Re: Drive Image--OT

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- Robert Holmgren  wrote:

> >From the M$ CD!

> > And how do you bring back your
> > whole system, including preferences and Registry
> settings?

> Using Backup/Restore, as above, plus ERDNT.
> Everything comes back, just as it
> was. Very fast.

O.K., that would seem to account for the Registry --
carrying with it the Desktop stuff, preferences,
settings. But what about all the installed app.s
(with *their* preferences), not to mention the
gazillion MS security patches we've applied over time
?

> The question is, do
> you have an image file
> method that is faster/easier?

Faster -- probably. Easier -- I'd say definitely.
Your method is fine for someone who really knows what
he/she is doing. For those more in the
neophyte-to-journeyman spectrum, I think a
(*workable*) whole-partition restore plan would be
easier.

> The real problem is
> not making an image file,
> but rather that, if your boot drive is now disabled
> or reformatted, where do
> you find the operating system under which you boot
> and then restore the image
> file?

As long as you can boot from a bootable CD (or
floppy), you should be in business. DI must either
have some kinda DOS runtime on it, or else it has a
seaparate DOS boot disk (first) like Partition Magic.
(Actually, they both had "Rescue CD" options.) I'm no
longer sure which DI has, since I haven't used it in a
long time. The DFSEE self-booting CD, or its
pared-down sub-set on the DFSEE floppy, both use
FREEDOS.

I'm told that transferring FREEDOS by itself to a
separate CD or floppy for other uses is readily doable
(though I haven't gotten around to trying this yet
myself). There must also be something on these boot
solutions for DI and DFSEE that enable one to see or
access the entire drive, or else they would not be
usable for the intended purpose. For example, once I
have run the DFSEE diskette or CD, I can write an
image file to large, available FAT-32 space at the end
of a drive. (So, obviously, it has some way of seeing
way past the 8Gig. barrier where "normal" DOS normally
runs out of road.) I believe I could do the same,
even if that storage space was NTFS. Likewise, I can
restore an image to any appropriate partition.

Other than that, I have a CD I picked up from a vendor
online that purports to be able to make boot disks for
a *huge* number of operating systems, including just
about every version of Win -- although this may only
go up through W2K. What about boot CDs ? Good
question -- I'm not sure. But it certainly suggests
that there may be such a thing available by now.


Jordan