in the clone so that it points
to the clone's partition and make the clone's partition
"active" with Disk Management. BUT... as with any
clone of the WinNT/2K/XP family (and possibly Vista),
the clone should not be allowed to see its "parent" OS
when the clone is started up for its first-ever run. (The
"parent" can be allowed to see its clone anytime.) Only
after its first run in isolation from its "parent" OS, can the
clone be started up with its "parent" OS visible to it. If
the clone is on the same HD as the "parent" OS, this can
present the problem of hiding the "parent" from the clone's
view. Without getting into how that can be done by using
3rd party software, the easiest thing to do is to just
delete the "parent" OS before starting up the clone for
the first time - which is catastrophic if the clone is a dud.
So before doing that, a prudent thing to do would be
to make a clone or an image of the "parent" OS on
another HD as a backup before doing the same-HD cloning.
Keep in mind during this operation that once you change
which partition is "active", the boot.ini file in that partition
has to be right or you won't be able to boot the OS from
that HD. (You could do it with a boot floppy or another
OS on another HD, though.)

A simpler procedure would be to get a copy of Partition
Magic, and just re-size the existing partitions, leaving the
existing OS where it is but downsizing its partition. But
don't downsize too far....

*TimDaniels*

 

[Crackles McFarly]

A simpler procedure would be to get a copy of Partition
Magic, and just re-size the existing partitions, leaving the
existing OS where it is but downsizing its partition. But
don't downsize too far....

i have p-magic and did use it to make the main c partition very large,
then made the z-drive partition exactly 3x the size of the data stored
on drive c's main partition. i was wondering if i could place an image
file? of the main-c drive onto drive z' partition and then burn this
image to several dvd's?

if so, how do you restore these dvd's in a after a crash?

since the image is not on a lone dvd but spanned over several dvd's??

this is making no sense to me which is so sad because i've only been
using a computer since the c-64 days. i either got lazy or really
stupid lately..

 

[jameshanley39]

i have p-magic and did use it to make the main c partition very large,
then made the z-drive partition exactly 3x the size of the data stored
on drive c's main partition. i was wondering if i could place an image
file? of the main-c drive onto drive z' partition and then burn this
image to several dvd's?

if so, how do you restore these dvd's in a after a crash?

since the image is not on a lone dvd but spanned over several dvd's??

this is making no sense to me which is so sad because i've only been
using a computer since the c-64 days. i either got lazy or really
stupid lately..

oh, the c-64.. about the first comp i saw too ! or not.. school had a
BBC. Friend had a C-64, and another had an Amiga 1200..

Looks like you've stopped experimenting.. boredom? not enough
computers to play with? i.e. only ones with serious work on there that
you don't want to take risks with?


Partition magic can't to my knowledge make images. (I have PM v8).

A program like Norton Ghost makes images. It has an option to, instead
of make an image file , to split an image file into being of a certain
size. It'd name them like z_drive1 z_drive2 or something.. But some
convention that Norton Ghost is familiar with.

I then burnt them onto CDs.
So, this was to restore, say, partition W
Then to restore, I copied each one from its CD, onto a partition e.g.
V. And I told Norton Ghost to restore from those files, to Partition
W. Pointing Norton Ghost to the first one z_drive1 , or maybe even
any of those files.. z_drive1, or z_drive2. all were in the same
directory btw.. Norton Ghost realised they formed one, and restored.

There was a hitch though, that really stressed me out.. I can't quite
remember it or the solution.. But it was like I had 6 CDs, and each
one had a different image on it. One had c_drive1, another c_drive2
e.t.c.
After putting CD1 in there and copying c_drive1 into the directory, I
put CD2 in there and windows made it look like c_drive1 was on there.
I put it in another machine and it said c_drive2. Then maybe it
worked in the 'original' machine. It was very strange. It must've
been a clash between windows, and the fact that the file on each cd
was so unusual.. Maybe windows was caching. But refresh didn't help.
I haven't done a large restore from many CDs since!!!! I was using NG
v8. Many people prefer Acronis TrueImage. I haven't had much trouble
doing a restore from another partition or another hard drive.

Another solution I use and like. Is purely using PM.
Instead of doing an image. I have a little OS partition that I want
to clone. So I just use PM to copy the partition. Then I hide the
partition. If I need it it's there. (i may need to amend the boot.ini
on the visible partition 'cos it thinks there's a windows there. But
that's just tidying up)