How to Backup/Copy/Image a Tweaked OS and Software?

Hi,

I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first computer. She
lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I kept
meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather than
my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd like
to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in the
same state I gave it to her the first time,

How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image of
the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a USB
2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is correct,
how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?

Any insight appreciated.
Thanks!
Cheryl

If the system needs to be restored because it won't boot, how do you propose
to do this from an external HD that I believe is dependent upon the system
running? I have never used an external drive; however, what I would do is
create a compressed image on the laptop's hard drive and place all installed
programs, pictures and what have you on the external drive.

BootIt Next Generation is available from:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html and it does partitioning,
makes a compressed image, does many other partitioning chores and is a boot
manager. It is not quite as easy to use as Partition Magic but it is half
the cost and has more features. Unlike the crippled PMagic demo, BING is a
*full function* demo you can try for FREE for 30 days. The web site has a
lot of support articles.


--
Regards


Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo



"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first computer.
She
lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I kept
meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather
than
my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd
like
to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in the
same state I gave it to her the first time,

How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image of
the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a USB
2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is correct,
how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?

Any insight appreciated.
Thanks!
Cheryl

You will need a third-party (non-Microsoft) program.

I use Acronis True Image version 8 for this exact purpose. (For 98SE you
could also use version 7. Version 10 does not support 98SE; don't know
about version 9.) It can save an image from within windows, or via a
bootable CD. It can restore the image via the bootable CD it creates for
you. The CD actually runs LINUX, but you do not need to know anything about
that, since the interface is windows-like with simple options. True Image
supports USB 2.0 (my favorite), firewire, CD, DVD, ZIP, and internal hard
drives. Avoid making and using the "secure zone", which is a hidden
partition on the original hard drive. Also avoid "snap restore", unless
this is a simple PC with only one partition on the primary hard drive,
called C:\. If this is a simple PC, make "disk" images, since they also
include the boot record, which is useful if you need to replace the hard
disk. Otherwise, "partition" images work fine. Further, one can always
write a boot record in one of several way, if he has to. Several levels of
compression are available. Finally, Ture Image will automatically break the
image into smaller pir\eces, if necessary to file the destination file
system (e.g., FAT32 limited is to single files of 4 Gig each). I find it
useful to set the "span" size to 650 Meg, so that I can copy to CD, if I
chose. Multiple spans (e.g., 10 vs 1) do not impact the backup nor recovery
time. But, be careful to specify the span size correctly including "MB". I
once asked for a 650 span, instead of a 650MB span. This resulted in
millions of 650 byte files, and an eventual abort, due to too many files in
a directory. It was also very, very slow.

Norton GHOST verison 10 can do something similar, but is a bit harder to
use. Further, with win98 it may actually revert to GHOST 2003, which is a
few versions old. GHOST 2003 had so-so USB support. At least I found it
unreliable.

For a more complete list of programs, some free, go to Major Geeks:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html

Whatever program you use, ask how you do a restore, if you can not boot into
98SE. Some programs backup files only work when windows is working.
Obviously, those are not what you want.

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first computer.
She
lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I kept
meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather
than
my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd
like
to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in the
same state I gave it to her the first time,

How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image of
the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a USB
2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is correct,
how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?

Any insight appreciated.
Thanks!
Cheryl

Wow! Thanks Bob and Ron. This is great information!

