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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ally who wrote (16991)	2/27/2001 11:01:27 PM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110654

ally what are your thoughts on the info that i2 provided the thread ( #reply-15408528 ), namely that his maxtor hard drive came with cloning software? that sounds pretty cool to me. checking out the maxtor site i find.... "MaxBlast Plus Features: One step installation and setup Easy to use, Graphical Interface (GUI) with mouse and printer support Allows up to four IDE devices in the same system EZ-Copy lets you make an exact duplicate of your existing hard drive Breaks the Capacity Barriers of 528 MB, 2.1 GB, 4.2 GB, 8.4 & 32 GB1 [Reference: Common Q&A's: Doc # 30004] Fast ATA and Enhanced IDE compatible Windows '95, '95b & 98 compatible Detailed jumper settings for all common IDE hard drives Extensive context sensitive help Creates a bootable floppy diskette There must be at least one Maxtor Hard Disk Drive installed in the system for MaxBlast Plus to run If you are trying to setup a new drive and it cannot be not found by MaxBlast Plus, you will be directed to a troubleshooting section" maxtor.com :) mark

To: Ally who wrote (16991)	2/28/2001 11:53:04 AM
From: PMS Witch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110654

XCOPY --- A poor man’s imaging… Sure looks tempting! Comes with Windows, making the price right. A few considerations: There’s more than one XCOPY, XCOPY.EXE the 16 bit DOS program and XCOPY32.EXE the 32 bit Windows version, with considerable differences. XCOPY in a DOS window will execute XCOPY32. You cannot rely on XCOPY to copy make an empty disk bootable. It will copy the system files, but not necessarily put them in the correct locations. If the destination disk should be bootable, you’ll need to perform this work before using XCOPY. You would not have access to certain files locked by Windows. This forces you to do this work in DOS safe mode. The DOS 16 bit XCOPY works much slower, and will take well over a half hour to transfer a bare-bones Windows disk. A rather full disk, games, music, downloads, e-mails, and junk accumulated over the years could extend this to hours. (In a Window, XCOPY32 can do this in 10 to 15 minutes, but it won’t work – The locked file problem crops up.) Long filename support is a tricky proposition. XCOPY will handle the DOS 8.3 filenames. You must be certain that long file name support gets copied too. You also need to maintain the attributes of files. This means not only keeping the attributes of copied files, but that hidden, system, and read only files aren’t left behind. Many people continue using huge swap files. You’ll want to find and delete WIN386.SWP first. To be on the safe side, you’ll want to copy all folders, even empty ones. The copied files will occupy the same disk space as the originals. Images typically compress to half the disk space. The parameters you must supply XCOPY are tricky to get correct. How will you know your copy has been created correctly? How will you recover your system if you did something wrong? How will you know where the error is: in the copy or in the restore? I’d begin by using XCOPY /A /E /I /H /R /U /K /Y /N C:\. D: Scary! I haven’t tried this command string. Since I have images of my system, I could test it without serious danger, but the work would consume over an hour. I’m reluctant to invest this effort to answer a hypothetical question of speculation, but if I perceived a need for the answer or developed sufficient personal curiosity, I’d get busy. Many people have posted URLs to this thread pointing to hints and suggestions. One contained a brief article addressing the use of XCOPY as you’ve questioned. I can’t remember the article, as it was posted well over a year ago, and possibly two, but the information’s out there. A suggestion… Use Windows Backup to create a safety net. Use XCOPY to create an image. Format your disk. Restore using XCOPY. You’ll soon know if it works. If not, you can restore from your back-up. A better suggestion… Get Drive Image and create images like everyone else on this thread who’s posted their delight with this package. It’s a trade off: spend $60 or several hours. Either choice beats a confronting a failed system with nothing in place. Cheers, PW. P.S. I've addressed the issue of copying disks for back-ups more than the issue you addressed of cloning a replacement disk. You should have no difficulty picking out what applies to your case. PowerQuest makes packages specifically for cloning. I think it's called DriveCopy. powerquest.com With newer versions available, you may find what you need in a bargain bin somewhere. I found PartitionMagic for $10, and it came with a manufacturer's rebate coupon, lowering the price further.