Can I Back Up My System Like This?

[Brent212]

I have a desktop PC, a laptop, and a NAS with 500 GB storage. Both the desktop and laptop are running WinXP. The laptop is new, and I've recently finished installing all the programs that I intend to use (that I can think of), and configuring their settings how I like, basically using the desktop as a model, since I plan on using the laptop primarily as a replacement for the older desktop. The laptop hard drive probably has 5-10 GB used up.

So I'd like to back up everything on the laptop so that I won't have to go through the pains of re-doing all the work of getting drivers, programs, codecs, etc installed, and configuring them all over again. I was thinking I could do the following.

From the laptop, I copy my entire hard drive to folder "X" on the NAS. Now, if my laptop's drive ever fails, I can simply get a new drive, put it in a USB enclosure, connect that to my desktop PC, and from there copy the contents of the "X" folder to the root of the new empty laptop drive in the USB enclosure. Then I just install the new laptop drive in my laptop and it should be good to go.

Will this work? It seems too simple. Would the registry settings be backed up and restored? If so, I'm guessing that they must exist somewhere as a file or set of files. If not, then how would I back those up, and is that the only problem I'd be facing?

[midders]

You won't be able to copy the entire drive using explorer or similar, since some of the files will be locked by the operating system. What you need to get hold of is some disk imaging software such as Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image etc. There are laods out there, some free, some not so just look around until you find one that meets your needs. If you want the backup to run from windows then you'll need to choose one that can perform backups whilst the OS is running.

Sláinte

midders

[redwudz]

I've been happy with Acronis True Image. It's not too expensive and very easy to use.

[Brent212]

Okay, so what if I remove the drive from the laptop and use a USB enclosure to connect it to my desktop and then copy its contents to my NAS from there? Seems like that should work, although I'm still concerned that simply copying the drive's contents won't be sufficient.

[Number Six]

If you take the drive out of the laptop and connect it to your desktop as a secondary drive, then you can copy the file structure intact to folder "x" on another drive - make sure that you have the OS on the desktop set to show all hidden and system files and folders so that they will be copied as well. When you are ready to install a new drive on the laptop you have to do the following:

1. Put the new drive in the laptop and format it as NTFS - you have to do this step so that the drive geometry is correct for the laptop.

2. Remove the drive from the laptop and connect it to your desktop - best to do this as a secondary drive, but you can use a USB enclosure.

3. Copy all the files from folder "x" to the root of the new laptop drive.

4. Reinstall the drive into the laptop - it should boot into the OS, if you did this procedure correctly.


I do this exact procedure whenever I want to transfer a working OS from 1 drive to another.

[Brent212]

Nice. Thanks Number 6.

How do I format the drive in the laptop if it's the only drive in there? Is there some utility or something built into the BIOS that allows me to format the drive, or do I have to use a WinXP CD (which I have, and which I'm pretty sure would work)?

[Number Six]

If the new drive comes with a software disc, you can use it to partition and format the drive. Otherwise, use the WinXP CD to do the format - after the format is complete, you can abort the rest of the install process.

By the way - if the original drive that came with the laptop has a hidden restore partition, you will not be able to back it up. Also, if you put a new drive in the laptop, then you will also lose the restore partition. If you have the option to make a set of restore discs - DO IT.

[redwudz]

I agree you can copy your boot drive that way, but the use of Acronis or Ghost or similar is a lot easier and quite a bit quicker. And it makes a big difference if you need to do this in the future a second or third time. I store a backup of my boot drive on my server and I can replace the contents of the boot drive in about fifteen minutes over the LAN.

[kazik1]

I store a backup of my boot drive on my server and I can replace the contents of the boot drive in about fifteen minutes over the LAN.

What software do You use ?

[redwudz]

Acronis True Image Home, Ver 11. ~$35 - $40US You can find older versions for about half that.

[Brent212]

I actually have a version of Ghost that I got probably in 2004 and used once to create a couple CDs with an image of my drive on an older computer. I never had to use it to restore the image to a drive, though.

The thing that makes me not want to use it is that I remember after installing it, there was always a ghost process running in the background. I can't figure out what it was for, but I remember thinking I should leave it running for some reason. If I ever wanted to restore the image from the discs, wouldn't I just pop in the first one and let my computer boot from it? If so, then I can't figure out why Ghost would need a process running in Windows.

Another thing I don't want is to have to burn the backup to CDs. I'm pretty sure I can create an ISO with Ghost and just copy it to my NAS, but then how do I restore it if my laptop drive malfunctioned and I had to get a new one? Wouldn't I have to either (a) install XP on the new one, then install ghost, and restore the ISO from the NAS or (b) install Ghost on my desktop, connect the new laptop drive to the desktop, and restore the ISO from the NAS to the laptop drive? Either way, that seems like more work than just connecting the new laptop drive to the desktop and copying the backed up files over from the NAS.

Is there a way that Ghost can create a backup of the drive to the NAS without compressing the files or anything? That would at least save time doing the back up and then I wouldn't need Ghost to copy the files to a new drive.

[bevills1]

Probably what's running in the background is the Ghost SysTray that that is not necessary and may be disabled by running msconfig, click the Startup tab and uncheck the app. Note for Ghost to work with SATA drives you need Ghost 2003 build .793 or later. If you have an earlier build of Ghost 2003 as I did, you may find how to update it at http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl . I've used Ghost 2003 to successfully backup laptops with PATA drives and desktops with both PATA and SATA drives to internal drives and external USB drives. Ghost has option to either compress or don't compress, and it can be run from a boot floppy, boot CD or even from a boot USB flash drive. How to do this can also be found at the radified site. Then you only need to boot to the Ghost CD, flash drive, etc. to run ghost to backup and restore any system or any part of it you wish.

Other free options are Seagate Disc Wizard and Maxblast 5 if you have either a Seagate or Maxtor internal drive. Both also come with a BartPE plugin which must be selected during program install, and you can use the plugin to create a BartPE CD which can be used to boot to and run Dsic Wizard or Maxblast 5. Also both are based on Acronis True Image, and I've successfully used it to create images to both internal drives and external USB drives.