Wanting to make a backup of Win XP right after format?

[Victory]

Here is what I want to do :
I want to format my drive and then put XP on it (easy part but
lengthy)
After that I want to make a backup (using Acronis backup utility) of
the entire drive with just the OS on it.

There is a simple reason I want to do this - I am not the only one
that uses this computer, so I periodically erase the hard drive to
clean up the downloads and demos of games and such. In this way, I am
hoping to make it quite easy for me to format the drive and then just
RESTORE the winXP (using Acronis) onto it without having to go through
the process of REINSTALLING winxp.

Does this sound like it might be possible to do? I am not going to
change the motherboard drivers or anything in the interim. Is there
anything I should look out for?

Thanks

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Here is what I want to do :
I want to format my drive and then put XP on it (easy part but
lengthy)
After that I want to make a backup (using Acronis backup utility) of
the entire drive with just the OS on it.

There is a simple reason I want to do this - I am not the only one
that uses this computer, so I periodically erase the hard drive to
clean up the downloads and demos of games and such. In this way, I
am hoping to make it quite easy for me to format the drive and then
just RESTORE the winXP (using Acronis) onto it without having to go
through the process of REINSTALLING winxp.

Does this sound like it might be possible to do? I am not going to
change the motherboard drivers or anything in the interim. Is there
anything I should look out for?

I don't consider 45-60 minutes all that lengthy - but you can make an image
of your machine using such imaging software anytime you like and apply any
given image you like back to the same computer with little problem as long
as you understand how to utilize the application(s) in question.

 

[Victory]

No that sounds great. I was just wondering if there was anything to
watch out for.
I was also considering putting it on a flash drive - how big is
WinXP? Would a 2gig flash drive be enough to house it?

 

[Anna]

Here is what I want to do :
I want to format my drive and then put XP on it (easy part but
lengthy)
After that I want to make a backup (using Acronis backup utility) of
the entire drive with just the OS on it.

There is a simple reason I want to do this - I am not the only one
that uses this computer, so I periodically erase the hard drive to
clean up the downloads and demos of games and such. In this way, I am
hoping to make it quite easy for me to format the drive and then just
RESTORE the winXP (using Acronis) onto it without having to go through
the process of REINSTALLING winxp.

Does this sound like it might be possible to do? I am not going to
change the motherboard drivers or anything in the interim. Is there
anything I should look out for?

Thanks

Victory:
Sure, you can do this. I'm assuming that when you mention the "Acronis
backup utility" you're referring to the Acronis True Image program.

You could use that program to either "clone" the contents of the HDD on
which you've fresh-installed the XP OS to another internal or external HDD,
or create a disk image of the "source" HDD onto another internal or external
HDD. Either way you would have a "destination" HDD containing a
freshly-installed XP OS which you could later use to "clone" back the
contents of that HDD to another HDD, or, had you used the disk-imaging
process you would undertake the ATI "recovery" process using (in most cases)
the Acronis "bootable rescue media" (CD) that you created when you
originally installed the Acronis program.

I would think that the disk-to-disk cloning process rather than the
disk-imaging route would best suit your objective but either approach is
"doable". Presumably you would be routinely installing the MS XP critical
updates throughout this process.
Anna

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Now that sounds great. I was just wondering if there was anything to
watch out for.

I was also considering putting it on a flash drive - how big is
WinXP? Would a 2gig flash drive be enough to house it?

That you understand how the applications you are using work and that you
have a good image that you can boot from external media and apply if nothing
else was on the machine.

And no - a 2GB flash drive - if it would even be accessible during the
process - will probably *not* be enough for even a bare install/updated
Windows XP - *maybe with compression - but in my experience, 3-5GB is the
norm for a barebone backup.

 

[JS]

Where will you store the 'Image' backup?
Is the backup storage device is large enough to hold multiple backups?
If it is then make a backup after the clean install, another after
installing the device drivers you need.
Then go do the Windows Updates (don't use and Microsoft driver update, as
they are know to cause problems).
Make another image backup after all (and there are many) updates are
installed and the PC boot, runs and has not problems.
Install your applications (Office, etc.) and if all is well, then do one
last image backup.

You should now have at least 4 image backups, the idea is that if something
should go wrong after or during one of the steps above you can always fall
back to the last known good image backup and start over.

JS

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Victory:

No that sounds great. I was just wondering if there was anything to
watch out for.

