Restoring Image using CD

[Jim Walker]

Can I make a CD image of my computer HD using another computer, record it on
a CD, and then restore it using a CD (not a CD RW)? The programs I have to
do this are Drive Image 2002 and Ghost 2003. Thanks.

 

[Rod Speed]

Can I make a CD image of my computer HD using another computer,

You havent said this clearly enough.

You can certainly put that HD in another computer and
create an image file of it using both of those you list.

Its harder to do if you want to run DI or Ghost
in a different computer to the one the drive is in.

You can however run both DI and Ghost in the PC
which has the HD you want to image in it, and write
the image file across the lan to a different PC which
has a drive with enough space on it for the image file.
Bit more tricky to setup if the network card in the PC
whose drive is being imaged isnt natively supported,
but still doable with more knowledge.

record it on a CD,

That is possible two different ways, either by writing to the
CD directly with the burner in the PC that DI or Ghost is
running in, or by writing the image file to a hard drive in
CD sized chunks and then manually putting those image
file fragments onto CDs in the PC which has the burner in it.

and then restore it using a CD (not a CD RW)?

You presumably mean using a cdrom drive.
Yes, both ghost and DI will do restores like that.

The programs I have to do this are
Drive Image 2002 and Ghost 2003.

Both will do what you want. The fine
detail of how you do it varys with exactly
what you want to do image creation wise.

If this is the laptop being imaged, and it doesnt have
a burner in it, it would normally be best to write the
image file across the lan to the PC which has the
burner in it, and you would need enough space on
its hard drive for the image file, before its burnt to CDs.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Kinda important what the OS and filesystem are in the question posed.
Precede the question with "How do I", not "Can I" if asking instructions.
Dave

 

[CWatters]

Can I make a CD image of my computer HD using another computer, record it on
a CD, and then restore it using a CD (not a CD RW)? The programs I have to
do this are Drive Image 2002 and Ghost 2003. Thanks.

You could network the two PC and backup PC1 to a shared folder or partion on
PC2 using either of these two programs. Then move the image to CD if
necessary. Configure the program to split the backup into 600mByte chunks.
Ghost has a peer to peer mode that will allow a restore from PC2 back to a
new drive in PC1 over the network if you have a HD crash (like I did).

 

[Jim Walker]

Sorry for the abbreviated question. I think you answered the intended
question, but the longer version of it is the following:
I want to create an image of the hard drive of computer1 which has a CD but
not a CD RW. I have a computer2 that has a second HD slot and a CD RW. Can
I do the following: remove the HD from computer1 and place it in the second
HD slot of computer2, make an image of computer1 HD on the CD RW of
computer2, then with the HD for computer1 replaced in computer1 use the CDs
to restore computer1 HD if necessary? The restore would be using the CD on
computer1 (not a CD RW). There are other ways to restore the HD but I was
curious if a CD could be used to read the image disks produced by a CD RW.
This would have more to do with the DI and Ghost programs than anything
else. Thanks.

 

[Rod Speed]

Sorry for the abbreviated question. I think you answered the
intended question, but the longer version of it is the following:

I want to create an image of the hard drive of computer1 which
has a CD but not a CD RW. I have a computer2 that has a second
HD slot and a CD RW. Can I do the following: remove the HD
from computer1 and place it in the second HD slot of computer2,
make an image of computer1 HD on the CD RW of computer2,
Yes.

then with the HD for computer1 replaced in computer1
use the CDs to restore computer1 HD if necessary?
Yes.

The restore would be using the CD on computer1 (not a CD RW).

Thats fine.

There are other ways to restore the HD but I was curious if a CD
could be used to read the image disks produced by a CD RW.

Yes. The only real qualification is that the CD drive would need
to be reasonably modern so it can read CDRWs, but thats normally
true. And if it cant, you can certainly write CDRs instead.

This would have more to do with the DI
and Ghost programs than anything else.

Its not ideal to physically put the hard drive out of
computer1 into computer2 initially tho. Obviously
there is always some possibility of dropping it or
otherwise buggering it up before its been imaged.

It would be safer to just plug a lan cable between
the two PCs and image the hard drive of computer1
across the lan cable to the hard drive on computer2
and then manually move the image files to CDRWs.

That would still allow you to restore from the CDRWs
in computer1 if the hard drive in computer1 fails.

That approach would be less risky for the hard drive in computer1.

 

[Walt]

Will the contents of your computer HD actually fit on a CD???

A CD will not even hold one lousy GB. To copy the image of
a full 80G drive will take over 80 CD's. To copy the image
of a full 200G drive will take over 200 CD's.

Gosh, this reminds me of when people (like myself) use to try
to backup a HD onto boxes and boxes of floppies.

 

[Jim Walker]

It would be safer to just plug a lan cable between

the two PCs and image the hard drive of computer1
across the lan cable to the hard drive on computer2
and then manually move the image files to CDRWs.

I would be happy to use a lan or Ethernet, but the complication of getting
Ghost to perform the image slows me down. I believe that the transfer has
to be done in DOS and that might get a little complicated for me.

 

[Rod Speed]

I would be happy to use a lan or Ethernet, but the complication
of getting Ghost to perform the image slows me down.

Its certainly not as easy to do.

I believe that the transfer has to be done in DOS
and that might get a little complicated for me.

Really depends if the network card in
computer1 is natively supported by ghost.
Its not that hard if it is, harder if it isnt.

