Image backup of a laptop to dvd [Help my boss is screaming at me]
hello to all,
My boss recently bought a laptop with vista installed. Told me to remove Vista and install XP, which i did. Since he is notorious for crashing pcs i would like your advice on how to take a full image backup of the xp os and burn it to DVDs? IT was using ATI 10 [before the whole department was let go]
When in a few months he crashes his laptop, do i just insert the DVD to the drive and just reinstall it? How will the reinstallation be performed?
Guys, thank you all for your help. Unfortunately, most of the IT people here have been fired due to the crisis, and i am doing their work in addition to mine, even though i have no experience with IT andnot being a tech savy.
THANKS guys
Thanks for the quick reply GroverH,
This is what i have done so far:
1. CREATED A BOOTABLE RESCUE DISC==> burn into a cd
2. DISK BACKUP
Backup==> Disk & Partition Backup==> selected NTFS Cdrive(where the OS lies)==> Backup location==> selected another partition[the hd is seperated into 3 partitions]
questions:
1. when i clicked One Click Backup the only partition it sees was [PQSERVICE], which is a hidden partition containing the original Vista installation. How can i make it see the other 2 partitions?
2. when i go to the Backup==> Disk & Partition Backup==> Backup Location[hit browse==> pc ==> CD DRIVE (which is a DVR RW) the OK button is grayed out]. How can i save it to a dvd?
3. Can i burn the backup image to a dvd using Nero and when he crashes the pc, use the bootable cd i created and then enter the image backup dvd? Is there any special formating for the dvd, or i just select the backup image and burn it? What is the format type of the backup image file? [when i click properties i see TYPE: Acronis True Image Backup Archive]
4. Since the laptop has only one HD seperated into 2 partitions, can i save the image to another pc and when it crashes use the bootable cd and restore it from network? What are the steps for that?
5. even though the original size of c drive was 9gb, the backup image is ony 4.677gb. is this normal, or have i done something wrong?
If your only interest is in being able to restore the system drive (c:), the backup of the c partition can be stored on
a. One of the other partitions (but not C)
b. Stored on a network or an external or flashdrive or other computer.
c. If stored on DVD (not recommended), you will need 2 DVD's for storage of 4.677. When performing the backup, there is an "archive split" option which allows you to split into smaller size increments so the splits could be later burnt onto DVD. if you go that route, the splits would need to be copied back onto a partition or other drive so they are in one folder before restoration is possible. Alternately, If you have TrueImage create the dvd directly, then these could be restored directly.
d. Using the Rescue CD, you could restore the backup of C from either A. B. or C (nero burn).
The size of the backup archive will be about 60-70% of the used space being included in the backup.
In the event you have a disk crash, you really should have a disk option backup rather than only the C drive. A disk option backup would include all the partitions--including the recovery partition.
Is it not possible to have a disk option backup created onto an an external or network drive. When restoring from the Rescue CD, if the network drive not seen, the backup could be copied to an external drive and then restored from the external onto the laptop via the Rescue CD.
Any backup that you perform should be validated when booted from the Rescue CD since it is the Rescue CD which is the restore media and it is Linux based.
Nothing I have written about refers to the OneClick BAckup/restore. I have not used v10 for a long time and never used the one click function. All my references are to normal disk backups and disk or partition restores.
Perhaps someone else can offer their suggestions as well.