Copying/duplicating XP install

feriso

feriso

feriso

Soldato
Joined
30 Dec 2004
Posts
2,869
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
A question about copying/duplicating an installation:-

I've finished installing a basic XP installation, all updated, all drivers but before I really start putting progs on and messing with things I want to create a copy on another partition as a backup to restore from. Just a simple copy from Explorer (from within the OS I'm wanting to copy) kicks up a "NTUSER in use" error.

Should I suppose that if i booted from an ubuntu liveCD or WinLiveCD then I can copy the drive across to another partition with out any errors and then be able to use it as another bootable partition??

Current Disk set up

1 - 20Gb - Primary - Current basic XP
2 - 20Gb - Primary - (reserved for other OS)
3 - 5Gb - Primary - Backup space for (1)
4 - 180Gb - Logical - Files

I've never used Ghost or TrueImage so I've no idea how these work but I might be open to suggestions.
 
feriso said:
I've never used Ghost or TrueImage so I've no idea how these work but I might be open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

Just copying files using explorer won't give a realiable backup becuase you don't have access to copy the registry on the fly (ntuser.dat).

Imaging is the way to go, there is a free version which I can't remember the name of or stick with true image :)

Burnsy
 
drive image xml is the free one, can't say i've tried it

acronis true image 11 is a godsend though, you create an 'image' file of your drive (best to do it from the live cd, but you can do it from within windows)

you save it to another drive or partition (won't take long at all if it's just xp & drivers installed, around 5 mins tops)
 
Another vote for Acronis TI 11 ! Used it the other day to clone the whole hard drive and it's excellent, remember that you have to remove the cloned drive after imaging though if copying to a seperate hard drive (ie disconnect it). Good thing about the software is that it automatically resizes partitions if copying to a smaller or lareger drive....Good Stuff!!;)
 
it'll copy it to another drive if you like (clone disk),

or to a file, which you could keep say on a cd/dvd, then if you need to restore it, you pop in the acronis cd, choose restore, and switch the cd's around

google image 'acronis true image' super easy to use
 
OK, I found that I had to use Disk Director rather than true image (d/l versions - from trial) as I could only find that True Image would do a whole disk not just a partition.

Disk Director seemed to copy it OK by rebooting and copying the partition at the startup point where you can get a scandisk sometimes, before it loads anything (does that make sense?). I then modified the boot.ini on the boot partition to see this copied partition so I could boot from it. However when I do it throws up an error of

"file corrupt : <Windows root>\system32\hall.dll
Please re-install the file above."

I copied it again from my original install but still gives this error. I quick google this morning seems to suggest that a repair from the installation cd will solve this; howver, i thought this acronis stuff would do a good image/copy or am I missing something.

(edit: me wonders whether I put the wrong partition identifier in the boot.ini? - trouble is I'm at work so can't check till later)
 
Last edited:
acronis does work just for a partition, i use it all the time for that

the way i do it is make an image of a partition, then restore that to another pre-made partition drive, just don't select 'MBR' when restoring

you don't get any missing file warnings, it just works
 
Wow, tried drive image XML so far im impressed! :D Haven't tried restoring from my image i've made now so can't say overall how great it is yet... But still for something free so far it seems to be good :)
 
bledd. said:
acronis does work just for a partition, i use it all the time for that

the way i do it is make an image of a partition, then restore that to another pre-made partition drive, just don't select 'MBR' when restoring

you don't get any missing file warnings, it just works
Click to expand...

OK, care to enlighten a noob on where to go to do that within acronis - I won't be able to do anything till I get home tonight and I have the downloaded version (not on CD)
 
bledd. said:
acronis does work just for a partition, i use it all the time for that

the way i do it is make an image of a partition, then restore that to another pre-made partition drive, just don't select 'MBR' when restoring

you don't get any missing file warnings, it just works
Click to expand...

Right, looked a little harder and pressed a few more buttons and it worked like you said - need to be a bit braver in pressing buttons - that's what it is :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom