How do I make an image of my new XP install?

Zascar

Due to the large amount of stuff I put on my PC, changing things etc etc I generally have to resinstall every 4-6 months. It's a bit of a pain in the ass, as I do quite a lot of little changes to get my computer the way I want it.

I've just done a clean install, and got it set up almost perfect, but before I install anything big, I'd like to be able to create an image, so at any time in the future, I can easily flash it back to this state without much hassle.

Can anyone tell me how I do this?
Thanks

zod

can you get your hands on a version of ghost ? It's easy clone software to use (although there are other ones out there)

You boot off media that is not on the same partition as your OS .. like a floppy/usb/cdrom/other partition into dos/pc dos/free dos
Start ghost and image the OS partition to an image file which will be about 3-5GB

-annex-

Norton Ghost is pretty good. However if you don't want to splash out you can try Drvimager. It's free and it works.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DrvImagerXP.shtml

Gadgetman496

Acronis True Image is another really goog one but it's pay for.

Another option woth checking out (If you have XP Pro only!) is ASR Backup.


ASR Windows XP Pro Backup & Restore Utility.
http://www.petri.co.il/what's_asr_in_windows_xp_2003.htm


Did you guys know that Windows XP Pro has its own equivalent of GHOSTING?

For example:

You do a fresh install.
You install your Anti whatever & do your updates.
You sort out any issues with Drivers that weren't picked up.
You install whatever extra peripherals you use (Printers, Scanners Etc.).
You make you machine Genuine (Thank you very much Byrnie :-)).
You do all your updates.
You install your favourite programs.
You tweak them just as you like them.
You populate your Desktop with whatever Icons/Folders you desire.
You setup your network.
A day or two later you realise you forgot to install something or you need to do whatever little adjustments to get the system exactly as you like it.

Yada, yada,yada, you get the picture, you've just spent the guts of two days getting the system just the way you like it?

Yes it is a pain but at least you now have a nice fresh clean system exactly the way you want it & if you're lucky you will get a happy six months out of it before the run of the mill stuff eventually slows it to a crawl or you get nailed by the mother of all virus's....

If you run Windows ASR at this point it will create an exact backup of absolutely everything so it can be used to restore your machine to exactly the way it was when you completed & tweaked your fresh install.

To create the ASR file & disk on my PC took 30 Mins with a size of 8GB, a hell of a lot better then spending two days going through the pain again.

The trick is to run the Windows Backup program but when the Wizard starts make sure to
Click on the blue “Advanced Mode” link on the splash screen, or you can uncheck the "Always start in Wizard mode" box, close the program & run the program again & you will be presented with a whole new set of options including the option to make an ASR Backup.

The Restore procedure is simple too, (You boot from your XP CD & choose F2 when prompted, followed by inserting the floppy(You make during the backup process) followed by pointing the system to your backup file location & away you go.

What it does during the restore process:
It formats your c:\: partition.
Install only the necessary files from the XP CD to get started & then integrates all your programs & settings from the ASR backup file.

It's pretty much a clean install without the long tweaking time factor & the pain of all the extra installations & fine-tuning. Even if your system got totally infested? you could be back to a squeaky new install exactly as you like it within an hour.


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Thomas_S_Hunterson

dd on a linux live disk?

/edit: Woops this method will give you a much larger image than you need (ie. the size of the disk )unless you zero the drive before installing windows and then compress the image. Then the unused space should compress to a negligible amount.

Gadgetman496

I don't mean to hijack, but I have a previous post with a similar, yet different question. The post (much to my surprise) has received no replies.

Can anyone here have a look at it and give any suggestions/advice?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54825956&postcount=1


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