Hi, I would be interested in the answers to the following questions, as, no doubt, would others.
1) Using an external USB hard disk, such as the Seagate 400 GB one currently being offered, is it possible to make an image of the C-drive, such that C can be restored in the event of a crash?
2) Any special software needed other than something like Ghost?
3) Assuming a 'yes' to the above, can the 400 GB first be partioned into 2 x 200 GB ones so that one half can be used for that so as to leave the other half for data back-up?
4) Back now with ordinary hard disks, and a partitioned one in particular, if you take such a disk and use it internally as an extra drive inside another computer, will the partitioned 'drive' part be visible and the data extractable?
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Sorry mods. Bit out of practice. Should have put it in the computer section.
{Now moved - DD}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/10/2007 at 13:40
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1) Yes, but any corrupt data already on your C: drive will still be corrupt - I'd personally back-up individual files, and reinstall your OS from scratch.
2) Ghost should do the job, as long as your BIOS recognises USB hard drives.
3) In theory, but I'm not sure how I'd go about doing that. As I've said, it's far better to whack Windows on from scratch, no corrupt data. Back up your important files by all means, but taking an image of a hard-drive which will already contain some corrupt data isn't a great way to do it.
4) Yes. Depending on your OS, it will either just appear in "my computer", or you'll have to "add hardware" via control panel.
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I've just bought the Seagate (400GB one touch model) for £58 from Scan, plus a new 320GB internal hard drive.
My original 60GB internal drive was cloned to the new drive using Norton Ghost and the Seagate is used for backup.
I don't see why you can't clone your current hard drive's contents to the Seagate, providing that the installation is working OK to prevent problems.
You can partition the Seagate drive as you wish using either Windows Disk Management or the Seagate equivalent on the CD-ROM that is supplied.
The Seagate also comes with very high quality USB and mains adapter leads.
It's not all that many years ago since I paid £65 for a 6.4GB hard drive - gigabytes these days are "as cheap as chips"..:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Of course I would take an image before the crash, in order to have a working PC after restoration. No point in restoring the crash.
My motherboard can boot from most things, allegedly, including a USB port.
Stuartli, yes, I think it was a previous post of yours that brought the Seagate drive to my attention, and I was about to get one. I was just a bit concerned about the prospects of getting an image via the USB and afterwards being able to transfer that image to a re-formated internal hard disk via the USB port, in case it did not work.
I suppose I could do an experiment in which I take an image then disconnect the existing internal drive and see whether the PC will then boot up using USB Seagate drive.
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Hello buzbee.
You can do all the things you asked. In fact, Seagate provide a cut down version of Acronis Disk Imaging software named "Diskwizard" free.
www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwi...d
read chapter 4 at www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf
You will see from the screenshots that it is in fact Acronis software.
More details of cloning and partitioning techniques can be found here.
radified.com/index2.html
ghost.radified.com/
partition.radified.com/
radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
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There is a FAQ on the Seagate site which I think is worth reading
tinyurl.com/32dxwv
How can I copy / transfer all the data from my old boot drive to my new Seagate drive?
This article explains how to copy the operating system from an existing boot drive to a new drive using DiscWizard. The procedure will copy the entire contents of the old drive, which includes all the partitions, programs, files, operating system, etc., to the new targeted drive.
Edited by jbif on 10/10/2007 at 21:17
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jbif, thanks for that. I will have a read. I have already ordered the Seagate drive.
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if and when you get the Seagate, it's worth noting that you can download the latest version of the BounceBack software from the CMS website (www.cmsproducts.com).
A better interface is part of the package (the one supplied with the drive resembles something akin to a wild west saloon bar exterior).
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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if you are thinking of trying a boot from the external drive via usb, first make sure that you have "Legacy Usb" enabled in bios, this will allow usb drivers to be loaded at boot to enable it to see your external drive.
illy
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Hi Billy, I was assuming I would just need to select 'boot from USB' on the motherboard setup. Is that what is meant by legacy?