 

[Neil Maxwell]

I would be happy to use a lan or Ethernet, but the complication of getting
Ghost to perform the image slows me down. I believe that the transfer has
to be done in DOS and that might get a little complicated for me.

Another option, if you have the gear, is to use a USB hard drive.
Plug it into PC1, image it, then plug it into PC2 and restore it.
I've been doing this with laptops and TrueImage 7 recently, running a
Maxtor external from a D-Link USB2 PC card, and it works fine for me.

I've only used TI7 on a limited number of hardware configs, but it's
supported everything I've tried so far. You can also make your image
straight from Windows without rebooting, or use the boot CD/floppy if
you want.

Even if you can borrow an external HD, most progs will break the data
into CDR or DVDR size chunks, which can be burned and restored later.



Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer

 

[Jim Walker]

Ron
Thanks for the help. I will try the lan at some point when I have it up
and running and I have some time.

 

[Jim Walker]

I actually tried the USB 2 first and had no luck. I could have had a bad
hard drive. I have corrected that problem. I will give the USB another
shot.

 

[CWatters]

I would be happy to use a lan or Ethernet, but the complication of getting
Ghost to perform the image slows me down. I believe that the transfer has
to be done in DOS and that might get a little complicated for me.

I think I did once by creating a mapped network drive on the source PC (eg
Map Z:: on PC1 = shared folder on PC2) . Then you treat it like another
drive eg backup C: to Z:

 

[Neil Maxwell]

I actually tried the USB 2 first and had no luck. I could have had a bad
hard drive. I have corrected that problem. I will give the USB another
shot.

I haven't tried Ghost yet (though I got a copy the other day), but I
understand it can be a bit weak in driver support, with the DOS mode
boot. TrueImage 7 emergency boot runs under some form of Linux, and
may have better general hardware support.

I'm more looking at an automated backup solution, and TI7's ability to
do this without rebooting was what convinced me over Ghost. I used it
just last night to clone a laptop HD to another one, and it went
without a hitch, even resizing the partition for me, booting straight
from the CD for both imaging and restore. I'll be posting on my
experiences once I run a few more tests.

Be sure to let us know how it all works out for you.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer

 

[Rod Speed]

I think I did once by creating a mapped network drive on the
source PC (eg Map Z:: on PC1 = shared folder on PC2) .
Then you treat it like another drive eg backup C: to Z:

Yeah, thats how its done.

It isnt that hard if the NIC in the system running Ghost or DI is
natively supported, but its rather too much for those who dont
know quite a bit about the fine detail if it isnt, particularly with ghost.

Its not that hard with a universal net boot floppy, but he may not
have a floppy drive in computer1. From memory its a laptop.

A universal net boot CD isnt that hard either.
Unfortunately there aint that many available
say as an ISO you can just download and burn.

And both those routes are a bit manual in the sense
that you have to either initiate the image creation
manually each time or setup a proper bat file system,
which again isnt that effortless for that level of user.

Less manual than physically moving the hard drive tho.

Happy to go thru the operation for as long as it takes tho Jim.

 

[Mike NG]

Another option, if you have the gear, is to use a USB hard drive.
Plug it into PC1, image it, then plug it into PC2 and restore it.
I've been doing this with laptops and TrueImage 7 recently, running a
Maxtor external from a D-Link USB2 PC card, and it works fine for me.

Can a USB hard drive be read by drive image when it boots into DOS mode
to do its backups or restores

 

[Rod Speed]

Can a USB hard drive be read by drive image when
it boots into DOS mode to do its backups or restores

Nope, but not all versions of DI need to be
in DOS mode to do backups and restores.

Gunna be interesting to watch what happens in this
area now that Symantec has lunched on PowerQuest.

 

[Jim Walker]

Rod
Thanks for your offer to help, but I don't yet have computer2 yet. I
was posing the question to find out about the possibility of restoration
using CD disks and the question was not clear enough so I went into the
computer1, computer2 mode. I think you and others answered my questions
very well I and I greatly appreciate it. I will be striving to keep my HD
cloning as straightforward as possible even if I have to move a hard drive
to do it. This would not be something that I would do daily. I would only
have to move a HD once to make an image and once in the event of a crash and
the need to restore. Time wise this would be much better than figuring out
how to make the computer perform the more complex functions in DOS. They
are simple functions if you know exactly what to do but complex or
impossible until you figure them out. For the occasional user, the brute
force approach still has some merit. If I screw up a HD in the process I
will be back for some more advice on this subject. Thanks again.

 

[max]

For the occasional user, the brute
force approach still has some merit. If I screw up a HD in the process I
will be back for some more advice on this subject. Thanks again.

If you're looking at routine backups over the long term, you can kill
both birds with one stone with the external HD idea. You can get a
120G USB2 HD for $120-150, TrueImage 7 for $50, and a USB2 card (if
your PC doesn't already have it) for $20 or less. For about $200, you
can have automated scheduled backups that happen in the background and
provide pretty decent disaster recovery.

This type of thing protects you from disk crashes (most common
problem, IME), but not from theft, fire, aggressive viruses, and such.
Throw a DVD burner in the mix (down to under $100 for the cheap ones),
and you can protect from them as well.

I like TI7 because it doesn't require reboots and supports all the
hardware I've tried with a simple interface. It's much easier to use
than Ghost. I haven't found anything that Ghost does better yet, but
I've just begun using it, so time will tell.

max