I do it all the time - got a 15-year-old pounding on my PC for a
couple hours every day. I probably re-image once or twice a
month.

It's 100% doable, but the gotcha is learning to keep data on a
separate drive and logging desired changes to your system between
re-images.

I have my hard disk formatted into 30 gigs for C: (the system)
and the rest split between D: (data) and W: (work).

I'm running XP Pro with plenty of applications and C: has
currently has about 10 gigs on it with 14 free... so 30 is
probably overkill.

Keeping the data on D is part discipline (remembering to save
things there) and part technology (figuring out how to alter the
registry so various paths like "Favorites" are set to a directory
on D:.

The log is just so I remember what things I've installed/changed
between images. Typically, I'll re-image from, say Image #27.
Then I'll immediately apply whatever changes that were made to
the old system and pull off Image #28 to use next time I
re-image.

I keep the images on a separate hard drive in a USB2 wrapper.

Once you get the data part down, it's a snap - and I'd say more
like 25 minutes to re-image using TeraByte and a like amount of
time if/when I take a new image.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

If it is then make a backup after the clean install, another after
installing the device drivers you need.
Then go do the Windows Updates (don't use and Microsoft driver update, as
they are know to cause problems).
Make another image backup after all (and there are many) updates are
installed and the PC boot, runs and has not problems.
Install your applications (Office, etc.) and if all is well, then do one
last image backup.

You should now have at least 4 image backups, the idea is that if something

I should have added this in my post too.

When building a system, take multiple images as the system is
built:

- Bare-bones install

- All programs installed.... and so-forth.


That way, if you decide to re-build the system from scratch, you
save a good 45 minutes by being able to load up a basic system
from an image rather than having to run the install process.

 

[JS]

I will add to that in the fact that I do not have Windows 'Automatic
Updates' turned on. I create an image backup first and then manually visit
the update site, pick the important update (drivers are not) then perform
the update. This strategy also applies to other software updates like Java
Runtime Environment, MS Office, an install of the latest version of AV
software (not daily updates but a product update) and so on.

I therefore can easily roll the PC back to a known good point if there are
side effect with an update that may not be easily un-installed.

JS

 

[Victory]

I was hoping that my 2gig flash drive would do, but I do have 3.5 gig
quantum fireball that I am going to hook up via USB and try it that
way. I will use the USB key for the ATI backup files. Maybe this is
a better method?

 

[JS]

How big is your internal drive that you will install Windows on.
You may be able to partition it, with the second partition serving/used for
image backups.
Most people will not recommend the above because if the main drive totally
fails you have lost your backups also
but it may be a temporary solution.
Note: That 3.5GB drive is still not much help, as it may hold one image
backup but not more.

JS

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

How big is your internal drive that you will install Windows on.
You may be able to partition it, with the second partition serving/used for
image backups.
Most people will not recommend the above because if the main drive totally
fails you have lost your backups also
but it may be a temporary solution.
Note: That 3.5GB drive is still not much help, as it may hold one image
backup but not more.

For the truly-paranoid, one also needs to broach the issue of
offsite storage.

For data, I keep rotating several backup drives between home and
various places I work so I'm covered in case of fire, burglary
or vandalism.

I don't do this with my system backups - because they really only
represent the six or eight man hours needed to rebuild a system
from scratch - but my data is a whole other issue.

Actually, come to think of it, I could copy the latest image to
my data drive tb backed up with the rest of my data.... maybe
eight extra gigs out of almost a hundred...

 

[FrankFL]

Here is what I want to do :
I want to format my drive and then put XP on it (easy part but
lengthy)
After that I want to make a backup (using Acronis backup utility) of
the entire drive with just the OS on it.

There is a simple reason I want to do this - I am not the only one
that uses this computer, so I periodically erase the hard drive to
clean up the downloads and demos of games and such. In this way, I am
hoping to make it quite easy for me to format the drive and then just
RESTORE the winXP (using Acronis) onto it without having to go through
the process of REINSTALLING winxp.

Does this sound like it might be possible to do? I am not going to
change the motherboard drivers or anything in the interim. Is there
anything I should look out for?

Thanks

This is a really good idea. I have both of my machines backed up with
Acronis to an eSATA and a USB drive. I did this a couple of years ago.
Install, update, activate, the rest of the updates, then I backed up.
Folders are named date-first four of the CD key.