[invalid_char]

I'm trying to do something that, I think, should be real easy... but I've
been fumbling with it for several weeks now and need help.

I have a completely installed version of W2K Prof. w/NTFS (SP4 with all the
patches, etc) and all my proggies. It is clean, fast, and I love it.
However history tells me that at some point I will load some utility or such
thing onto it which will corrupt it and the OS will become unstable and go
to hell. My only recourse in the past has been to spend a week
reinstalling the OS, SP's, patches, and all the proggies I need. Ugh!
I've done this too many times...
Soooooooo, I figured that this time I would just "clone" this nice new
install and put in on a partition of its own somewhere where I could pull it
back when I needed to start over again. Sounds easy, no???

First try was to clone the boot part to another partition with Partition Magic to another drive and COPY all the files back over to "recreate" the original.. This did not work... some hidden files must not have xferred or something (??) but no boot as acheived dispite a lot of messing around. (anybody know why?)

2nd try was cloning the entire partition to another place, so I could just copy it back when I needed it. right? Well, n.g... when copied back over the original boot partition it also would not boot, and when i coaxed it to boot by doing a windows repair it, it still hung up and I kept getting BSOD and wierd errors.

3rd try was wiping a blank disk, and using the MaxBlast new disk utility to
try and copy my boot dist to the "new" one... perhaps this would have worked
but my boot disk has 3 partitions on it and in aggregate they are too large
to copy. And I could not get it to just copy the one boot partition I
wanted so it died in mid copy and roached both the source and destination
partitions..

So, please tell, how do I easily copy the complete partition to somewhere
safe and then put it back when I need it and have it reliably boot up like
the original.

Many thanks in advance to whomever can assist!

[Jono]

norton ghost is the answer

[invalid_char]

Thanks for the reply
From what (little) i have seen Ghost is a pain... gotta run from complex command line in DOS, have to back up to (multiple) removable media...etc.
Maybe I am wrong but this seems like overkill for what I want to do. Can't I somehow just copy the whole partition to another drive then swap that drive in to boot from if the original dies, or copy the partition back over the original again?
Is PM no good for this?

[Jono]

no there is nothing complex about ghost, just run ghost.exe it is a gui and select source select destination and you have your backup

[invalid_char]

thanks - maybe what i have seen was easlier non-windows version of Ghost. I'll try it. thanks

[MerlinTheWizard]

A simple "partition copy" from Partition Magic will do the trick. I've done it many times. I don't know which part failed in your case? I've done it on the same HDD and from one to another, it just works.

You must issue a "partition copy" and not mess with things "by hand".

In Windows 2000, if you copy the partition where the OS is installed, Partition Magic will reboot your computer and do the copy during boot time.

The copy will be a hidden partition, but PM will add an entry to your boot.ini file automatically (so that next time you boot, you'll get a Windows 2000 boot menu: the second entry will point to the copy). You can delete the second entry so that you don't get a boot menu.

I suggest Partition Magic 8, as previous versions had some issues when you used it on HDDs that were previously partitioned with another partitioning tool.

[invalid_char]

Merci, Merlin

I am not sure why this process failed to produce a bootable disk for me.
I still have the "cloned" partition, but if I try to copy it (using PM) to a different "test" disk(not my boot disk), then swap my boot disk for the test disk and boot, it fails to boot. Is it maybe confused since the partition was copied to a 2nd disk (not the original boot disk) and so the 'pointers' to boot are wrong?
Also, PM gives you the option of making a partition "active".. is this relevant or no?

again, thanks

[MerlinTheWizard]

invalid_char, on Mar 9 2004, 04:45 PM, said:

I am not sure why this process failed to produce a bootable disk for me.
I still have the "cloned" partition, but if I try to copy it (using PM) to a different "test" disk(not my boot disk), then swap my boot disk for the test disk and boot,  it fails to boot.

The cloned partition *is* bootable, but you have to make sure it's the same partition number on both disks -- otherwise, it gets a little trickier.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that the cloned partition itself is bootable, but the disk isn't, until you install a boot manager on it, or "fix" the MBR on the new disk.

The easiest way is to remove your old disk, put the new disk in your computer as master (if your original boot disk was master), then boot from a Partition Magic floppy disk, and activate the cloned Windows partition (which should be hidden at this point).

Then re-boot your machine from the Windows 2000 install CD, and choose "repair". It should find your Windows partition. Get to the repair console, and issue a "fixmbr" (I think, if I remember correctly). It should do the trick. ;-)

[Rockhound]

Just as an aside to this particular question - what would you say is the best software to use to create one of those hidden bootable partitions that is selectively executed at bootup which will re-create an entire pre-installed partition as in most pre-configured systems purchased nowadays?