Re: HDD Image Backup Restore Software Recommendations

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Yes, well, that method is essentially the same as invoking the BIOS during startup, and doing the same thing. Point is, again, there is only one physical boot device, whatever you select. All your procedure does is make it easy to get to the BIOS (wish the Intel BIOS was that easy to invoke). You are basically still just running software to do everythinbg after you have selected the boot device.

My experience was that, no matter which HDD you booted from, you could not see the non-boot HDD if it was configured with a primary Windows boot partition. But maybe the other steps suggested would bypass that.

--
Pete B


"bobster" <fauxie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:%231lx9FegKHA.5564@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pete B,

Guess I didn't realize that other computers besides Dell don't always have a
function key (F12 in Dell) to select the bootup device. In my Dell 530, by
pressing F12, I am immediately taken to my BIOS start list, namely the three
HDs and the DVD drive where I can, by using arrow keys, select the one I
wish to boot to, press "enter" and 45 seconds later I am booted up to that
selected drive.

I find this exceedingly convenient as it allows me to test all kinds of
risky changes on one of the HDs knowing full well that if I render it
corrupt and/or unbootable I can reboot into one of the "good" HDs, then
clone its contents back to the corrupt drive, returning it to the former
"good" status. I have been using this configuration for a year or so and
have always been able to quickly and easily get back to a "good" HD
configuration. This approach may not be everyone's cup of tea but it has
served me well.

You said,

" From what you say, Dell must have a software app in the boot sector that
runs as part of the software bootup and operates on the BIOS to change the
hardware boot selection and then restart the system. Neat trick but IMO a
dangerous one)."

I agree, it is a neat trick but I fail to see the danger to which you refer.

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23xgqDWdgKHA.5792@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
But all that is in software. My point is that the physical machine has only
one boot device in BIOS; it may be selectable among your installed drives,
or it may be a CDROM, but there is only one **physical** boot device. All
the rest depends on software installed or run by Windows. You cannot
selectively choose a HDD to boot up from the BIOS at startup unlpess you do
it manually and restart the machine again. In my BIOS, for example, I can
specify a particular HDD or the CDROM as my boot device, but that one must
do all the further software booting steps from software (usually in the boot
sector).

Having said that, your software procedure does look like it would work well,
but it is a software procedure, not a true machine boot device: the
software says, instead of this BIOS device, start up another non-BIOS device
and run that to run the OS. From what you say, Dell must have a software
app in the boot sector that runs as part of the software bootup and operates
on the BIOS to change the hardware boot selection and then restart the
system. Neat trick but IMO a dangerous one).

What it sounds like anyway, but it would not work on my custom PC. The boot
procedure does not have any such function on my Intel BIOS system. It would
have to be software, such as the Acronis loader.

--
Pete B


"bobster" <fauxie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OF7xmVbgKHA.5568@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oops, should have read ... "RIGHT click on the cross hatched portion of
the
Disk 1 entry"

=====================================================
"bobster" <fauxie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u7PE8HbgKHA.1536@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pete B,

You said,

"Point is, I do not think you can just drop in a new added HDD and expect
it
to run as a second bootable HDD. The BIOS would probably not allow that
since it requires that only one physical HDD be the one with bootable
partitions (else you could not set it to start up without asking which HDD
to boot from every time, and that would be a PITA)."

If you have read any of my previous posts, you would know that I have done
just that -- added a second (and third) bootable drive numerous times.
Here's exactly how I did it for my XP Dell Inspiron 530.

(1) Mount and connect a new HD of equal or greater capacity than the "C"
drive HD in the second SATA slot or a suitable external enclosure. It
will
NOT be recognized as a bootable drive nor assigned a drive letter until
the
following steps are carried out.

(2) Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
Under
Storage, Select Disk Management. In my case, it identified my "C" drive
as
Disk 0 and the new HD as Disk 1. Left click on the cross hatched portion
of
the Disk 1 entry. Click on "format" and follow the directions to format
to
NTFS. This took about 45 minutes for my 320 Gig new drive. When it
finishes, you will see a new, bootable drive in your BIOS and "My
computer".
It will have been assigned the next available drive letter -- in my case
it
is my "F" drive. You can then, using cloning software such as Casper,
clone
the contents of your "C" drive to your new drive. The "C" drive will
remain
your default bootable drive and unless you select your new drive during
the
pre-boot sequence, your computer will always boot to "C". To boot to the
new drive, on a Dell computer after the Dell logo appears, you are offered
the opportunity to click on F12 which will take you into the BIOS boot
page
and you can select the new HD, hit enter and it will boot to the new
drive.
I have added another 320gig WDC bootable HD located in an external Vantec
(eSATA connected) enclosure using the above method. Booting to any one of
the three HDs takes less than one minute. The active booted HD can be
cloned to either of the other 2 HDs in 6-8 minutes using Casper.

