Need to validate idea on Imaging a Laptop...

[DonMiche]

I have historically imaged laptops by using a second hard drive or using
a Backpack CD Burner attached to the parallel port. At the office, I
have also used a network boot disk off a desktop (with a pin adapter)
and created images on a server.

I have since then purchased a 2.5 USB 2.0 case in which I have a 10GB HD
attached to my laptop. It is great for backing up data.

Now my idea is to remove the laptops main HD and insert it in the 2.5
USB 2.0 case and hooking it up to my home PC which has a hard drive
large enough to take a 40GB image.

My question is: what software should I use to back up (image) the 2.5
hard drive attached to a USB 2.0 port on my home PC while in XP, so that
I can restore backups (images), slip the disk back in the laptop and
boot with no problems. Is this possible?

DonMiche

 

[Michael Cecil]

I have historically imaged laptops by using a second hard drive or using
a Backpack CD Burner attached to the parallel port. At the office, I
have also used a network boot disk off a desktop (with a pin adapter)
and created images on a server.

I have since then purchased a 2.5 USB 2.0 case in which I have a 10GB HD
attached to my laptop. It is great for backing up data.

Now my idea is to remove the laptops main HD and insert it in the 2.5
USB 2.0 case and hooking it up to my home PC which has a hard drive
large enough to take a 40GB image.

My question is: what software should I use to back up (image) the 2.5
hard drive attached to a USB 2.0 port on my home PC while in XP, so that
I can restore backups (images), slip the disk back in the laptop and
boot with no problems. Is this possible?

DonMiche

I wouldn't do it that way. Too much wear and tear on the laptop and
harddrive if you're going to do regular backups that way.

Why not just network the two computers together. Then use a network boot
disk to boot the laptop and image it over the network. A whole lot
simpler and faster than all that rigmarole you have outlined above.

 

[Jan van Wijk]

Hi,

I have historically imaged laptops by using a second hard drive or using
a Backpack CD Burner attached to the parallel port. At the office, I
have also used a network boot disk off a desktop (with a pin adapter)
and created images on a server.

I have since then purchased a 2.5 USB 2.0 case in which I have a 10GB HD
attached to my laptop. It is great for backing up data.

Now my idea is to remove the laptops main HD and insert it in the 2.5
USB 2.0 case and hooking it up to my home PC which has a hard drive
large enough to take a 40GB image.

My question is: what software should I use to back up (image) the 2.5
hard drive attached to a USB 2.0 port on my home PC while in XP, so that
I can restore backups (images), slip the disk back in the laptop and
boot with no problems. Is this possible?

Yes it is, but only if that drive is recognized by XP as an additional
HD of course.

You could use my DFSee program to create a (compressed) image of the
complete harddisk (including partition-tables, multiple partitions,
whatever).

When writing that image to an NTFS volume, it could be a single large
file,
when using FAT32 or other filesystems it has an option to split the
imagefiles into 2GB files for you.

Of course there is a corresponding restore to write the imagefile(s)
back
to the harddisk. (the same one, or another of same or bigger size).

The program is not free though, it is 40 Euro's for the standard
version.
(about US $51 at the moment)

The program is multiplatform and text-based, and includes DOS, Windows
(NT..XP)
and OS/2 executables (and with Linux under development

For a few extra dollars you can also order it on a bootable CDROM.
See:

http://www.dfsee.com

Regards, JvW

 

[Neil Maxwell]

Now my idea is to remove the laptops main HD and insert it in the 2.5
USB 2.0 case and hooking it up to my home PC which has a hard drive
large enough to take a 40GB image.

Anytime you remove and install a HD you increase the risk of something
going wrong. I'd avoid this.

My question is: what software should I use to back up (image) the 2.5
hard drive attached to a USB 2.0 port on my home PC while in XP, so that
I can restore backups (images), slip the disk back in the laptop and
boot with no problems. Is this possible?

TrueImage 7 will do this - http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/.

If it were me, I'd look at either backing the laptop up across the
network or to the USB2 drive directly. Currently, I'm doing this with
TI7 and an external HD connected to a network PC. This way you have
the options of restoring from the network drive or connecting it
directly to the laptop for restoration. You'd want to check that TI7
(or Ghost, or any BU software) supported your hardware.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer