PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: joudi on July 06, 2003, 12:34
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Hello to all,
I would like to know if there is a way or an interesting site which explains in a simple way "HOW TO MAKE A PERSONAL RESTORATION CD" like the one that we almost all get when buying a new computer.
Is it simple to create one or it is too much coplicated to someone beginner like me, and perhaps reserved especially to professionals?
Thanks for your answers.
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I dont think you can make a "Restore" CD as such that works in the same way as the ones that come with some PCs with ME preinstalled on them Joudi.
You could possibly use a program such as Powerquests Drive Image(see link below},or possibly Norton Ghost although I dont know if Ghost will actually do what you want for restoring your OS(I never knew that Powerquest did either but it says it will do it on their site).
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me about these things can confirm that it does as it says it can ???
http://peripherals.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.powerquest.com/ (http://peripherals.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.powerquest.com/)
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If you want to create a proper restore CD which restores your PC back to a "clean installation" you have to begin with your PC in this state in the first place i.e. do a clean installation and back that up.
I'm not sure about Windows 98, but I think the Windows 2000 and XP backup programs are capable of making a backup to CD along with a floppy disk to boot from in order to provide a disaster recovery system.
I've never used it, so I'm not really sure if it is suitable for your requirements though.
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Wouldnt that just be the same as completely wiping the drive and doing another clean install Adept?
I think that with those drive image programs you may be able to do a restore to the last time you made an image wouldnt you?
I dont understand how it can see the boot sector of the drive to copy and enable that to be replaced so that it can restore it though ???
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Wouldnt that just be the same as completely wiping the drive and doing another clean install Adept?
Well yeah execpt that if you did it again, you'd be able to do it from the backup instead. To make it work properly, you should be prepared to make a backup as soon as you have a working clean install.
I think that with those drive image programs you may be able to do a restore to the last time you made an image wouldnt you?
There is no reason why you couldn't do it at any time, it's just that on a more heavily used system there are more programs and data installed, making the backup/image tedious.
I dont understand how it can see the boot sector of the drive to copy and enable that to be replaced so that it can restore it though ???
Imaging software either uses DOS or it's own file system to restore to the drive. Therefore it can write whatever it likes to the drive without Windows getting in the way.
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Well yeah execpt that if you did it again, you'd be able to do it from the backup instead. To make it work properly, you should be prepared to make a backup as soon as you have a working clean install.
So if you did it after a clean install and added your e mail,ISP connection details and programs like MSN messenger,you could just reinstall those and any other "must have programs" without having to search for the usernames and passwords etc without having to type in all the deatils again?
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I'm pretty sure that's how it works yes Sandra :)
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I wish you had told me that 12 months ago,it would have saved me a lot of hassle ::)
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Are we talking about a reinstall after say a failed hard drive?
If so I would imagine that if you had done a backup of C: Drive on to a CD using PowerQuest's Drive Image. You could then do a clean install of the OS, and just copy back the saved image of C: Drive.
On the other hand if it is just a case of restoring your system after you have cocked up, then the following works fine.
I had a Compaq PC with a version of PQ's Drive Image incoperated into it. This automaticaly partitioned and automaticaly adjusted that partition as needed on your C:Drive. It then saved a compressed image of C:Drive on to that partition [you had to do this manually]. Which enabled you to revert back to the last saved image of C:Drive if you cocked up. Of course you had to remember to backed it up on a regulare basis, and the latest backup wiped the previous backup off.
But better than the last use explained for Drive Image, is Nortons newly aquired 'GoBack' [bought from Roxia just recently]
It automatically saves an image of your C: Drive and any partions therein. All you do is press the 'Goback' icon in the tool bar and it gives you options to revert back to a period in time, be it 10 mins, an hour,two hours, 6 hours, start of the day, yesterday, day before yesterday...get the picture. Great for sorting bad downloads or driver or program installs, or you mucking the registary up ::) or deleting files you did not mean too.
