restoring ur computer

Please smurf, I am interested in the procedures you use in creating an image in the third partition

Hi Sose,

Its quite a simple task but takes a little bit of preperation which is definately worth it in the long run, trust me

Righty, I start off with a completely empty (no partitions) hard drive. I install Windows XP and create the primary C: partition (Leaving plenty spare for my data drive and atleast 7Gig for my image drive) for the operating system with NTFS. I copy the I386 over to the C: Drive so i don't need to keep getting the CD if i install extra components and then configure my broadband and install all the Windows Updates.

I then create an extended partition with the remaining space (needs to be extended otherwise when you restore the image back it can sometimes mess up the partition information forcing you to re-format the data drive, thus loosing everything). Once the extended partition is create, i create two logical drives, one for my data formated NTFS (data meaning anything i don't want to loose so i include downloads off the net, etc...) and the other my image drive formated in FAT32 so i can see it in DOS. (I set the Image Drive to Z: )

I then move My documents to the Data Drive, my outlook PST file is moved to my documents (i organise My Documents into seperate areas for my Word, Excel, Pub, Outlook, Favorites, etc..). Once i have done that, i move my Favorites by a Registry Tweak.

All this is done to ensure that when i restore my image, no data is left on the C Drive that i need which would be lost.

Now install the applications that you require. (This is important to just install applications that you need, dont put every peice of software on. I would put on MS Office, SpyBot, Spyware Blaster, NewBin Pro, Sophos AV, FTP App, Java......thats about it). I would also ensure all the above are fully up-to-date.

I would configure my Printer and if i have digital camera, etc... i would load all them.

Now that the machine is now built and all the application data locations are saving to the data drive (usually this is implied by moving My Documents but ensure that this is the case). We are now ready for doing the image.

As per Arani post, Norton (well Symantec now) Ghost is a good program for creating the ghost image. I actually use PQDI because work licenses this (i have an old version which we have licenses for) but i have used Norton Ghost on some if my mates machines.

Use a Windows 98 boot disk to boot your system. The only drive that you should see is a C: Drive which is your FAT32 image drive. Copy the necessary files from Ghost (or whatever you are using for the imaging as there are more on the market) to the drive and then run the software.

You will need to go through the online instructions to create a Image of you Boot Partition which is formated as NTFS (it will be listed first in the list, however if you do what i do and name the drive partitions SYSTEM, DATA & IMAGE, you will easily identify the partitions in Ghost). Select to Compress the image to conserve space and then away it goes.

Anytime you want to revert back to the image, just boot with a Windows 98 Boot Disk, run the application (GHOST) and select to restore the Partition Image and select to overwrite the SYSTEM partition (the first in the list). Then after 10mins, you are back to where you were.

N.B. It does take a little longer, but whenever i restore the image back, i always go through updating everything with the lasted definitions (for SpyBot/Spywareblaster), Windows Updates, Office Updates, AV) then i re-image back so its fully up-to-date for the next time i use the image.

Hope it all makes sense, sorry for the essay but i do this on my home systems and also i do this for any machines i build for my mates because then i give them a boot disk which will do a silent re-image for them so they don't need to wait for me to go and fix their machines after they have installed a peice of software the clashes with other software they have installed.

Cheers

Smurf wrote:

Once i have the machine installed how i want it with the bere essentials (with MS Office, My spyware stuff, recording software, etc....) i create an image of my machine (oh, i also ensure that my Outlook PST, MyDocument and IE favorites default to my data drive so i don't loose any data after a restore of the image).

Heed the words of the wise! This is an excellent suggestion because it saves you from the sudden death which always seems to afflict Windows at 5pm on the Friday before a bank holiday weekend, and periodic reinstalls are sometimes the only way to keep Windows performing as it should. Doing this addresses both those problems

last and the final advise... format ur drivess.....


lolz

ur system will run like dhoom2

Just thought i would bring this alive again since i installed Windows Vista. Some version of Vista (not sure which ones) now comes with a utility to do a full system backup (as in a System Drive Snap Shot, along with other drives if you select them but i would leave data drives to normal daily or weekly backup routines).

I have fully tested this by creating a Full Back (Backup Entire Computer) and then booting up off the Windows Vista Boot CD and performing a repair which then found my Entire Backup and did a fully C: Drive restore operation on my file system.

Fantastic, most of the previous post still holds true however it seems to be able to handle normal disk partitions as your Data Drive (instead of having to create Extended to ensure that data didn't get lost when restoring a partition). If you want to Backup to DVD's then you can (although not tried this) but if you want to backup to another Partition, you need to ensure its formatted to NTFS.

The only drawback i can see, which i have not found an option for, is that the image file isn't compressed at all. Maybe Microsoft can sort this out as an option in a later release (unless its already there somewhere and if so can someone please let me know )

Cheers Peeps

Wayne

This seems to quite an improvement over XP's native recovery/backup provision which is pretty chronic. Still holding fire on Vista though, until the early adopters ("beta testers") bring all the bugs to light.

A lot of my mates ran the beta tests of Vista without any issues, i am now running the full Business edition which i installed on my new PC (thought i would treat myself to a silly spec'd machine for a change) a few days ago after i built the PC.

I must admit, some of the features seem gimiky, but i do like it. Had some issues with my Buffalo Linkstation which i need to contact them about but so far not noticed any other issues with it.

Office 2007 Enterprise is now installed and thats running very well (Office 2007's Junk Filter seems quite good also) just need to install my other apps to see if they are compatible.

Its all good