Backup & Restore

[todd71291]

Drive Image by Powerquest has saved me on several occassions. It writes a true "image" of your source drive to another media (you will need 2 HDs). Mine is saved to an EXTERNAL HD, now, and I disconnect that HD after writing the image. I used to write it to another internal HD but lost that too one time. The "image" stores everything including preferences. Works for me!

[merlin]

as todd71291 says Powerquest drive image works really well . I partitioned my 6 Gb drive into 2 parts and made a image of C: onto my D:partition , so when windows crashes (often) I boot off a floppy and run the DOS Powerquest Program on D: , this replaces the drive image back onto C: so windows is up and running , the only problem I have is that I have to Unhide D: ( easy with Partition Magic)

[MadMax]

Most modern backup suites have a feature in them to make "disaster recovery" boot disks. If your system crashes and burns, you can boot with these floppy disks to gain access to your tape drive and execute a restore.

check out this faq at Cheyenne for some more detailed info...

support.cai.com/techbases/as61/10007.html (http://support.cai.com/techbases/as61/10007.html)

All of this stuff won't apply to you unless you use ArcServe but alot of it is good general info about how backups work.

If you are not using a true backup, just copying files to your cdrw, all you need is a boot disk that has your cdrw drivers on it. Then you can just dump the files straight to the hdd.

[This message has been edited by MadMax (edited 06-16-99).]

[kwai]

does Drive Image shrink the image of free space, or is it an exact block-for-block image?

[MaxVal]

I have been of the opinion that system backups are unreliable. I have heard horror stories about backups made uneventfuly that would not restore.
I therefore have only backed up my data, and occasionaly reformated, loaded Windows, loaded applications & data, and then manualy reset preferences- a tedious process at best!
I would like to learn what the actual procedure is to backup and then if necessary, restore. I am particularly interested in the restore part! What O.S. does the process take place in? How do you boot and start?
I currently have a SCSI Yamaha 4260 RW availible.
I realize that I am asking for a lot of information, so if you know of pages explaining the details...
THANKS,
MAX

[Zonker]

I use Drive Image on a regular basis to backup my system. I think it's very reliable and it has many useful features.

When I run Drive Image without compression, it makes an exact copy without the free space. I believe you can tell it to make an exact copy including the free space, but why?

I have the same impression MaxVal, at least about tape backups anyway. They are tedious and if they don't work it takes quite a while to find out. Drive Image... it works.

[This message has been edited by Zonker (edited 06-17-99).]

[MaxVal]

Thanks for the response all!
I am still puzzled about the drive "image".
What is it? How large is it? Is it a copy of the original, or does it contain data about the original? When restoring from the image, must there be an original to restore, or can it be done from scratch?
Max

[MadMax]

check it out..

http://www.powerquest.com/driveimage/didetail.html

[MaxVal]

MadMax,
Would you believe I was looking there when my mail notified me of your response!
Thanks!!
Max