The above procedure has proved to be fool proof for me. As always, YMMV

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:unfVeiZgKHA.3552@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bill, I have never actually cloned a primary HDD to a new internal
secondary
HDD (already configured in the BIOS), but years ago I did try to do the
following when I was running Win2K (not that the OS matters I think): I
had
purchased a new HDD of higher capacity than the current primary boot
drive.
I installed the new drive as the master drive in the BIOS and moved the
old
primary drive (with the current OS and software installed) to be the
secondary drive as set in the BIOS. I formatted the new primary drive and
installed Win2K on it so it would boot and run.

My hope was that I could copy all the non-Windows stuff off of the
secondary
(former original) drive to the new primary drive. But try as I might,
Windows would not recognize the secondary drive at all because it was
configured with a primary bootable partition (naturally). No matter what,
I
was never able to find a way to actually use or access that
original/secondary HDD to recover any of the stuff on it (at least not
that
way). The new install of Win2K knew the drive was there, it provided a
logical letter for it (D as I recall), but it would just tell me it did
not
have the proper type of partition to run as a secondary non-boot drive
(and
warned me that if I repartitioned it as a data drive, kiss the current
data
goodbye forever).

AFAIK this dual-boot stuff is a Windows thing accomplished using the boot
record and separate partitions on the one primary HDD, because the BIOS
itself only allows one HDD to be the boot drive; you can have different
boot **partitions** with different OSs that can be used to run an OS, but
the hardware itself only allows one master BIOS-bootable HDD.

I finally went back and reinstalled my old drive, recovered all the files
I
needed to tape backups, then just reinstalled it again as a secondary
slave
drive and reformatted and repartitioned it from scratch as a data drive (I
still have that PC running that way for my son to use).

Point is, I do not think you can just drop in a new added HDD and expect
it
to run as a second bootable HDD. The BIOS would probably not allow that
since it requires that only one physical HDD be the one with bootable
partitions (else you could not set it to start up without asking which HDD
to boot from every time, and that would be a PITA).

That was my experience anyway. I have partitioned my current HDD at one
time to run two different OSs, Windows and Linux (did this using Acronis
Disk Director to make two software boot partitions, piece of cake), and
used
the dual-boot startup function, but both boot partitions were on the same
HDD, my only current HDD in this PC. That is different though, I do not
see
any way in my BIOS to specify two separate physical boot HDDs, the only
option is to specify a particular drive as the boot drive in all cases.
It
is the boot record on the HDD itself that performs the dual boot function.

That's my experience anyway for what it is worth.

--
Pete B


"Bill in Co." <not_really_here@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:epFYpURgKHA.6096@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
bobster wrote:
Pete,

Like Anna, I also have no connection with Casper other than buying v5
from them a year ago and yesterday upgrading to v6.

Sounds like Casper will not do what you want, i.e. migrate a bootable
"C"
drive from one machine to a different one.

Sorry if my first post sounded like a commercial for Casper. And I also
might have misunderstood what it is you wanted to do.

The reason I like Casper is that I can keep a "hot spare" hard drive
either
in my second internal slot, or at the ready in an external eSATA
connected
Vantec enclosure,(actually, HDs being so cheap, I do both). I
automatically
update weekly or more often manually on occasion. If my regular "C"
drive
fails, or I muck it up by screwing around, I can get back on line in
about
45 seconds by re-booting into the other internal/ external drive.

I am curious about something here (I'm only used to ATI and disk imaging,
and know that much better), but would like some more clarification on
this.

Using Casper to make a clone of your source drive C: to your second
*internal* drive, does your second internal drive then show up in windows
explorer with a different drive letter, like D:, or is it hidden?

Or let's say your source drive has two partitions, C: and D:. Assuming
you
only wanted to clone the C: partition, what would windows explorer show
for
the drive letter on your second internal drive after cloning? E:?

Or suppose you wanted to clone BOTH C: and D: partitions. What would
explorer show for your second internal drive letters after the process
was
completed in windows explorer? (I'm guessing E: and F - is that
right?):

Some of this matters to me since I have some apps expecting certain drive
letters). My source drive now has 4 partitions (C, D, E, F), and my
backup
drive used to store images only has one partition (G). (The E: and F:
partitions are for (the rather large) music and video files,
respectively).








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