Cheryl

"Bob Harris" wrote in message
...
| You will need a third-party (non-Microsoft) program.
|
| I use Acronis True Image version 8 for this exact purpose. (For 98SE you
| could also use version 7. Version 10 does not support 98SE; don't know
| about version 9.) It can save an image from within windows, or via a
| bootable CD. It can restore the image via the bootable CD it creates for
| you. The CD actually runs LINUX, but you do not need to know anything
about
| that, since the interface is windows-like with simple options. True Image
| supports USB 2.0 (my favorite), firewire, CD, DVD, ZIP, and internal hard
| drives. Avoid making and using the "secure zone", which is a hidden
| partition on the original hard drive. Also avoid "snap restore", unless
| this is a simple PC with only one partition on the primary hard drive,
| called C:\. If this is a simple PC, make "disk" images, since they also
| include the boot record, which is useful if you need to replace the hard
| disk. Otherwise, "partition" images work fine. Further, one can always
| write a boot record in one of several way, if he has to. Several levels
of
| compression are available. Finally, Ture Image will automatically break
the
| image into smaller pir\eces, if necessary to file the destination file
| system (e.g., FAT32 limited is to single files of 4 Gig each). I find it
| useful to set the "span" size to 650 Meg, so that I can copy to CD, if I
| chose. Multiple spans (e.g., 10 vs 1) do not impact the backup nor
recovery
| time. But, be careful to specify the span size correctly including "MB".
I
| once asked for a 650 span, instead of a 650MB span. This resulted in
| millions of 650 byte files, and an eventual abort, due to too many files
in
| a directory. It was also very, very slow.
|
| Norton GHOST verison 10 can do something similar, but is a bit harder to
| use. Further, with win98 it may actually revert to GHOST 2003, which is a
| few versions old. GHOST 2003 had so-so USB support. At least I found it
| unreliable.
|
| For a more complete list of programs, some free, go to Major Geeks:
|
| http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html
|
| Whatever program you use, ask how you do a restore, if you can not boot
into
| 98SE. Some programs backup files only work when windows is working.
| Obviously, those are not what you want.
|
| "Cheryl" wrote in message
| ...
| Hi,
|
| I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first computer.
| She
| lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
| customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I kept
| meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather
| than
| my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd
| like
| to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in
the
| same state I gave it to her the first time,
|
| How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image
of
| the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a
USB
| 2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is
correct,
| how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?
|
| Any insight appreciated.
| Thanks!
| Cheryl
|
|
|
|

Bob,

Please see embedded comments:

"Bob Harris" wrote in message
...
| You will need a third-party (non-Microsoft) program.
|
| I use Acronis True Image version 8 for this exact purpose. (For 98SE you
| could also use version 7.

Sorry, I'm pressed for time, so I'm working fast and asking for your help
with this. Please help.

Okay. I registered and downloaded the free Acronis True Image v7.0. Also
D/L'd the PDF manual. Haven't yet installed True Image to the laptop.

|Version 10 does not support 98SE; don't know
| about version 9.) It can save an image from within windows, or via a
| bootable CD. It can restore the image via the bootable CD it creates for
| you. The CD actually runs LINUX, but you do not need to know anything
about
| that, since the interface is windows-like with simple options. True Image
| supports USB 2.0 (my favorite), firewire, CD, DVD, ZIP, and internal hard
| drives.

I'm familiar with Linux and DOS. :-) I'm NOT familiar with imaging drives,
so I need step-by-step instructions. :-(

This is what I found in the PDF manual:
10.2 Creating bootable media In some cases, Acronis True Image can be run
only from a special bootable diskette or CD. Such a case might be if your PC
doesn’t boot up normally. If you’ve purchased the program on a CD, it will
already be bootable. You can also create bootable media during or after the
installation. For this, you will need a CD-R/RW blank, five formatted
diskettes (or two for the safe variant), or any other media your PC can boot
from, such as a Zip drive. Click Create Rescue Media on the toolbar or in
the left part of the main window, or select Create Rescue Media from the
Tools menu. You can also create bootable media without loading Acronis True
Image itself by selecting Programs ?? Acronis ?? True Image ?? Bootable
Rescue Media Builder from the Start menu. You will see the bootable media
wizard that will ask you to select either complete or safe loader version.
The latter doesn't have USB, PC card (formerly called PCMCIA) or SCSI
drivers and is useful only in case the complete version doesn’t work. After
you create a boot disk, identify it and keep it in a safe place.

Here's what I have to work with today:

LAPTOP:
The laptop has a *CD-ROM* drive (read-only); a 3.5" floppy drive and a USB
2.0 port. I have available an external USB Iomega Zip drive that works with
the laptop and about 13 to 16-100MB Zip disks. (thinking out loud: I'd have
to install to the laptop again, the software for the Zip drive). I have
about 17 new, formatted 3.5" floppy diskettes. I have a 2GB flash drive that
I use to transfer files between the laptop and the WinXP Pro desktop (see
below).

DESKTOP:
I have a WinXP Pro machine with a 56X CD-RW drive; a DVD-R/RW drive; a 3.5"
floppy drive; 6 USB 2.0 ports and an internal Iomega Zip drive with which I
transfer files between the laptop and the desktop. I have a stack of 700MB
CD-R disks and a stack of 4.7GB DVD+R disks.