But like the last explained usage of Drive Image, if the hard drive fails it cannot do a restore.
Hope this helps
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Thats how I though that programs such as Norton Ghost worked Tony,just to copy yor files etc.
If I understand what Adept is saying though you could use Powerquests drive imaging programs to reinstall(after wiping your hard drive or replacing it)your OS and some programs and other data from cd/s in one go rather than reinstalling the OS and then your other programs and settings for ISP and e mail etc. :-*
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Surely if the hard drive was wiped or a new one fitted it would need an OS on it to be able to place the drive image back on to the hard drive wouldnt it ???
Who started this thread :( >:( :o ::) :-X :-\ ???
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I must go to the Powerquest site and read up on it some time. Do you mean, you think Adept means, that it would install it's self back, OS and all from the saved copy onto an empty but formated hard drive????
Now that would be clever, but like I have said before I'm not that clued up on the black art of software programing, infact I'm a dummy. ;D
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Thats how I read it Tony but as in my earlier post I cant see how you could get the hard drive to access the image on the CD if it didnt have an OS on at all,it would at least have to be a bootable CD that the image was stored on.
This is getting really confusing yet intrigueing now isnt it ;D ;D ;D
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Oh come on keep up at the back there! ::)
The clue here is in the word image. This implies that the backup taken of the disk partition isn't just a bunch of files, but is one file contaning an exact replica of the data on the drive.
Supplied with Norton Ghost and presumably all the other programs is a boot disk which contains a program that will write the image file back to the hard drive.
All you do then is reboot the machine and as if by magic your operating system starts.
Is that clear enough? ??? :D
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It is indeed boss :)
So would it work for an XP system that way and does it compress the image to a much smaller size than the original partition takes up on the hard drive ???
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Thanks Sandra and Adept,
Adept: (Did I missunderstand what you mean?) What you are telling here I thought of it and did it two months ago. I didn't yet need to make the "Backup" to see if it works correctly as I want it to be. But I used the "Backup" before many times. It didn't erase all the programs which were installed after the date fixed by me for the Backup. Once, it ? even repeated the name of the installed programs twice in the list "Program Files". So, "Backup" can solve some problems but not all.
Now let me make the challenge harder to you and to others who may have an idea:
My "Restoration CD" which came with my computer works perfectly. When I boot my PC it asks me if I like to boot from "CD or Hard Disk"? It doesn't ask me "Which partition?" So I choose the CD. It goes directly to the "Master Hard Disk" to restore it in the "Partition C". What then if I want to restore the "Slave Hard Disk" with the second "Windows XP" installed on it? Till now, I don't see any way to choose the restoration of the partition that I want. Anyone has an idea?
Apart from that, I need to make my own "Restoration CD" and put the programs that I need on it to avoid repeating every time all the installations. My original CD with its programs, which I got with my computer is not what I really need for the other "Windows XP" (The Slave Hard Disk) which is in an other language. So I need to create an other one.
Thanks for all answers.
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So would it work for an XP system that way and does it compress the image to a much smaller size than the original partition takes up on the hard drive ???
Yes and Depends on the program used and the compressability of the data ;D
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If you use that drive image program Joudi,it will ask you which partition you want to make an image of and you can do it that way as far as I understand.
UNLESS,with a dual boot system it cant do it because it will have some required files in the boot sector that wont be on the image for a different partition.
In which case if you made an image of the C partition as well as the D partition then it may work but I will leave it to Adept to confirm/ridicule this thought process :-*
Ps check your PMs Joudi :-*
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Hi joudi, as I understand it you have to make a special type of backup in order to restore it boot sector and all. I haven;t used it so I'm not clear on the details. Perhaps a read of the Backup help file might be of use?
Sandra, with Norton Ghost (and probably the others) you can select which partition to restore to.
Multi-boot schemes may well be upset by re-ordering of the partitions and may need to be set-up again.
