Making an XP disk image

[nwrigley]

I'm working on a Windows XP Home machine that has a problem IDE hard drive. Smart disk recommends that it be replaced and I would like to make a disk image onto the replacement drive. I also have access the a Vista Ultimate desktop and a Vista Home Premium laptop.

I understand the concept behind making a disk image, but I've never done it before. What software and method do you recommend that I use? Links to good tutorials would also be appreciated.

 

[lxskllr]

The manufacturer's drive utilities are usually the easiest to use. They generally require that at least one of the drives be their's. Go to the appropriate site, and download their app. They should also have instructions on using it. They're pretty straight forward in their use.

 

[mr3manuel]

You mean image as in a complete image of your hard drive then transfer everything as is onto your new drive?
i would reccomend using acronis true image
http://www.acronis.com/
you can download a trial and and do the whole imaging process on a separate desktop where the drive you want to image is not your primary

 

[nwrigley]

Originally posted by: mr3manuel
You mean image as in a complete image of your hard drive then transfer everything as is onto your new drive?

Yes, I want a complete image. I want to "clone" the dying drive and replace it with the new one.

I looked at Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools and after reading the manual it sounds like it can accomplish this. I can create a DOS bootable CD and do it all from the old PC that has the dying drive.

Has anyone used this program before?

 

[C1]

I use drive copy. However, I need to warn you based on experience with various imaging software that creating an image is not just a copy. Imaging software is real fussy about the certainty & precision related to creating the image product. Dont be surprised if when attempting to create the image (using a marginal HDD - source or destination) that the software program stops showing an error status message about ability to read the source.

Recommend that you first copy off (eg, drag & drop) all the data & configuration files which will transfer then attempt the image. If it seems to work then fine, but also verify that the image is valid too (ie, ability to restore from the image).

 

[nwrigley]

Originally posted by: C1
Recommend that you first copy off (eg, drag & drop) all the data & configuration files which will transfer then attempt the image. If it seems to work then fine, but also verify that the image is valid too (ie, ability to restore from the image).

Thanks for the recommendation. I think I will back the files up to an external hard drive before I start anything.

What do you mean by ability to restore from the image?

 

[C1]

re:What do you mean by ability to restore from the image?

It often comes up (eg, on the Leo LaPorte radio talk show - computer tech guy) that people will make a backup of their HDD, but never test that the backup is valid/useable (be it an image or otherwise like a True Image [TI] backup that can be a hybrid image - compressed backup file that has omitted unused partition space & swap file). When the individual finally needs to restore their system from backup, they then find that the backup (or backup system) doesnt work.

When I evaluation tested TI as a candidate, I created a test bed (two HDDs one with a valid OS partition installed on drive 0) to test the TI software. This allowed me to try the various available options provided by the TI software & verify that I could successfully restore the drive 0 OS partition using the image or backup that was created on drive 1 as a backup of drive 0. Some idiosyncratic "snakes in the grass" were uncovered for the TI software when used with my hardware suite. These were documented & the exact procedure/steps which were verified to successfully work were written down for use as the procedure to be followed for backup & restoration (includes by-the-way hardware setup such as use of 1394 vs USB).

In general with my big machine which employs four different OS partitions, I use Drive Copy [DC]. It is very precise & very fussy. The HDDs cannot be marginal (eg, no SMART alerts - DC does a lot of drive integrity checking before it will commence & I suspect that DC also then performs an incremental R/W surface scan/check to that portion of the HDD that it is writing the image to. Any R/W operation that fails criteria results in an abort error message!