I have a bunch of choices, but I don't know if/how I can proceed. Maybe I
should just run out and buy an external HDD for this project...

I'm not sure I understand the above information from the True Image manual.
I don't even know if the drive on the laptop CAN be imaged. The laptop has
OEM Win98SE on it. There are no retail CD disks that came with the laptop.
Does this mean there is a second (hidden) partition on the drive? Oy. Head
is starting to hurt.

Thanks for any information you can share. Ya know, maybe it would just be
easier to tell my sister not to screw up her computer and if she does,
tough. :-/
Cheryl

|Avoid making and using the "secure zone", which is a hidden
| partition on the original hard drive. Also avoid "snap restore", unless
| this is a simple PC with only one partition on the primary hard drive,
| called C:\. If this is a simple PC, make "disk" images, since they also
| include the boot record, which is useful if you need to replace the hard
| disk. Otherwise, "partition" images work fine. Further, one can always
| write a boot record in one of several way, if he has to. Several levels
of
| compression are available. Finally, Ture Image will automatically break
the
| image into smaller pir\eces, if necessary to file the destination file
| system (e.g., FAT32 limited is to single files of 4 Gig each). I find it
| useful to set the "span" size to 650 Meg, so that I can copy to CD, if I
| chose. Multiple spans (e.g., 10 vs 1) do not impact the backup nor
recovery
| time. But, be careful to specify the span size correctly including "MB".
I
| once asked for a 650 span, instead of a 650MB span. This resulted in
| millions of 650 byte files, and an eventual abort, due to too many files
in
| a directory. It was also very, very slow.
|
| Norton GHOST verison 10 can do something similar, but is a bit harder to
| use. Further, with win98 it may actually revert to GHOST 2003, which is a
| few versions old. GHOST 2003 had so-so USB support. At least I found it
| unreliable.
|
| For a more complete list of programs, some free, go to Major Geeks:
|
| http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html
|
| Whatever program you use, ask how you do a restore, if you can not boot
into
| 98SE. Some programs backup files only work when windows is working.
| Obviously, those are not what you want.
|
| "Cheryl" wrote in message
| ...
| Hi,
|
| I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first computer.
| She
| lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
| customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I kept
| meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather
| than
| my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd
| like
| to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in
the
| same state I gave it to her the first time,
|
| How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image
of
| the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a
USB
| 2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is
correct,
| how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?
|
| Any insight appreciated.
| Thanks!
| Cheryl
|
|
|
|

Nevermind. Thanks anyway.

Cheryl :-)

