Re: Mac and Xy

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- On Sun, 8/9/09, Harry Binswanger  wrote:

>Fascinating. So I can keep my Thinkpad X61, but VM Workstation,
> and run Mac software?!

I did not know that either . . . but you'd still need to pick up
a copy of OS/X, and whatever Mac apps you fancy. The only thing
that's free in that mix is the VM Workstation.

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).

Back to Harry:
> 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've used some combination of Acronis True Image, Acronis
Disk Director, and DFSEE to do this sort of thing many
times, though never for upgrading a *laptop* hard drive.
Sometimes it went well, sometimes not -- no doubt due to
mistakes I made or things Robert knows well and I don't.
I'd heard of DiskPatch before, but had not actually used it,
and perhaps I should have. Plus there are some extra issues
with the laptops.

> 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.

Well, we've mentioned some, but they are not automated,
and require some user knowledge and intervention. Some detail(s)
you _don't_ know are usually what screws things up, and that
may have been the case with your technician. Remember, as with
Xy itself, there is the tool, and then there is the person
wielding the tool. What a difference that can make !

I never liked Ghost much myself. PowerQuest is defunct, and their
Drive Image program is not up to date enough to be a good choice.
There are likely some more programs out there. I've heard of
something called Dantz Retrospect, but don't know much about it.

> 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.

I would expect that the way Robert does it is going to be the
more thorough and the more failsafe, with the caveat of
reintroducing any problems that were present in the fully
installed and customized Windows. Personally, I'd take that
risk any day, over the awful prospect of rebuilding everything
from scratch. I'm impatient (lazy ?), and have just restored
my most recent working boot image, skipping the step of a
fresh factory install as the "bedrock." For the most part,
I have gotten away with that, although best results have been
when the hard drive being substituted is an identical make and
model. A migration module in Acronis TI v. 9 or later is
*supposed to be able* to relocate the Win boot image onto a
larger, different model hard drive, while finessing any Windows
issues so that it still boots. My experience with that has
been mixed, but it _can_ work.

There seems to be an additional method. I've seen slipstreaming
guides for Windows online. The idea is that you create a custom
reinstall CD (or DVD) that has the desired Service Pack level,
all the patches or hotfixes you want that have been released
since then, plus a lot of your installed apps. It is presented
as something an IT department would use for the fastest, least
hands-on restore or redeployment possible: feed the disc and
walk away. I could post a couple URLs, but it read like a fairly
elaborate recipe to set all this up. The one thing I'm unclear
about is to what extent these streamlined reinstall discs can
be customized and personalized. To a point where there is
nothing left to do, and it rivals a boot image restore ?
I have some doubts about that.


 Jordan