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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeddie88 who wrote (9132)	10/23/1999 6:13:00 PM
From: Stuart T	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Drive image is a must have program. I have my hard drive partition with Drive C at about 1gig and the other drives with the actual programs and data at around 2 gigs. With Drive Image you boot from a floppy and tell it to make an image of Drive C and put the image file on another drive. If your operating system craps out or you try something new and messes up Win9x or NT, you just boot up with the floppy and restore your image. I actually have multiple copies of my C drive that I have created as I put more stuff on it. The new version 2.0 handles Win98 and NT. I have used it many times and restored from it many times. It is one of the few programs that is worth the money. Cost is $69.95. Check their website below for more info powerquest.com Partition Magic (from the same company) allows you to change partition sizes or go from fat16 to fat32 to NTFS or any combination thereof without messing up your programs. Sure beats fdisk.

To: Zeddie88 who wrote (9132)	10/23/1999 8:48:00 PM
From: wily	Respond to of 14778

Zeddie, DI is fine for a one-disk system, but it tends to eat up the gigabytes as the image (using compression) is about half the size of the object. So it depends how big your disk is. Having your image on a second disk gives you a little more protection against physical drive failure. RetireSoon mentions that he puts his programs on a separate logical drive from the OS. I hadn't thought about it before (didn't really know you could do it), but this will reduce the size of your image: The OS is generally what pukes and needs fixing so no need to keep an image of your programs. RS: Great idea -- gonna try that. I already keep my data on a separate disk. I don't back it up either. I probably don't realize the danger I'm in... Been thinking about getting one of those CDRW's. Maybe a UPS too. w

To: Zeddie88 who wrote (9132)	10/23/1999 8:58:00 PM
From: PMS Witch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14778

Drive Image and Partition Magic ... I've both packages. I used PM a few times at first to get things the way I want, and once I've settled on how I want things, I've had no need to make changes, so I haven't used it since. But until then, I found it an easy way to experiment. I use DI continually. Like so many others, I keep an inventory of drive images: Each one slightly different. DI makes restoring my system effortless. Again, continual experimenting improves the way my system operates: Some ideas offer improvements and others degrade. I use DI in two ways: Recovery from 'software' problems and as a safety net in case of hardware failure. I've been lucky so far and not had a hardware failure with any of my four computers, but I'm still prepared. I keep 'known as good' images of my system on Zip disks. I ask the question "If my disk disintegrates, and needs replacement, can I re-create my current system?" and take action if I don't like the answer. Software problems are by far the most frequent reason I need to restore an image. Again, two reasons lead to this: An experiment gone bad; or my system craps-out for no apparent reason. While the experiments can be timed to minimize disruption, and I know 'where' to look to find the trouble (mirror), often the few minutes to do a DI restore is easier, faster, and more reliable. The 'surprise' problems are another matter: Windows seems to know exactly when I have the least time or when the work is most important and times the trouble accordingly. When this happens, I can spend hour after frustrating hour trying to figure out what went wrong, and often fail after putting in the effort. DI can get my system back quicker than I can make a coffee, (I use instant) and with no anxiety. Since I have one physical drive, I put images on different partitions. This allows me to recover from the type of problems I encounter most. If I had another drive, I'd use it too/instead. I'd still use some removable media in anticipation of hardware failure or theft. As the difficulty of installing a second drive, I think it's quite easy, although I'd take your system to the shop and have them do it. That way, if a problem arises, it's theirs and not yours. Hope this helps, PW. P.S. PowerQuest, the maker of DI and PM also make Disk Copy, but I haven't used it. I also don't remember reading any posts about it either. But since their other programs work so well, I'd be inclined to read the side of the box and give it a try if it sounded like it answered my needs.