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
| Bob,
|
| Please see embedded comments:
|
| "Bob Harris" wrote in message
| ...
|| You will need a third-party (non-Microsoft) program.
||
|| I use Acronis True Image version 8 for this exact purpose. (For 98SE you
|| could also use version 7.
|
| Sorry, I'm pressed for time, so I'm working fast and asking for your help
| with this. Please help.
|
| Okay. I registered and downloaded the free Acronis True Image v7.0. Also
| D/L'd the PDF manual. Haven't yet installed True Image to the laptop.
|
||Version 10 does not support 98SE; don't know
|| about version 9.) It can save an image from within windows, or via a
|| bootable CD. It can restore the image via the bootable CD it creates for
|| you. The CD actually runs LINUX, but you do not need to know anything
| about
|| that, since the interface is windows-like with simple options. True
Image
|| supports USB 2.0 (my favorite), firewire, CD, DVD, ZIP, and internal hard
|| drives.
|
| I'm familiar with Linux and DOS. :-) I'm NOT familiar with imaging drives,
| so I need step-by-step instructions. :-(
|
| This is what I found in the PDF manual:
| 10.2 Creating bootable media In some cases, Acronis True Image can be run
| only from a special bootable diskette or CD. Such a case might be if your
PC
| doesn’t boot up normally. If you’ve purchased the program on a CD, it will
| already be bootable. You can also create bootable media during or after
the
| installation. For this, you will need a CD-R/RW blank, five formatted
| diskettes (or two for the safe variant), or any other media your PC can
boot
| from, such as a Zip drive. Click Create Rescue Media on the toolbar or in
| the left part of the main window, or select Create Rescue Media from the
| Tools menu. You can also create bootable media without loading Acronis
True
| Image itself by selecting Programs ?? Acronis ?? True Image ?? Bootable
| Rescue Media Builder from the Start menu. You will see the bootable media
| wizard that will ask you to select either complete or safe loader version.
| The latter doesn't have USB, PC card (formerly called PCMCIA) or SCSI
| drivers and is useful only in case the complete version doesn’t work.
After
| you create a boot disk, identify it and keep it in a safe place.
|
| Here's what I have to work with today:
|
| LAPTOP:
| The laptop has a *CD-ROM* drive (read-only); a 3.5" floppy drive and a USB
| 2.0 port. I have available an external USB Iomega Zip drive that works
with
| the laptop and about 13 to 16-100MB Zip disks. (thinking out loud: I'd
have
| to install to the laptop again, the software for the Zip drive). I have
| about 17 new, formatted 3.5" floppy diskettes. I have a 2GB flash drive
that
| I use to transfer files between the laptop and the WinXP Pro desktop (see
| below).
|
| DESKTOP:
| I have a WinXP Pro machine with a 56X CD-RW drive; a DVD-R/RW drive; a
3.5"
| floppy drive; 6 USB 2.0 ports and an internal Iomega Zip drive with which
I
| transfer files between the laptop and the desktop. I have a stack of 700MB
| CD-R disks and a stack of 4.7GB DVD+R disks.
|
| I have a bunch of choices, but I don't know if/how I can proceed. Maybe I
| should just run out and buy an external HDD for this project...
|
| I'm not sure I understand the above information from the True Image
manual.
| I don't even know if the drive on the laptop CAN be imaged. The laptop has
| OEM Win98SE on it. There are no retail CD disks that came with the laptop.
| Does this mean there is a second (hidden) partition on the drive? Oy. Head
| is starting to hurt.
|
| Thanks for any information you can share. Ya know, maybe it would just be
| easier to tell my sister not to screw up her computer and if she does,
| tough. :-/
| Cheryl
|
||Avoid making and using the "secure zone", which is a hidden
|| partition on the original hard drive. Also avoid "snap restore", unless
|| this is a simple PC with only one partition on the primary hard drive,
|| called C:\. If this is a simple PC, make "disk" images, since they also
|| include the boot record, which is useful if you need to replace the hard
|| disk. Otherwise, "partition" images work fine. Further, one can always
|| write a boot record in one of several way, if he has to. Several levels
| of
|| compression are available. Finally, Ture Image will automatically break
| the
|| image into smaller pir\eces, if necessary to file the destination file
|| system (e.g., FAT32 limited is to single files of 4 Gig each). I find it
|| useful to set the "span" size to 650 Meg, so that I can copy to CD, if I
|| chose. Multiple spans (e.g., 10 vs 1) do not impact the backup nor
| recovery
|| time. But, be careful to specify the span size correctly including "MB".
| I
|| once asked for a 650 span, instead of a 650MB span. This resulted in
|| millions of 650 byte files, and an eventual abort, due to too many files
| in
|| a directory. It was also very, very slow.
||
|| Norton GHOST verison 10 can do something similar, but is a bit harder to
|| use. Further, with win98 it may actually revert to GHOST 2003, which is
a
|| few versions old. GHOST 2003 had so-so USB support. At least I found it
|| unreliable.
||
|| For a more complete list of programs, some free, go to Major Geeks:
||
|| http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html
||
|| Whatever program you use, ask how you do a restore, if you can not boot
| into
|| 98SE. Some programs backup files only work when windows is working.
|| Obviously, those are not what you want.
||
|| "Cheryl" wrote in message
|| ...
|| Hi,
||
|| I'm giving my sister a Win98SE laptop (new in 2000). Her first
computer.
|| She
|| lives in another state. I just committed over a week of my time
|| customizing/tweaking the GUI, installing hardware, software, etc. I
kept
|| meticulous installation notes, BUT if she needs to 'start over', rather
|| than
|| my having to start from scratch with the Configuration Builder CD, I'd
|| like
|| to just restore all my hard work to the laptop so she gets it back in
| the
|| same state I gave it to her the first time,
||
|| How can I accomplish this? I'm guessing that I'd create a mirror image
| of
|| the entire source HDD to an external destination HDD. The laptop has a
| USB
|| 2.0 port. The single HDD is *only* 4.3GB, FAT 32. If my guess is
| correct,
|| how do I go about 'mirror imaging' a HDD?
||
|| Any insight appreciated.
|| Thanks!
|| Cheryl
||
||
||
||
|
|