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So does this mean that if you clone your existing hard drive (including the O/S) onto an external drive you do not need any software on another machine because you can boot it up from the external drive via the USB. So if you have more than one PC you only need one copy of the software as you can boot all the PCs up from the external drive as needed. I know it's illegal but it's just hypothetical...
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So does this mean that if you clone your existing hard drive (including the O/S) onto an external drive you do not need any software on another machine because you can boot it up from the external drive via the USB.
Depends on the OS. With Linux it is routine. See:
www.mandriva.com/en/product/mandriva-flash.html
To mention just one.
With Windows not so much. They thought of that and figured it would help their business plan to force you to buy several copies.
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To be honest booting an operating system from an external drive is far from an ideal way to use a computer, but it can i believe be used in an emergency to "get you into" a machine that is having boot up probs. In the Bios menu, you usually have a boot priority section where you can choose the order that the machine will try to boot in e.g floppy first, cd-rom second, hard-drive c third, or such like. You can do this because the floppy/cd-rom drivers are loaded seperately from the windows operating system, the usb drivers are usually loaded as part of windows, and so are not active until windows is loaded. However, there is an option on most mother boards to allow a very basic set of usb drivers to be loaded at start-up pre-windows, this is usually listed as "Legacy Usb" in the bios and is usually disabled by default. Enable this, then in the boot priority list enable "Boot from other device" this should then allow computer to seek o/s from external source, just as it would seek from floppy or cd. however! and theres always one! not all mother boards have the "boot from other device" option, in that case if you enable legacy usb, and computer still wont see your external drive, you are back to square one.
Billy
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USB drive update
I got the USB 400 GB Seagate drive.
Then I thought it a good idea to to give it three near-equal partitions, G, H and I, of about 130 GB each, as my existing C & D drives are only 75 GB each.
That went off OK, using windows own software although, afterwards, the format option was only NTFS, which I let it do (drive arrives as FAT32). And, when I looked, the three new disks could be seen in 'my computer'. So far so good.
Then I saw that with an update to BB Professional, you can allegedly restore the C-drive if the PC crashes, so I bought that and used it to do the first back-up. In the process, it insisted on re-formatting the Seagate (400 GB) drive again and in the process produced two, near equal, FAT32 partitions. Incidentally, the update install first removes the original BB software!
The other change was, when it had finished, the two extra drives did not show in 'My Computer'.
However, if you look via start *run*compmgmt.msc by selecting 'Disk management', they do show in both size and format type and the F one is listed as 'Active'.
I have yet to try looking to see the files using BounceBack.
Edited by buzbee on 13/10/2007 at 20:36
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Disks visible in 'My Computer' today after the new re-boot. System back-up was only 8 GB of the C's 21 GB and so, I guess, it has left out all the program files. Does not appear to have an option to back up C complete with system in one go. At least if it has, I have not found it. Have/will do a back-up of C to separate folder. My D backed up went OK.
So it looks to be working, sort of, OK today.
But I don't rate the user screen as being anywhere near user friendly. The one that comes with the USB Seagate drive is certainly rather odd looking, as is that of the Pro version. I should have tried the update stuartli refers to, to see what that is like. I wonder if there is a Pro version?
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Had a very quick look at the BB software features last night, as I know nothing about it! - so quite possibly got this wrong! ;-) but i was led to believe that using BB you cannot do a "reboot" from the external drive (like you mentioned you may like to do) if you are using Windows, this is just a "Mac" feature, to reboot Windows you need to buy a BB Rescue disk. Apparently!.
Billy
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Like I said above: "With Windows not so much ..." You can actually boot a Mac from another Mac if you have a Firewire cable to connect them together.
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Booting: When I bought BB Pro. I also ordered a $10 CD they recommend/sell. I will know more when I get it but I think that enables booting.
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