Re: Backup with out a Floppy Drive in XP

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Daave wrote:

John John wrote:

You are trying to do an ASR backup. Regardless of what some
may say ASR has its uses and it is a reliable method of backing up
the System State and, Automated System Recovery is a reliable way
of restoring the Windows operating system and system state data to
bare metal. Is it the best? Of course not, but it isn't as bad as

some

paint it to be. It's simple and easy to use and it does work. People
are having hissy fits because ASR needs information stored on a floppy
diskette to properly restore disk configurations and disk signatures.


I wouldn't say OP is having a hissy fit! He doesn't have a floppy drive,
and he would rather not purchase an external one.

What we are trying to figure out is the following:

Why does this process require a floppy in the first place? (Keep in mind
that this is a medium on the way out). It's not like a boot floppy is
being made; the recovery process entails booting off the installation
CD. Why can't the system state also be saved to the external hard drive
along with everything else?

Hi Daave,

I wasn't talking about the OP have a hissy fit, I was talking about the fact that this question is often asked on these groups and that because ASR needs a floppy to do its restore it is outright often immediately dismissed as a disaster recovery solution by some, often those naysayers are the ones having hissy fits because ASR needs a floppy to work.

Your point that the floppy is a medium on the way out and that the files could be obtained from the backup stored on an external drive is one that is also often expressed by users and the fact that ASR cannot do that is often a source of frustration and dismay to some users. You have to understand however that Windows XP was released in 2001 and that at that time, while on its way out, the floppy was still being used for certain things. Microsoft does not rewrite the setup engine or redesign the setup architecture for the setup process after the final release of its operating systems. The fact that the floppy drive is not present on many computers is the result of computer manufacturers who prematurely rushed to eliminate the floppy drive in an attempt to save a couple of dollars on each computer sold. In my opinion, for most uses, no computer sold prior to vista should have shipped without a floppy drive and the manufacturers did a big disservice to their customers by prematurely adopting this practice. As usual they put their interests ahead of those of the customers.

The reason that ASR needs a floppy diskette lies in the fact that ASR formats the boot volume before doing the restoration. In order to do the restoration ASR needs to install a rudimentary Windows installation on the drive so that it can then run the necessary software to do the actual restore. You may think, "Fine, that isn't a problem, once the rudimentary installation is installed why not fetch all the backup information from the backup media?" The reason, once again is because of the formating, after the disk is formated the disk configuration and disk signatures have to be restored before Windows is installed, ASR cannot restore the disk configuration and signatures after the rudimentary Windows copy is installed.

So, much the same as when installing Windows on a new disk, with the exception of RIS and installations from network shares, the setup program cannot obtain necessary setup files on external disks, the files and configuration information have to be on the setup cd or the information *must* be supplied on a floppy diskette, the setup program will not accept the files from any other media source. That is much the same as and can be closely compared to unattended installations, or to the F6 driver installation method that is often required to install Windows on SATA drives or on RAID and Mass Storage Devices, the files can only be obtained from a floppy diskette, the same goes for the information needed to restore disk configurations and disk signatures, it can only be supplied on a floppy, the setup program will not accept it from any other media source.

John
.

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