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Thanks again to all,
Please, can you tell me how to make the "Drive Image"? Can I put it on a CD to boot with? Is that the same procedur that they apply to create the "Restoration CD"?
Sandra, You know my english is not like yours. I can only manage. So have pitty on me and tell me what does it mean "PMs" in your PS: "Ps check your PMs Joudi"
Thank you.
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PM's are private messages Joudi and can be found by clicking the link at the top right hand corner of any pc-pals page.
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Sandra, You know my english is not like yours. I can only manage. So have pitty on me and tell me what does it mean "PMs" in your PS: "Ps check your PMs Joudi"
At the top of the page it says "Joudi you have X messages, Z are new."
Click and read the messages.
PM means Private Messages - it lets you send a message to another user without others reading it.
Hope that helps - EDIT - :doh: double post - sorry Clive!!
DJ1UK
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Ok folks I have installed a copy of Powerquests Drive Image 2002,(I though I had a copy of it that I had purchased previously) and I have read through the notes that appear after installation.
I think that this may clarify some things for anyone not called ADEPT ;)
---------------------------------------------------------------
The MBR and WIPEHEAD utilities discussed below are
troubleshooting utilities used by PowerQuest Technical Support.
They are designed for advanced users.
7. MBR Utility
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This Windows command utility will save the contents of the MBR
(the first sector on the first hard drive) to a file. It will
also restore the contents of a file to the MBR. It is found on
the CD in the UTILITY\WINDOWS folder.
You may wish to run this utility to back up the contents of your
MBR to a file in case a virus destroys the MBR on your hard disk.
Be aware that if you run this utility, change partitions on your
hard disk, and then restore the MBR with this utility, you will
cause problems with your computer. Therefore, if you want to use
this utility to back up your MBR, you should run it each time you
change partitions on the hard disk.
Syntax:
MBRutil /S=<filename> Saves the MBR to the file specified
MBRutil /R=<filename> Restores the MBR from the file specified
MBRutil /? Displays the program syntax
8. WIPEHEAD Utility
-------------------
This WIPEHEAD Windows command utility will clear the contents of
the first head (track) on the first hard disk, with the exception
of the MBR (the first sector). If the drive has 63 sectors per
track, this utility will clear out (that is, set all bytes to
zero) sectors 2 through 63. This utility is found on the Drive
Image CD in the UTILITY\WINDOWS folder. If the Drive Image
virtual floppy will not install correctly, this utility may solve
the problem.
Syntax:
WipeHead
There are no command line parameters for the WIPEHEAD utility.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I cant find anything specifically about dual booted systems but hopefully the help files inside the program may contain more information :-*
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You've got me confused now too Sandra ???
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Hi all,
If you use a program like Norton Ghost then the ghost program compresses all the data and programs that are on the partition or drive at the time you make the image, if you add programs after you have made the image then you need to make a new image, you can either image a partition or a full drive.
The ghost program is contained on a bootable floppy which uses PC-DOS or MS-DOS, but if you want to image NTFS partitions you will need to use Norton Ghost 2003.
The image can be saved to another partition or drive on the same PC (but not to the same partition that you are imaging) and then written to a CD
If you need any other infomation just ask
"a simple way "HOW TO MAKE A PERSONAL RESTORATION CD" like the one that we almost all get when buying a new computer."
You can burn the image that Norton has created with Nero to make a bootable CD that will boot your PC and reinstall your Ghost Image automaticly, I have a tutorial some where I will find it and post it ASAP
Brian ;D
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HOW TO CREATE A BOOTABLE GHOST RESCUE CD
This tutorial does not cover the creation of a Ghost image. Norton Ghost's manual is excellent so it shouldn't be much of a problem. A few tips though: launch Ghost in full DOS mode (not a DOS window) with following command line:
ghost.exe -split=640
The -split=640 parameter will split up images in parts when the size exceeds 640 MB. This way you get multiple 640 MB images which all fit on a CD-R disc. Use High compression when Ghost asks for it. This will make the images about 1/3th smaller.
