saving disk partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter nmdc69
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nmdc69

Hi folks,
I want to save an image of the disk partition containing an XP
installation (with a lot
of software installed). I'd like to be able to install this image to
another computer so
I won't have to reinstall all the software.

Is this possible? What software should I use to create the image? Once
the image is
created, and stored on a hard disk, how do I install it?

Is there a way to leave out a folder (eg.: My Documents) so that the
image will be smaller?

thanks in advance...
 
Ghost or True Image - I prefer True Image others may differ.
Their help pages show 'how to'

If you are transfering all, inc o/s, to a new PC you will likely have to do
a repair installation of winxp, including installing your mobo chipset and
other drivers that are specific to the new sys
 
Hi folks,
I want to save an image of the disk partition containing an XP
installation (with a lot
of software installed). I'd like to be able to install this image to
another computer so
I won't have to reinstall all the software.

Is this possible? What software should I use to create the image? Once
the image is
created, and stored on a hard disk, how do I install it?

Is there a way to leave out a folder (eg.: My Documents) so that the
image will be smaller?

thanks in advance...
Click to expand...


Is this machine being used concurrently with the original? If so, do you
have a second XP licence?
 
Hi folks,
I want to save an image of the disk partition containing an XP
installation (with a lot
of software installed). I'd like to be able to install this image to
another computer so
I won't have to reinstall all the software.

Is this possible? What software should I use to create the image? Once
the image is
created, and stored on a hard disk, how do I install it?

Is there a way to leave out a folder (eg.: My Documents) so that the
image will be smaller?

thanks in advance...
Click to expand...

Transferring the image to another PC is easy but you
won't like the result, for these reasons:
- The new PC will most likely crash with an "Inaccessible
boot device error", caused by the different hardware.
- Your MS products (WinXP, MS Office) will demand
a renewed validation (because the licence entitles you
to install the product on one PC only).
 
9:36 AM 6/19/2006

Hi nmdc:

It is certainly possible to transfer an entire partition to another hdd.
The 3rd party software DL mentioned- Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost- are
the only two applications which would do the job reliably (in my opinion).
However, as Pegasus suggested, there can be many vexing problems resulting
from incompatible drivers, etc. when using this method. I think most users
would be ultimately happier with a fresh install from the factory CD's for
all applications. It is your choice of course. Either way, make sure you A)
back up all data to external media before doing anything and B) plan your
transfer/re-install carefully (making sure you have all CD's on hand, etc.).

Good luck and post back here with any questions as you decide/proceed.

Mark
 
callmark1 said:
9:36 AM 6/19/2006

Hi nmdc:

It is certainly possible to transfer an entire partition to another hdd.
The 3rd party software DL mentioned- Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost- are
the only two applications which would do the job reliably (in my opinion).
Click to expand...

There are several other products or tools that will do
the same, e.g. xcopy.exe when booting the machine
with a Bart PE boot CD. It's free too!

<snip>
 
callmark1 said:
9:36 AM 6/19/2006

Hi nmdc:

It is certainly possible to transfer an entire partition to another hdd.
The 3rd party software DL mentioned- Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost- are
the only two applications which would do the job reliably (in my opinion).
However, as Pegasus suggested, there can be many vexing problems resulting
from incompatible drivers, etc. when using this method. I think most users
would be ultimately happier with a fresh install from the factory CD's for
all applications. It is your choice of course. Either way, make sure you A)
back up all data to external media before doing anything and B) plan your
transfer/re-install carefully (making sure you have all CD's on hand, etc.).

Good luck and post back here with any questions as you decide/proceed.

Mark
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark, and the others who responded.

ok, I understand it may be difficult to copy everything from computer 1
to computer 2 (I should have said that computer 2 is identical to
computer 1, and has XP preinstalled with its own licence number).

I should also have said that my most pressing reason for imaging the
partition is for backup. I want to resize this partition (reduce its
size) with Partition Magic, but first I want to have a backup of the
system with all the applications installed in case something goes
wrong. Ability to copy to computer 2 would be nice, but is not as
crucial as backup.

Are Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost the way to go for backup?

Also, I don't need to save my user files ("My Document") since I
already did a backup of that, and since "My Document" is big I'd
prefer if the image could be done leaving out this folder. Does any of
these programs allow me to do that, or do I have to save the entire
partition?
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Transferring the image to another PC is easy but you
won't like the result, for these reasons:
- The new PC will most likely crash with an "Inaccessible
boot device error", caused by the different hardware.
- Your MS products (WinXP, MS Office) will demand
a renewed validation (because the licence entitles you
to install the product on one PC only).
Click to expand...


Pegasus (and the OP):
I can discern from your postings that you're an experienced & competent PC
user so I'm puzzled re your negative comment about using a disk imaging
program, e.g., Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to do what the
OP wants to do, i.e., clone the contents of his/her present HD to a
(presumably) new HD and install the latter drive in a new computer. (I'm
assuming that's what the OP means when he/she speaks of "sav(ing) an image
of the disk partition containing an XP installation (with a lot of software
installed)."

Using a disk imaging program such as the ones mentioned to make a
disk-to-disk clone and then installing the new cloned HD in a new machine is
relatively straightforward and effective. While it is true that the user
will (usually) be required to install whatever drivers are necessary on the
cloned drive following its installation in the new machine, the process
should proceed smoothly and without incident. As such, there's no basic
reason why "The new PC will most likely crash with an inaccessible boot
device error". We've performed this operation hundreds of times in an XP
environment and suffered no ill consequences for the most part.

While it is true that a new activation will usually be necessary, that
process should proceed without any complications assuming the user will no
longer be using his/her former PC with the same XP OS license.
Anna
 
Anna said:
Pegasus (and the OP):
I can discern from your postings that you're an experienced & competent PC
user so I'm puzzled re your negative comment about using a disk imaging
program, e.g., Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to do what the
OP wants to do, i.e., clone the contents of his/her present HD to a
(presumably) new HD and install the latter drive in a new computer. (I'm
assuming that's what the OP means when he/she speaks of "sav(ing) an image
of the disk partition containing an XP installation (with a lot of software
installed)."

Using a disk imaging program such as the ones mentioned to make a
disk-to-disk clone and then installing the new cloned HD in a new machine is
relatively straightforward and effective. While it is true that the user
will (usually) be required to install whatever drivers are necessary on the
cloned drive following its installation in the new machine, the process
should proceed smoothly and without incident. As such, there's no basic
reason why "The new PC will most likely crash with an inaccessible boot
device error". We've performed this operation hundreds of times in an XP
environment and suffered no ill consequences for the most part.

While it is true that a new activation will usually be necessary, that
process should proceed without any complications assuming the user will no
longer be using his/her former PC with the same XP OS license.
Anna
Click to expand...

The OP has now clarified his intentions. They were not quite
what they appeared to be in his first post.

I use imaging a lot and I have seen more "Incaccessible Boot
Device" error than I care to think about. At the same time I
admit that the majority were with Win2000 PCs - perhaps
WinXP has become as tolerant to hardware changes as WinNT
used to be. I shall do a few tests to confirm this.
 
OK it is a little more clear now. My experience is with Norton Ghost and so
I will comment about it though, as you have seen, there are other programs
for this task. Other imaging softwares probably have similar features.

If I understood your post correctly, I would suggest that there is no need
to "shrink" a partition before backing it up with Ghost; the extra unused
space in a large partition does not add bulk to the backup "image". Also,
Ghost has variable rate compression so if space is an issue, you might choose
"high compression". Ghost 9.0 will backup straight to CD or to a file on
your hdd. One of mu favorite features of Ghost is the Image Browser which
allows you to browse files within the backup image with an interface much
like Window Explorer. You can then selectively restore one file or many.

As far as your Docs are concerned, will old computer 1 be used for anything?
If you already have a reliable backup (or two) of all this user data on
external media, why not just delete it from computer 1 before backing up an
image of the partition?

For your new computer, Ghost could serve as your daily/weekly/monthly backup
application. It is capable of creating a baseline backup and then
"monitoring" your drive for changes in order to do "incremental" backups.

I would still prefer a nice clean install for computer 2. It sounds like
you already have the XP OS in place-- how nice. Unless there is time
pressure on getting computer 2 rolling, you have an opportunity to install
applications a step at a time. PS: not a bad idea to create a system image
of the new computer OS onto external media now for use as a recovery CD.

