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System backup + reload procedure

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AMD Phreak

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Apr 2, 2003
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Just curious as to everyones procedure for backing up a windows box, and then reloading the OS and the restoring the files from the backup.

Looking for any new insight for my current procedure.

:bday:
 
I use ghost. I have two images built which I use regularly. The first image is a fresh install of XP with SP2 installed, Office XP, couple very simple apps, and chipset drivers installed - as basic as possible. The second image is my current configuration - it contains all apps I use currently, freshly installed on top of the first image.

Other than my images, I maintain data on secondary drives. My primary drive is a raptor, and it gets one of the images dropped onto it (everything on here can be wiped out at any time). I have a second 80GB drive for my documents where all data and music is stored (everything on here is important to me, and is never deleted - some of it is also duplicated on my third drive in case either drive fails) - I right clicked on my documents and changed the location of the folder to do this, and it is built into the image so all my documents are automatically there after I reimage. I have a third 160GB drive for movies, download backups (program setup files), install files, and such. Anything that is not built into my image, is installed from the 160GB drive to the raptor... and boy is it fast. :D

I keep the images on a small partition on the 160GB drive - the image transfers from the diamondmax9 to the raptor at a solid constant rate of 4.25MB per second. My first image can be up and running at the desktop in under 10 minutes. My second image takes closer to 15 minutes.
 
Aye, ghost is a good one, I think Im finally going to do what ive talked about for so long and create a real image of my computer, some things jsut take way too long to install lol. Also Ghost is not required to do this, though it will take a bit longer without it you can jsut use the ntbackup utility and backup your WHOLE computer, Then when you need to restore you just reinstall windows, and restore from backup and it should put everything in the right place.
 
If my os partition is 20gb and Im trying to move it all over to a 40 gb drive, would ghost compensate for that?

Since the ntbackup overwrites a clean install, Ill assume that method would work.
 
If you create a ghost image, it only occupies space for the data... My OS partition is my entire raptor ~36GB, and my install with programs occupies roughly 5GB - so my ghost file backing this all up occupies roughly 5GB.

Ghost also has the ability to compress things, however I am not certain if all editions have this ability or only the one we use at work - I haven't looked through the options as much on the one I use at home.

I am not familiar with ntbackup...
 
I.M.O.G. said:
I am not familiar with ntbackup...
The built in NT backup rules. I am a freak about it too... I back up my raid 0 array with all my important stuff nightly to a secondary HD, I backup other important files on another HD onto the secondary HD, then, I run a back up OF the raid 0 backup... so every night my machine performs 3 backups. This way I always have my data on 3 different drives. Anyway, with the nt backup you select what you want to backup, where you want it to go and it does it. Restoring is a breeze and I used it on Sunday when I did a reformat. I do have to reinstall all the apps, but all data is safe.
 
That doesn't sound so different than simply copying and pasting, is the magic about this automation, or is there something else to it that is nice also?
 
I.M.O.G. said:
That doesn't sound so different than simply copying and pasting, is the magic about this automation, or is there something else to it that is nice also?
It is the automation plus the fact that it creates a single backup file (archive) which is also nice. I back up about 15GB from my main drive every night. To manually copy all the files over takes about 3 hours. The backup does it in about 15 - 20 mins or so.
 
Ohh, ok I see more now, sounds alright, I think I'll play with it just to become familiar... Not to mention, I probably should backup some documents which aren't really backed up anywhere come to think of it. ;)
 
My os drive is 20 gigs, is rather old, and is developing a habit of clicking.

I wanted to replace it with a spare 40 gig drive, but didnt want to split that into two partitions.

IMOG: From what I understand, you are saying a clean formatted drive (40gb) will accept a ghost image (of a 20gb drive) and leave the remaining space(20 gigs) available without any additional partitioning.

nikhsub1: Did you have to reinstall apps because Ntbackup doesn't maintain your registry and applications? Or did you just reinstall a image that was without the apps in question?

Thanks.

-Matt
 
Guderian, you are close. But actually this is exactly how it works, take this hypothetical example...

I have a 160GB primary OS drive with 17GB of OS and data information on it in one partition. I have a 40 GB secondary drive that is empty all in one partition. I create an image of the 160 GB drive and store it on the 40GB drive. The 40GB drive will now have 17GB used and 23 GB free. The 160GB drive could be formatted, and the 17GB image from the 40GB drive could be written to it.

Basically, as long as the given partition is larger than the image file... The image can be stored or restored to that partition. The image only takes up as much space as there is data - it does not take up the entire space from the partition it was created from.
 
Guderian said:
nikhsub1: Did you have to reinstall apps because Ntbackup doesn't maintain your registry and applications? Or did you just reinstall a image that was without the apps in question?

Thanks.

-Matt
I only use the NT backup for files and certain settings. I usually do a full reformat, reinstall programs then restore the data. It takes longer, but in my experience it is better than re-imaging in the long run. If you reformat often, then it is a mute point, re-imaging would be the way to go.
 
Great solutions so far guys. what about when working on a pc for someone?? How do you personally backup the data so you can recover it after you reload the os??


~AP
 
Here is how I do it:

I currently have 2x SCSI drives in RAID0. The only thing on them is OS and programs. I have 2 other HD's that have all my stuff (docuemtns, favorites, pics, music, images, etc...). So the only thing that I do when I have to reformate is copy any game saves I want and my favorites if i updated them. Then as soon as I reformat and import my drives everything is back to normal and I can install any programs that I want. The bonus to this is that it allows me to put the newest drivers and patches on instead of haveing to go back and do it later as in a Image.

The problem is that you have to take time to set this up and stick to the setup. I have everything organized on the computer and have for a while, but If you have a messy computer It will take a bit to get it organized like this. The best part about it is that if you lose your c drive for some reason the only thing that you lose is a few hours cuz all your stuff is on another drive.

If I have a friend that needs to redo there computer I just hook it into our network, make them a folder on one of my drives and put all there stuff in there. This makes everything fast and easy.
 
AMD Phreak said:
Great solutions so far guys. what about when working on a pc for someone?? How do you personally backup the data so you can recover it after you reload the os??


~AP
Several options, if there is a network, move the files to a different machine. If there is not, bring a laptop and a crossover cable and do it that way. If you have no laptop, maybe an external drive. If all of that is a no go, use a HD and install it into the machine and move the files there, reformat and re-move the files.
 
nikhsub1 said:
Several options, if there is a network, move the files to a different machine. If there is not, bring a laptop and a crossover cable and do it that way. If you have no laptop, maybe an external drive. If all of that is a no go, use a HD and install it into the machine and move the files there, reformat and re-move the files.

I find the backup on home PC's with no network to be the most work, but I just bring along a spare drive and temporarily move over the files.
 
Ok that is my current solution, is to remove drive and dump off files. HOw about restoring files? DO you just dump my docs and settings, prog files, and etc etc
back onto the drive for the person? Or is there a method to the madness?
 
AMD Phreak said:
Ok that is my current solution, is to remove drive and dump off files. HOw about restoring files? DO you just dump my docs and settings, prog files, and etc etc
back onto the drive for the person? Or is there a method to the madness?
Moving program files does not good, you have to reinstall them anyway, just grab files and settings.
 
In that situation, i would just backup certain folders like desktop, favorites, documents, and then ask them what applications they ever use, and search for those file extensions to ensure I had everything which they might need. I may also make manual textpad notes on where the files resided if necessary. I then just copy them back.
 
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