restoring from cd copy of system 1

[jgriffs]

Hi,
My HD blew up so I bought a new one. After several attempts at finding software to get my drive back (Maxtor) to get my most recent data back, I bought a new drive, have installed Win98SE. All is well. BUT
I copied my entire drive last year (most recent) newer data files will be put in later but the CD backup has a lot of programs and data, etc.
The backup was done with Roxio so most of the 14 CD's have files which continue on the next CD. Only Roxio can do this (according to the CD read report and consequential boot of Roxio)
Question: Should I restore the Windows dir first (clearly all on one CD) using a start up disk with CD support and copy from the CD to C:\, then load Roxio on the system and proceed with the CD copy back to the hard drive? Maybe Windows would not load, seeing to many conflicts (nothing else is there yet).
I'm just not certain about the proper sequence here.
Any help, as always, will be appreciated.
John

 

[electronicsfreak]

I would follow the instructions of roxios program on how to go about doing it since you used there program to make them.

 

[edfair]

Have never used it but would suggest that you use the entire Roxio backup to bring it as close to the original as possible. That comes closest to restoring everything to the proper places.

Once you have a restore you can do a selective backup of those things that are important to do another restore onto a new build. It takes at least twice as long this way but you'll be happier in the long run. A build over a year old is going to have loose ends that potentially can cause problems.

One problem that potentially can bite is any differences in the version as originally there and the version that generates on a new install.

I suspect that once you see how things come back together you'll want to change how the file structure is built and where things are stored for ease of restoring on the next crash.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[jgriffs]

Well, I fairly happy.
My HP Pavillion, bought in '96, came with an emergency restore: a 3 CD set which obliterates any data on the HD and resets all of the installed programs to "new". It had W98 (not SE). So I installed W98SE and found that drivers were not available for the ethernet, sound cards - an HP proprietary thing. The 3rd CD had all the drivers but after doing what I did, the CD did not recognize my system as an HP. After 20 minutes with HP help desk, I found out that I could access the CD and manually copy drivers. BUT, the CD must have been for many different systems, not just mine.
I thought I was doomed to going back to Win98. So I put the first recovery CD in and noticed, for the first time (and HP didn't mention this) there was an "Advanced Option" selection.
Using that, and "restore c:*.* with subfolders" all came back to a point where I could continue to load in other programs. Loaded in my 2005 backup and I'm happy.
I post this to let others maybe in the same boat.
Lesson learned: Backup, backup, backup. I've heard it myself so many times. Takes a hard lesson to prove it correct.

 

[edfair]

Glad you have it sorted out. But I have one question. How many of the 14 roxio CDs had data, and how many had programs, and how much was mixed?
I would propose that you do some modifications of file layouts so that your programs and data are segregated in such a way that a data backup contains data and a program backup contains programs and you forgo any OS backup as it will be rebuilt anyway.
I recognize that what I propose is more difficult with one of the packaged systems but whatever effort you expend at the front end will pay off on a restore.
And I am curious about the machine you bought in 1996 that came with 98. Or was it an HP upgrade in some manner? That date discrepancy would flag the driver issues although SE should pick up everything pretty well.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[jgriffs]

Hi again!
Of the 13 CD's most was data but I did have "My Download Files" there too. That had a lot of misc utilities, some of which I had unzipped and installed to that particular subfolder in MDF. It's amazing how much crap I've collected over the years.
And since you brought it up (1996) I looked at the "quick start" guide and it has a copywrite of 2000. So I goofed on that one.
I'm gonna use Partition Magic to set up a second partition like I did on the old drive BUT store my data there.
How much do you know about Win's Scandisk? Could a freeze at 23% of a 42G drive still be in the boot sector. Maxtor is somewhat hopeful that the Max-Blast floppy that came with the drive would repair the MBR of the drive and maybe allow access to the files. If so, at this point I need only about 2 or 3 directories from it.
Just curious.
John

 

[edfair]

The OS will be in the first .4 % of your 40+ gb drive. The boot record is locked at the beginning but there is the MBR for each partition as created by PM. And unless the partitions were set up as 10 and 30 the error couldn't have related back to the previous PM install.

But with how things get rearranged by the OS there may very well be OS fragments anywhere on the partition.

Your windows scandisk is probably hanging at the 23% mark of the partition you have chosen to make active and has nothing to do with anything except a bad disk. Assuming that you have PM for multiple booting.

Partition magic is good to make multiple bootable partitions but probably overkill for an extended/logical area for data storage. I use it on a couple of my multi-boot machines.



Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.