Re: Mac and Xy

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Robert wrote:
> Almost all of my machines are Thinkpads, and I've restored an
> Acronis boot image many many times -- including migrating images
> of whole hard drives to replacement hard drives. Replaced two
> hard drives in the last few months... If the disk geometry
> changes, you need to take additional steps, but it isn't that
> hard (DiskPatch to the rescue).
When I wrote: "Something about IBM/Lenovo/Thinkpads not booting on an
Acronis image," I was referring to the claim of the technician at the
corner computer shop. He was the one who tried to make the Acronis image of
my Thinkpad drive. Maybe he just didn't know about DiskPatch?
I'm trying to switch out my 80G X61 drive for a 250G substitute. The
technician says that the only way is to clone or transfer over my existing
drive's contents to one of his desktop machines, then use that to put the
image (or whatever) onto the new 250G. Then (maybe) the 250G drive can be
placed in my X61 and boot!
I would really like to know what software will produce a *bootable* X61
external image, for my regular at-home backups. I have an old Norton Ghost
somewhere. I have PowerQuest Drive Image, too. I'd prefer something that
would be quick, maybe incremental/differential. But I'm willing to do a
full cloning, running while I'm asleep, if that would protect me from the
horror of re-installing the factory Windows OS.
OR ... is there some way, as Robert might be doing, to re-install the
factory OS without having to re-install all one's programs and
personalizations and customizations? That would seem to be impossible,
since a factory Registry wouldn't know about the programs or personalizations.

The one benefit of restoring the factory OS has been faster boot-up time.
> External storage is really cheap now. I use an array of 1
> terabyte external USB2.0 drives, and schedule complete backups
> of all my machines once per week, in the middle of the night.
I'd like to do that, as well. But I'm stymied by the fact that the recent
failure of Acronis (according to this technician) to produce a bootable
image means I don't know how to do this, softwarewise.
A failsafe software recommendation would earn my undying gratitude
(actually, Robert has that already, several times over).


Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx