Better way to backup HDD?

[CrazySaint]

I need to back my HDD so I can try to setup a Win98/Linux dual boot without having to worry about needing to re-install everything if something goes wrong. I tried to burn a backup using Nero, but I'm not interested in backing up an 80GB HDD with 2GB of data on it, sector by sector onto 118 CDs! I've got Norton ghost, but unfortunately that's a no go since I only have one partition. Are there any other ideas?

 

[lupohki]

Use Partition Magic and then Ghost.

 

[CrazySaint]

Unfortunately, I haven't got Partition Magic. If Ghost would allow me to backup across a network, this would be easy, since I have other machines I could stick the disk image on. If I just copied the entire contents of my HDD to another computer, then formatted my HDD and copied them back if anything went wrong, would that work?

 

[Turkey]

RAID... get another 80GB HD and a controller card, install it and set up a RAID mirror. This should build an identical copy of your hd on the 2nd hd. Then you can uninstall the card/2nd hd and do whatever you want to the 1st hd. If you screw something up, then you can replace the 1st with the 2nd, rebuild another copy, and try again.

 

[CrazySaint]

That's a good idea, unfortunately, I don't have $106 laying around collecting dust to buy a second HDD with. So will copying the entire contents of my drive to a partition on another computer work? I've only got 2GB of data on here (was a bit over 4GB but I paired it down for easier backup).

 

[Calin]

It will work as a "raw copy" if using Win 95, 98 or Me. It won't work in Win NT, 2000 or XP (or at least you should reinstall the boot manager with other methods).
P.S. you can copy everything EXCEPT the virtual memory (win386.swp, as I remember).You'll find it in either c:\ or somewhere in \windows

I'd say to copy all the data, repartition but leave free space for Linux, then copy data back (you may even archive it on 2-3 CDs). But you'll need an Win98 emergency disk (somewhere in control Panel you can create it - Add/remove programs/Windows setup/Emergency disk)

Maybe you could re-partition (with PartitionMagic) your disk, so that you could save your main partition on the secondary partition?
for the start, you might try to install a Linux on a windows partition - some distributions accept that
Anyway, I suggest you have more than one partition in Windows (I have three partitions on my 80 GB WD drive)

Calin

 

[CrazySaint]

Thanks for the help

 

[CrazySaint]

Hmmm...I've copied over everything except the Windows folder...which I can't copy because this file or that is always in use. How do I get around that?

[EDIT: I think I figured it out, but any help advice is always welcome ]