Once the image is created you can write it to CD and use a boot disk to restore it when needed... But it can also a lot more professional. What about a CD that boots itself and restores the Ghost image after a single click on the Yes button or even 100% automated.
This isn't very hard to do. All you need is a boot disk which can boot your computer with CD-ROM support. Edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT so it will launch Ghost and restore the wanted image. Programs like Nero and WinOnCD use this floppy to create a boot image for the bootable CD. But this isn't perfect... Assume that your CD-ROM is D:. What if you buy another hard disk? The partitions on this disk will make the CD-ROM's drive letter move further down the alphabet. You could fix that by assigning Z: as your CD-ROM, but most readers of this page have at least 2 CD-ROMs in their computer (a CD-ROM and a writer) thus the rescue CD would only work in one of both CD-ROMs.
How can it be done than? "Something" needs to check the CD-ROM stations to see in which station the rescue CD is. This sounds easier than it is. Analyzing the bootable Win 98 CD I noticed that the little program FINDCD.EXE returns the CD drive where the Win 98 disc is put in. I reverse-engineered it to make it work with my own bootable CDs and that became DETECTCD.EXE...
Creating the boot image
After this small introduction it's time for the real work. You'll need to download the boot image:
bootdisk.exe (871 kB)
While the download is busy get yourself a 1.44 MB floppy. You don't need to format it. When the download is done, just run bootdisk.exe.
Insert the floppy and click "OK".
Unless you still need the data on the floppy press "Yes" to continue.
Please wait while the disk is being formatted and written to. After this completed you have a boot disk. In Explorer its contents should be:
ASPI2DOS.SYS
ASPI4DOS.SYS
ASPI8DOS.SYS
ASPI8U2.SYS
ASPICD.SYS
ATTRIB.EXE
AUTOEXEC.BAT
BTCDROM.SYS
BTDOSM.SYS
CHKDSK.EXE
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
COUNTRY.SYS DEBUG.EXE
DELTREE.EXE
DETECTCD.EXE
DISPLAY.SYS
DOSKEY.COM
EDIT.COM
EGA.CPI
FDISK.EXE
FLASHPT.SYS
FORMAT.COM
HIMEM.SYS
IO.SYS
KEYB.COM KEYBOARD.SYS
LABEL.EXE
MODE.COM
MOUSE.COM
MSCDEX.EXE
MSDOS.SYS
OAKCDROM.SYS
SCANDISK.EXE
SYS.COM
XCOPY.EXE
XCOPY32.EXE
XCOPY32.MOD
Some files like (IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) may be hidden and thus invisible for you in explorer.
By default this disk is able to boot with support for all standard IDE CD-ROMs (I haven't found one yet that doesn't work) and most of Adaptec's SCSI controllers (and all attached CD-ROMs). Other SCSI cards like the Diamond FirePort series, Tekram series,... are not supported and will need manual editing of the boot disk.
Start Windows Notepad and open the file CONFIG.SYS
[menu]
menuitem=SUCD, Boot computer with support for CD-ROM.
menuitem=NOCD, Boot computer without support for CD-ROM.
menuitem=GHOST, Restore partition/drive with Ghost.
menudefault=CD,30
menucolor=7,0
[SUCD]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=btcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:cdrom001
[NOCD]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
[GHOST]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=btcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:cdrom001
[COMMON]
files=60
buffers=20
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=z
device=display.sys con=(ega,,1)
country=001,437,country.sys
install=mode.com con cp prepare=((437) ega.cpi)
install=mode.com con cp select=437
install=keyb.com us,,keyboard.sys
Let's look at some important lines in this file:
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:cdrom001
This is the default IDE CD-ROM driver.
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:cdrom001
The first 4 lines load various Adaptec SCSI card drivers (including the 29xx series) and the last line is the generic Adaptec SCSI CD-ROM driver which works with all standard SCSI CD-ROM drives.
