Why don't more people image there OS hard drive ? 3

[waycoolgal]

So many, many problems could be resolved if people only backed up there system with an image. I use to be what I called the reformat queen until I descovered hard drive imaging. I have now gone 5 years without reformating. Anytime something goes wrong which seems to be often I just reinstall my current image and all is well. My favorite software for this is Acronis True Image but there are others. Please please do yourself a favor and invest in software of this type.

Sincerely,
Waycoolgal

 

[Ploper001]

It's not just the software that costs money (and it's not that much money, granted), but the fact that you'll need a separate drive to store the image on (or you'll need to create a new partition on an existing drive if it's big enough - either way, it costs disk space).

A lot of people don't have the expertise or money to use Imaging software, let alone reinstalling Windows...

 

[LawnBoy]

I too am a big fan of Acronis, and a USB drive big enough to hold an image is pretty cheap. As far as expertise, it's hard for me to imagine easier software to use. If you can create an account in Outlook, you can image your pc. And the whole point is that you don't have to reinstall windows. I can completely rebuild my hard drive in under 10 minutes, with no activation codes to enter or remember.

Acronis also has a Universal Restore module that will allow you to restore an image to different hardware. Really cool stuff.

 

[kmcferrin]

The expertise only comes into play when you realize that most users don't have the expertise, knowledge, or experience to know that such a thing even exists, let alone try to figure out how to use it.

 

[lopes1211]

I use a tcpip boot disk with our imagining solution. All of my office PC's boot from cd/floppy to a shared drive, then launch ghost2003.exe residing on that shared network drive, then save images of each PC to that 1 network drive. Saved my butt 3 nights ago and got my main laptop back up in under 10 minutes. Just a little time with google and making a shared folder on 1 PC. Best part about it is it works for any machine with a NIC which includes non-usb machines, unix machines, and Laptops which have no room for 2nd harddrives.

-CL

 

[cdogg]

And let's not forget that many of these backup utilities (Acronis TrueImage, DriveClone, Ghost, etc) all have the capability of backing up to DVD. Using compression, quite a bit of data can fit onto just one disc. Also, you can create them as bootable, making the restore process that much easier.

With Blu-ray right around the corner, it'll even be easier to fit larger amounts of data on fewer discs.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[wahnula]

Yes, imaging is wonderful, if you are savvy enough to keep all your documents, emails, saved games etc. in one central location that is backed up regularly and easily recovered after the reload of the image. Any Windows Updates and program updates will also need to be redone, so it's not a panacea.

Imaging is good, but DATA BACKUPS ARE MANDATORY!!!

Buy someone you love a backup drive for the Holidays!

Tony

 

[cricket]

Make it simple for me.
I have 2 identical hard disks. XP pro operating system is on Disk 1. I do regular image backups to Disk 2.

Disk 1 fails. Can I now replace Disk 1 with Disk 2 and everything is fine or does XP revolt at this?

 

[wahnula]

Disk 1 fails. Can I now replace Disk 1 with Disk 2 and everything is fine or does XP revolt at this?

It should not revolt, just go through a "Found & Installed New hardware" phase and have to be rebooted once, then you're good to go. But, with this setup, one begs to ask why not just set up a RAID 1 array and have a removable backup drive?

This not only prevents system events (lightning strike etc.) from shutting you down, but also offer protection in case of fire or theft. I keep one of my two backup drives with me at all times, but I am 'one of those' backup nuts, several different recovery scenarios including imaging, file copy, and ASR.

Tony

 

[LawnBoy]

Imaging is good, but DATA BACKUPS ARE MANDATORY!!!

Unless you re-image as regularly as you would backup. I do at home, but it's not possible at work, where my data backups are essential.

 

[cdogg]

I think the word "image" is a loose term. To some, it means a partial backup much like Windows System Restore works. Other applications, however, make "exact" copies of the partition but refer to them as images.

To me, the meaning is interchangeable.

Happy Holidays folks...
[santa2]

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[cricket]

Does Win XP not incorporate details of the hard disk in its setup to prevent people cloning? Hence is there an issue with using a backup image disk to replace a failed disk?

 

[cdogg]

Does Win XP not incorporate details of the hard disk in its setup to prevent people cloning?

It's not "just" the hard drive that WinXP looks at. There is a security code/key that is generated based on many components in your system - motherboard's BIOS, network card, video card, hard drive's serial number, etc. When too many of these components change at the same time, Windows Product Activation (WPA) steps in and asks you to call Microsoft for reactivation. The exception to this rule is when you have a brand-name PC made by such companies as HP or Dell. The OEM version of Windows only relies on the BIOS for activation. So as long as you don't upgrade the motherboard, you have nothing to worry about there.

But to answer your question, changing just the hard drive is not enough to cause any problems in Windows XP.

There are two files under C:\Windows\System32 that you can back up in case your hard drive crashes and you don't have any backups or a working image. The files are Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak. When you are stuck in an activation prompt after reinstalling of Windows, you should be able to boot into Safe Mode and copy these two files back into the System32 folder to restore the activation. Of course, this only works again if the hardware hasn't changed drastically.

This site explains all that in detail and a lot more:

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/ProductActivation.htm

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[diogenes10]

Hi,
I've been dragged into the world of XP.
Looked on my system, don't see a wpa.bak. should I have one?

See a wpabaln.exe
See a wpa.chm with a yellow question mark over it.
What are those?

Thanks.

 

[cdogg]

Did you build the PC or did you buy from a brand name shop like HP or Dell? If it's brand-name and you haven't bought a "retail" copy of XP, then some of the WPA files may or may not be there.

The wpa.chm is a help file, which is also why the icon has a yellow question mark.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[LawnBoy]

Our Dells have the wpa.dbl file, but only after you have been authenticated by MS.

 

[dheida]

Virtualize and backup.

 

[orypecos]

I am on a very tight budget, and very little experience. I have another hard drive in my computer. Can I just click on the c drive, and copy to the d drive, then remove the d drive for a backup in case of a power hit?