Re: No floppy drive - In desperate need of an emergency boot disk

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

From: ...D. (d_at_no_usenet_email..org)
Date: 09/11/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 18:35:25 -0700

"Renae" <Renae@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>Thanks so much....I probably do just need a DOS recovery disk. My laptop is
>almost a year old and each time I have to start from scratch it takes days.
>I have to apply Sony's many, many, many updates (each requiring a reboot). I
>am required to install all of the original software that takes forever. I
>then get to uninstall 90% of it because it is not needed....Then go through
>all of the Windows updates, Symantec updates, load all of my spyware control
>and the updates, and on and on. A complete back up of the hard drive sounds
>like a perfect solution. How would you go about copying the mirror hard
>drive on an external hard drive to your C:? (maybe a stupid question and the
>answer will probably come to me as soon as I press the post button). I
>really appreciate your time! I will be using your advise!

OK. You buy an external HD that uses a USB port. I have seen some as low as
40 gigs, but 80 gigs should be just as cheap, 120 gigs won't be bad. I bought
ac 160 gig (same size as my C: drive, but I'll never use it all). Then you
need to buy the imaging software, like Norton Ghost. There is another well
known program, but I think Norton/Symantec bought them too. (I want to say
"drive image", but not sure). Check on the Internet for prices of both.
Compare to local stores. There might be big differences. Norton Ghost
shouldn't be that much, it isn't new, it is like 2003 technology I think.
Check ebay for a "buy at this price".. true auctions are a waste of time for
computer stuff as far as I am concerned.

Now just put the imaging software CD in your CD drive, and it is easy from
there. You'll be prompted. The only problem is that I never had to copy back
over. Never a real crash. So the only problem I can see, that I have not
checked into, is that an external Hard Drive, which XP will just give an
available drive number to when you plug it in and turn it on (otherwise it
doesn't exist to XP or your computer - only when plugged in), is that your
computer (or mine) may not be able to assign the external HD a boot drive in
an emergency - I can assign my CD drive & I think my DVD drive - however, I am
thinking that probably boot with the Norton Ghost CD, and I'll be able to copy
it over... or else you're going to have to install the recovery CD to be able
to copy it back over to C:, but you shouldn't have to get any updates to do
so. Also if you can DVD write and absolutely cannot buy an external HD, well,
not too bad if you've only got like 30 gigs (4 or 5 DVDs).

It will take a good chunk of time. Even just copying straight over, like 50
gigs from C: to another HD, takes a lot of time.

Here is symatec/norton's little page on Norton Ghost:
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

Hmmm, it looks like a newer version of Ghost 2003 is out. A ferw more
feauters that GHost 2003. It's Ghost 9.0. But i think 2003 will be OK, just
can't do a few added on things.
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/features.html

Now, I want you to be aware that though I have several Norton/Symantec
products, if you do have problems, you cannot just call them on the phone for
free. Or for a couple of dollars. They charge huge (was $29.95 a while back)
for a phone call to tech support. They are geared towards businesses with big
accounts I guess. They want you to use their website to solve your problem
yourself. There is a way to email them from their website, but it is hard to
figure out how. I did once, & I did get an answer in a couple of days.

           ...D.

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