If you have a non Adaptec SCSI controller you will have to download the manufacturer's DOS drivers for that card and edit the CONFIG.SYS. You can delete following files on the bootdisk to free space for the new drivers.
ASPI2DOS.SYS
ASPI4DOS.SYS
ASPI8DOS.SYS
ASPI8U2.SYS
ASPICD.SYS
The 5 lines in the CONFIG.SYS which load the Adaptec SCSI drivers can be replaced by following 2 lines:
device=xxxxx.sys
device=yyyyy.sys /D:cdrom001
Where xxxxx.sys is the SCSI card driver and yyyyy.sys the CD-ROM driver from your SCSI card's manufacturer. Don't forget to copy the drivers to the floppy disk too!
At the end of the CONFIG.SYS you'll notice following lines:
country=001,437,country.sys
install=mode.com con cp prepare=((437) ega.cpi)
install=mode.com con cp select=437
install=keyb.com us,,keyboard.sys
If you live in the US or are used to a US keyboard don't change these lines: It are regional settings. If you need another keyboard layout use the table below and change the codes in the CONFIG.SYS to reflect your regional settings.
Country/Language Country Code Keyboard Code Character set
Croatian/Serbian/Slovene 038 yu 852
Czech 042 cz 852
Danish 045 dk 850
Dutch (Belgium) 032 be 850
Dutch (The Netherlands) 031 nl 850
English (UK) 044 uk 437
English (US) 001 us 437
Finnish 358 su 850
French (Belgium) 032 be 850
French (Canada) 002 cf 863
French (France) 033 fr 850
French (Swiss) 041 sf 850
German (Germany) 049 gr 850
German (Swiss) 041 sg 850
Hungarian 036 hu 852
International English 062 + 437
Italian 039 it 850
Norwegian 047 no 850
Polish 048 pl 852
Portuguese (Brazil) 055 br 850
Portuguese (Portugal) 351 po 850
Slovak 042 sl 852
Spanish (Latin America) 003 la 850
Spanish (Spain) 034 sp 850
Swedish 046 sv 437
When all that is done, the bootdisk should be ready. Before making an image of it, test the disk! Reboot the computer with the bootdisk in the floppy drive. Make sure you have set the boot order in you BIOS so that it will boot from floppy. Boot order A:, C: or something like that will do the trick.
A boot menu will show up, choose "Boot computer with support for CD-ROM.". If everything goes right you should get following error message "DetectCD was unable to determine the CD-ROM drive letter.". Don't panic, that's normal... After all the correct detectable CD (the Ghost rescue CD) isn't even burnt yet :)
The point is that you don't get any other error messages. Check if the CD-ROM is working correctly. It would be stupid to burn a bootable CD and find out that it doesn't work because of wrong drivers or a type mismatch. If you get error messages you will have to fix these first.
Editing GHOST.BAT
Now we have a working bootdisk it's time to figure out the correct settings to make Ghost restore the image. Download GHOST.BAT:
ghostbat.zip (1 kB)
Extract the zip file to a temporary folder. Start Notepad and open the just extracted GHOST.BAT. It looks like:
GHOST.EXE -clone,MODE=pload,SRC=%CDROM%\IMAGE.GHO:1,DST=1:1
What exactly does this line do? -clone,MODE=pload, sets Ghost in restore partition mode. SRC=%CDROM%\IMAGE.GHO:1, points to the location of the image on the CD-ROM. Do NOT remove or change %CDROM%. If the image is called "BACKUP.GHO" and it's placed in the /IMAGES folder on the CD it would look like SRC=%CDROM%\IMAGES\BACKUP.GHO. The :1 means partition 1 from the image file. Image files can contain multiple partitions. DST=1:1 means harddisk 1, partition 1. In other words, C:.
