Backing Up Windows
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From: Microsoft Newsgroups on 31 Jul 2010 14:48 Could anyone tell me if it is possible to make and exact copy of my primary (C) drive so that if I need to I have it available? Perhaps, is it possible to use the File Settings & Transfer wizard to copy the drive to the other internal drive and then boot from that drive if possible?
From: Spamlet on 31 Jul 2010 15:18 "Microsoft Newsgroups" <njitgs(a)verizon.net> wrote in message news:uWZ35DOMLHA.5776(a)TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > Could anyone tell me if it is possible to make and exact copy of my > primary (C) drive so that if I need to I have it available? > > Perhaps, is it possible to use the File Settings & Transfer wizard to copy > the drive to the other internal drive and then boot from that drive if > possible? > http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/index.html
From: Paul on 31 Jul 2010 18:47 Microsoft Newsgroups wrote: > Could anyone tell me if it is possible to make and exact copy of my primary > (C) drive so that if I need to I have it available? > > Perhaps, is it possible to use the File Settings & Transfer wizard to copy > the drive to the other internal drive and then boot from that drive if > possible? > A method I use, which is free - 1) Download and burn a Ubuntu CD (ubuntu.com). Cost to you - one CD, plus the download time. 2) Boot Ubuntu. Open a terminal window. Locate the hard drive. ls /dev 3) You may see entries like hda1, hda2, which might be your hard drive. Perhaps sda is your external USB drive and so on. 4) Linux understands NTFS and FAT32. For this job, the backup file will be huge, so the external backup drive should be formatted NTFS. You can format the drive in Windows first, to make it easier to do. 5) In Linux, use the file manager, and click on the external drive. That will mount the file system for you. It helps, if you have "labels" applied in Windows to each of your partitions. For example, the label on my C: drive is "WinXP", the label on my backup partition is "Dumping" and so on. Using labels in Windows, those labels show up in Ubuntu. 6) Once the external drive is mounted, you can copy C: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/media/dumping/winxp_Jul_31_2010.dd The dev syntax, is a raw device (i.e. working at the sector level). hda1 means use disk "hda", and copy partition 1 from it. The entire partition is going to be copied, sector by sector. The output in this case, is going to be one *huge* file, containing an *exact* snapshot of my C: drive. For example, I do this process regularly, and it puts a 76GB file on my NTFS dumping partition. 7) Now, say one day, I get a virus on C:, or my hard drive craps out or whatever. As long as the new drive is partitioned *exactly* like the old one, I can boot Ubuntu again, and reverse the process, putting the contents of C: back. dd if=/media/dumping/winxp_Jul_31_2010.dd of=/dev/hda1 Using PTEDIT32, free for download, I can get info on the original partitioning scheme. (Example picture here.) In this example, the C: drive would be partition 2, perhaps "hda2" when copying it. http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif ( ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip ) 8) Another thing you can back up from the original drive, is the MBR. The MBR has the primary partition table. Saving a copy of that, means you'd taking a snapshot of how the disk was set up (at least, for the primary partitions). Note that this is not a complete specification - if you have an extended partition, with logical partitions inside, you'd need to snapshot some other things as well. This is effectively saving the stuff shown in the previous picture. dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/dumping/MBR_Jul_31_2010.dd bs=512 count=1 That backs up a single sector and gives a 512 byte output file. So it is possible to do backups, for the cost of a burned CD, plus the cost of your external USB hard drive. The main reason for wanting to boot Ubuntu to do this, is Windows is shut down, and the C: drive is not "busy". That allows an exact copy to be made without corruption. If you have the money for backup software (which I don't), then that software is going to be easier to use than the above procedure. The nice thing about the above method, is it copies everything *exactly*, because it works at the sector level, rather than the file level. It is wasteful of disk space (using another backup method, I might be able to save C: in only 30-40GB of space), but it is an exact copy, copying all the "blank" space as well. And when your Windows won't boot, having that CD to boot is comforting. At least you have some way to run the computer, prove the hardware is OK and so on. Paul
From: choro on 31 Jul 2010 20:28 (PeteCresswell) wrote: > Per Microsoft Newsgroups: >> Could anyone tell me if it is possible to make and exact copy of my >> primary (C) drive so that if I need to I have it available? > > Yes. It's called "Disc Imaging". > > Two general kinds of programs: > > 1) Those that run under Windows. They are more > intuitive, but slower and - I think - more > expensive. Example: Acronis' "TrueImage". > > 2) Those that run from a DOS boot floppy or > CD. Faster, cheaper.... but not quite > as intuitive, lacking the Windows UI. > Example TeraByte's "Image". > > > I've tried the Acronis product and it certainly seems slick. > > But I've always used the TeraByte DOS product and am comfortable > enough with it that I wouldn't switch unless I needed some > additional functionality - like Acronis' ability to change > partition size. Incidentally has anyone tried both Acronis and Paragon to see how they compare? -- choro *****
