Image Creation of C Drive

[freddy]

I was planning to make an image of my C:/ drive that contains my os and some programs. I have had to re-install my O/S several times in the past nd it becomes a real pain re-installing the drivers and apps etc. Someone mentioned I should just create an image, questions I have....

1) If I create an image, how can the image be installed if I format my drive in the future and have no o/s on it ? and also the program that restores the image needs to be running to restore ?!
2) If my drive dies or gets corrupted, I format it, re-install my O/S, then try to overlay the o/s with the image I created, is that possible.
3) What software do you recommend, why cant I just copy all my files on my c: drive onto a cd with no compression and then just copy them back.

ANy help would be appreciated as I have not done this before

[bailey]

1. what is the O/S

2. there are several programs that will do that for you
drive image, nero, wxp, backup.

3. no you cannot do that because it will not have all the
regestry settings and set-up files

[freddy]

I have windows 2000 Sp4 installed now, but my disk from which installation is done is sp1

[freddy]

I tried using the following:

1) POwerQuest Drive Image 2002 v6.0 and keep getting an error I do notunderstand "Error 91 Disk Manager has been detected on drive 1", I dont know what disk manager it is referring to, actually dont know what a disk manager is ?

2) I also tried image for wiondows and it keeps saying cannot lock drive ?

Thanks

[bailey]

didk manager is probly the disk manager that is built into w2k ans xp
it will do the things your trying to do also

[RayH]

I use Drive Image 2002 on a Windows XP machine. This requires that I have partition that is FAT32. I can write directly to CD, but it takes too long.

I usually execute restore files directly from the hard drive. If my C:\ gets wiggy, I usually initiate Drive Image directly from Windows. If it is too corrupted, I boot from the Rescue floppies, which has the necessary part of the program. I then direct Drive Image to either a file on hard drive or CD.

I don't reformat. The restoration process will overwrite the drive/partition. If the drive dies, I have used Drive Image files on CD to initialize a new hard drive. Same workings. Different drive.

[racerbrownn]

i've used norton ghost to boot with a ghost floppy and then copy from my xp local hdd to local hdd to save all my system settings and data from my primary hdd to my slave. if my primary gets screwed too bad, i just reboot with the ghost floppy and local to local copy back to restore the primary.
['course, if the primary goes south, i still have the slave to swapout and save myself.]
and like a good boy, i copy any new important data over to the slave with the send to folder using a shortcut for the slave. nice and quick.
if, after a couple of months, if all is good, i simply reghost to copy newer software to the slave as well. [this won't work well with goback installed as norton see's goback in the boot sector and has a cow.

[freddy]

Thanks I managed to get Drive Image and made a image of my C drive, I have not had to use it, but I dread it as Ihave no idea, if my o/s goes down and cannot boot into windows how this image will help. The only way out would be to reload my o/s from the original disks, re-load Drive image application and use the restore option in drive image. That still sounds like alot of work !!!.

Does powerquest drive image have a boot disk creation. That is probably what is required, someway to run the restore utility in "DOS" mode

[racerbrownn]

i have drive image but have not used it lately. didn't it let you make your choices while in windows and then reboot to dos to make the changes like partitionmagic does?

i do know that ghost copies using a floppy to boot with and operate the copy program while in "pc"dos.

i believe that ANY copy program will have to work in dos if you expect to get valid copies of the registry.

if my system "went down", i would simply plug in the ghost floppy and boot with it. it will then loadup it's operating files and i would copy all data from the slave back to my primary.
it's as easy to copy from the primary as it is to copy from the slave. [ghost calls each operation as either source or destination to clarify what is being done.]

if drivecopy has no boot floppy to repair a crashed drive, then i can see why you are worried. i would be too.

you would have to physically swap the hdd's to get to bootup [or change the boot order in bios if possible.]

[RayH]

Freddy It is nerveracking the first time. But once you see the files restore just fine, you'll never look back or leave home without Drive Image!

Look at your Start Menu > Programs > Drive Image > Create Rescue Diskettes. Get a couple of formatted floppies. This is the key to the backup. After you make the diskettes, make sure they work.

Now, the only condition in which I had an image file on CD not be able to restore was when that CD was made from a file that was created directly after an ERASER program and Defragmentation and the file was in highest compresssion. I guess it was too compressed. But the file executed alright from the hard drive.

To solve that problem, I after cleaning the hard drive, I would log on to the internet a couple of times. That seemed to "fluff" the hard drive enough.

[freddy]

I dont seem to have the option for creating rescue disks. Are you refering to the W2K ERDs or not...