OT: Bootable disk images

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

Here's a discussion on Slashdot on copying disks as images, so you can get
a bootable result on the new disk, something we've discussed here before.

I read it a few minutes after it was posted, so there weren't too many
responses yet. It seems to be a hard problem. Some people have had success
with Norton Ghost, but other people have not.

Norman


http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/12/1748242

Experiences w/ Drive Imaging Software?
Posted by Cliff on Wednesday November 12, @01:35PM
from the sharing-your-trials-and-tribulations dept.

Futurepower(R) asks: "Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP have crippled
file systems. The file system cannot copy some of the files that are
necessary to the operating system. If you don't have experience with
Microsoft operating systems, you may find this amazing, but it is true;
Microsoft supplies no method of backing up and restoring fully operational
copies of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft's advice is to reinstall
the operating system and all programs every time you want to move to a new
or backup computer. For confirmation of this, see the 'Microsoft Policy
Statement' in the article, The Microsoft Policy Concerning Disk Duplication
of Windows XP Installations. Many industries use numerous programs;
installing them all may take a week or even more. All of the disk image
duplication programs I've used have problems, in my experience. What
program do you use? What has been your experience with it? Can you
recommend a program, or recommend staying away from one?"

"This policy of providing no way to backup and restore a fully installed
system is impossible for corporations, of course. So Microsoft technical
support representatives recommend sector-by-sector disk image duplication,
even though it is against Microsoft policy. Copying each sector of a hard
drive bypasses Microsoft's copy protection by which Microsoft punishes all
users, even if they are honest.

Sometimes Microsoft technical support recommends using 'third-party' disk
image programs. For example, sometimes support representatives recommend
using Symantec Ghost.

All of the disk image duplication programs I've used have problems, in my
experience. So, here's a question: What program do you use? What has been
your experience with it? Can you recommend a program, or recommend staying
away from one?

Here are my experiences:

Symantec Ghost sometimes fails with non-specific error messages.
Uninstalling Ghost does not uninstall all the Ghost software. Symantec is
one of the companies using copy protection, so using Symantec products may
be a case of jumping from the Microsoft frying pan to the Symantec copy
protection fire; also, you have no assurance that the copy protection will
not become worse in the future.

PowerQuest DriveImage and DeployCenter have an uncertain future. PowerQuest
was bought by Symantec. This was after PowerQuest released DriveImage 7
with problems. The sale cannot be a happy event for those who spent
hundreds of dollars on DeployCenter.

I've tried Acronis True Image. I've had better luck with it than with
Symantec or PowerQuest products. However, like the others, it sometime
gives non-specific error messages that say something like, 'I've failed,
and I'm not going to tell you how to troubleshoot the problem.'

Fred Langa, publisher of LangaList, recommends BootIt. I have no experience
with it.

I haven't tried g4u, free, open source software provided under the BSD
license g4u has the drawback that it writes only through FTP. There is no
way to write to a network drive or a CD-R.

It's disgusting; people just want to make functional backups, but to do it
they are dragged over the coals."

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Norman Bauman
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Alternate address: nbauman@xxxxxxxx
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