From: NJITGS on 31 Jul 2010 20:48
Hi Paul- And thank you for your reply. However, even though I ordered the Ubuntu disk from the Netherlands, I don't that is going to be an option as it's a bit too confusing to me and I don't want to take and risks with my sensitive data. It was my hope that I could use either the Windows NT Backup utility or the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard for this. Anyone else have any suggestions...? BTW- Since you used external hard drive as your example I thought that now would be a better time than ever to mention that the drive that I would like to make a backup copy of my primary drive with operating system is also an internal hard drive. "Paul" <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote in message news:i3296a$k92$1(a)speranza.aioe.org... > Microsoft Newsgroups wrote: >> Could anyone tell me if it is possible to make and exact copy of my >> primary (C) drive so that if I need to I have it available? >> >> Perhaps, is it possible to use the File Settings & Transfer wizard to >> copy the drive to the other internal drive and then boot from that drive >> if possible? >> > > A method I use, which is free - > > 1) Download and burn a Ubuntu CD (ubuntu.com). Cost to you - one CD, > plus the download time. > > 2) Boot Ubuntu. Open a terminal window. Locate the hard drive. > > ls /dev > > 3) You may see entries like hda1, hda2, which might be your hard drive. > Perhaps sda is your external USB drive and so on. > > 4) Linux understands NTFS and FAT32. For this job, the backup file will > be huge, so the external backup drive should be formatted NTFS. You > can format the drive in Windows first, to make it easier to do. > > 5) In Linux, use the file manager, and click on the external drive. That > will mount the file system for you. It helps, if you have "labels" > applied in Windows to each of your partitions. For example, the label > on my C: drive is "WinXP", the label on my backup partition is > "Dumping" > and so on. Using labels in Windows, those labels show up in Ubuntu. > > 6) Once the external drive is mounted, you can copy C: > > dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/media/dumping/winxp_Jul_31_2010.dd > > The dev syntax, is a raw device (i.e. working at the sector level). > hda1 means use disk "hda", and copy partition 1 from it. The > entire partition is going to be copied, sector by sector. > > The output in this case, is going to be one *huge* file, containing > an *exact* snapshot of my C: drive. For example, I do this process > regularly, and it puts a 76GB file on my NTFS dumping partition. > > 7) Now, say one day, I get a virus on C:, or my hard drive craps out or > whatever. As long as the new drive is partitioned *exactly* like the > old one, I can boot Ubuntu again, and reverse the process, putting the > contents of C: back. > > dd if=/media/dumping/winxp_Jul_31_2010.dd of=/dev/hda1 > > Using PTEDIT32, free for download, I can get info on the original > partitioning scheme. (Example picture here.) In this example, the > C: drive would be partition 2, perhaps "hda2" when copying it. > > > http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif > > ( > ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip ) > > 8) Another thing you can back up from the original drive, is the MBR. > The MBR has the primary partition table. Saving a copy of that, > means you'd taking a snapshot of how the disk was set up (at least, > for the primary partitions). Note that this is not a complete > specification - if you have an extended partition, with logical > partitions inside, you'd need to snapshot some other things as well. > This is effectively saving the stuff shown in the previous picture. > > dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/dumping/MBR_Jul_31_2010.dd bs=512 count=1 > > That backs up a single sector and gives a 512 byte output file. > > So it is possible to do backups, for the cost of a burned CD, plus > the cost of your external USB hard drive. The main reason for > wanting to boot Ubuntu to do this, is Windows is shut down, and > the C: drive is not "busy". That allows an exact copy to be made > without corruption. > > If you have the money for backup software (which I don't), then > that software is going to be easier to use than the above procedure. > The nice thing about the above method, is it copies everything > *exactly*, because it works at the sector level, rather than the > file level. It is wasteful of disk space (using another backup > method, I might be able to save C: in only 30-40GB of space), but > it is an exact copy, copying all the "blank" space as well. > > And when your Windows won't boot, having that CD to boot is > comforting. At least you have some way to run the computer, > prove the hardware is OK and so on. > > Paul |