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

To: 99Dan who wrote (41664)	6/10/2004 11:03:56 PM
From: shadowman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110655

Here's a site that explains the process fairly clearly. cybercoyote.org

To: 99Dan who wrote (41664)	6/11/2004 11:28:21 AM
From: Esteban	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110655

Dan, Image backup software is most practical with 2 hard drives. It can also be accomplished by partitioning one drive and creating an image file of one and storing it on the other, but this offers less security because the one drive can fail physically. You can back up to cds or dvds, but it is time consuming. Yes, there is an option to compress images. DI estimates a 50% compression ratio, but it varies depending on the types of files being imaged. In my experience using compression actually speeds the process in addition to saving space, even when using a hard drive as the backup device. An external hard drive is convenient and transportable. Also necessary for laptops. But I just added another internal drive, which was very cheap, about $60 for 120gb. The real benefit of imaging imo is that you can use it to restore your OS and programs and windows registry. Data files can be backed up by conventional copying or archiving with less fuss, and that's what I do. One can only make an image of an entire disk partition, not individual files, though one can restore individual files from the image. Therefore some thought about disk organization makes the process much faster. I divide my primary drive into two partitions, a smallish one for OS and programs, and a larger one for data. When I make an image, I only include the OS and program partition. The data partition I backup with a simple copy command from a dos prompt. I've written a simple batch file and have it run automatically from the Windows Scheduler once a week to ease the burden of manually doing this task. You should also own partition management software like Partition Magic if you decide to use multiple partitions. You'll need the flexibility of being able to nondestructively resize or split partitions. BootItNG is a low cost alternative and includes both imaging and partition management in the software package. However one can simply image an entire single partition hard drive for simplicity. I guess the only downside is that it can take hours, but it results in a simple file that contains the entire contents of your hard drive. If you decide imaging is for you, I'm sure many here can help you with the details as they arise. Esteban