Mark
 
PS: I should have mentioned... if you end up with two identical XP's on two
different machines, MS will see the second XP on the new computer 2 as
"illegal" even if you can prove you have two licenses. Win updates would
then be problematic.
 
Thanks for the response. Yes, I'll still be using mostly computer 1. I
will use computer 2 only occasionally. I guess I can reinstall a few
apps, but won't need all of them on computer 2.
The reason why I want to resize the partition on computer 1 is not
related to the backup. It's to make space for another operating system
(and make it a dual boot machine).

Deleting my documents before creating the image sounds like a simple
way to solve my space problem.

Once I have the image as a single file on an external HD, how do I use
it to recover my system, if needed (for example if the internal hard
disk fails)?
 
Well if your hard drive failed, the backup image would of course do no good
until you got a new drive. As far as recovery in the event of OS
corruption/failure, I've not had to restore so cant' describe its level of
friendliness. The imaging software you choose would have those instructions
included with documentation. In general it involves booting with the
software CD and following instructions.

As per my previous post, be careful you don't run afoul of
activation/validation issues.

Mark
 
Anna said:
Pegasus (and the OP):
I can discern from your postings that you're an experienced & competent PC
user so I'm puzzled re your negative comment about using a disk imaging
program, e.g., Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to do what
the OP wants to do, i.e., clone the contents of his/her present HD to a
(presumably) new HD and install the latter drive in a new computer. (I'm
assuming that's what the OP means when he/she speaks of "sav(ing) an image
of the disk partition containing an XP installation (with a lot of
software installed)."

Using a disk imaging program such as the ones mentioned to make a
disk-to-disk clone and then installing the new cloned HD in a new machine
is relatively straightforward and effective. While it is true that the
user will (usually) be required to install whatever drivers are necessary
on the cloned drive following its installation in the new machine, the
process should proceed smoothly and without incident. As such, there's no
basic reason why "The new PC will most likely crash with an inaccessible
boot device error". We've performed this operation hundreds of times in an
XP environment and suffered no ill consequences for the most part.

While it is true that a new activation will usually be necessary, that
process should proceed without any complications assuming the user will no
longer be using his/her former PC with the same XP OS license.
Anna
Click to expand...


ADDENDUM...
There were two important points I neglected to cover in my above comments,
so let me rectify that now...

1. After the "cloned" HD is transferred to the new machine, it's likely that
a Repair installation of the XP OS will be necessary. We have, however,
encountered a number of cases where the cloned HD booted straightaway
without any problem. In some of those cases the OS was able to install
drivers without any user intervention. But in other cases this-or-that
driver installation was necessary, however, the usual scenario will call for
a Repair install.

If the OP is not familiar with a Repair installation, he or she should do a
Google search on "xp repair install" for step-by-step instructions provided
by a number of websites. The process, incidentally, is straightforward and
should pose no particular problem in most cases.

2. If one or both machines are OEM-branded, the disk imaging process that
has been described may not work because of OEM considerations involving
licensing/activation issues.
Anna
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
The OP has now clarified his intentions. They were not quite
what they appeared to be in his first post.

I use imaging a lot and I have seen more "Incaccessible Boot
Device" error than I care to think about. At the same time I
admit that the majority were with Win2000 PCs - perhaps
WinXP has become as tolerant to hardware changes as WinNT
used to be. I shall do a few tests to confirm this.
Click to expand...


Pegasus:
Out of curiosity, what disk imaging program(s) do you use?

We have primarily used the Norton Ghost 2003 program and by & large found it
to be a straightforward and effective program to use for basic disk-to-disk
cloning (both internal & external) in an XP environment. (We're not enthused
with the Ghost 9 & 10 programs based on our targeted use of a disk imaging
program).

I should mention that we are *exclusively* interested in creating basic
clones of the source disk(s). To that end...
1. We are not interested in creating incremental backups.
2. We are not interested in creating *differential* backups.
3. We are not interested in creating scheduled backups.
4. We are not interested in creating disk images on media such as CD/DVDs.

Our sole interest in to create & maintain a near failsafe backup system and
we feel we can achieve that using a disk imaging program in the manner
described.

BTW, we have worked with the Acronis True Image program over the past few
months and have found it to be an effective program as well.
Anna
 
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