Thus the above line starts ghost and restores the ghosted partition IMAGE.GHO located in the root of the CD-ROM, to the C: after clicking "Yes". You can even go a step further and use
GHOST.EXE -clone,MODE=pload,SRC=%CDROM%\IMAGE.GHO:1,DST=1:1 -sure
Now Ghost supresses the "Are you sure you want to continue" message and restores fully automatic.
For more detailed command line parameters see Appendix A of the Ghost manual.
Double check the line to make sure it contains no errors. After it's burnt to CD there's no way of editing it anymore. Save the file.
Burning the Bootable Ghost Rescue CD
I'll use Nero here to explain what to do because it's about the most used software, but it's very similar with other CD-R software. Launch Nero and choose "CD-ROM (Boot)" from the "New Compilation" window. If Nero starts with the Wizard, close the Wizard and choose "New..." from the "File" menu.
On the "Boot" tab select "Bootable logical drive (must fit on the CD)" under "Source of boot image data". In the drop down box select "A:\ 2 MB". Click the "New" button
Now drag & drop "GHOST.BAT", the Ghost executable "GHOST.EXE" (no other files are needed to make Ghost work) and the image itself, in the above example "IMAGE.GHO". If your image exists out of more images (due to the -split parameter), only put the first part on this CD and put the other parts on the next CDs (which don't need to be bootable). On restore Ghost will ask to insert the next CD.
Note that "GHOST.BAT" and "GHOST.EXE" MUST be in the root of the CD. Otherwise DETECTCD.EXE can not identify the CD.
Since this bootable Rescue CD is also usable as bootdisk (you can choose from 3 boot methods; "Boot computer with support for CD-ROM.", "Boot computer without support for CD-ROM." and "Restore partition/drive with Ghost.") you may want to add other files too, like tools you often use in DOS. By default following DOS tools are incuded on the bootdisk:
Attrib.exe
Chkdsk.exe
Debug.exe
Deltree.exe
Doskey.com
Edit.com
Fdisk.exe
Format.com
Label.exe
Scandisk.exe
Sys.com
Xcopy.exe
Xcopy32.exe
If you are satisfied with the contents of the CD it's time to burn... From the "File" menu choose "Write CD..."
Check the settings and hit "Write" when ready. Make sure the bootdisk is still in the floppy and a blank CD-R loader in the writer. It will take a while before the write actually starts because the bootdisk is read first.
And then Nero is burning the bootable Ghost Rescue CD! To use/test the CD make sure you set the boot order in your system's BIOS that the system will boot from CD-ROM if a bootable CD is found in one of the CD-ROM drives. Set it to "CDROM, C:" or whatever your BIOS supports for booting from CD-ROM..
That's it. If you followed all instructions correctly the bootable CD should work fine.
If any body wants the files mentioned i can send them on to you
Brian ;D
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That sounds handy Brian but I will need a few days of peace and quiet to digest it all ;)
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@Sandra
Pop in next week and I'll show you how it works my friend
Brian ;D
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OK,thanks Brian :-*
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Do you pop in and inspect Brians 'rubbings'on a regulare basis then Sandra? ;D
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@Tony
Even an old man like me needs the occasional hand out my friend
Brian
:niceday:
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obviously princess has yet to awaken from her slumbers, Brian. :)
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No I am up and raring to go now Tony,dont forget even I have to sleep sometimes ::)
I have been inspecting Brians "rubbings" since I was sweet sixteen ;)
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Hi Sandra
"Reply #32 on: Today at 01:41:37pm »"
Didnt realise that you knew there was two 1 O'clocks in a day
Brian :lol:
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It's all to do with having to cater for so many different time zones Brian. In this world of political correctness we must be seen to be fair to all of them so that none are disadvantaged.
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I usually get the two "ones" Brian it the ones with double numbers that I frequently miss out on ;D ;D ;D
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Right,
I read the pdf documents that come with Drive Image, and yes Adept is right [as usual] about the image bit. ::)
It's that long ago that I installed Drive Image that I forgot I had made a set of [2]'Drive Image' boot disks. So I tried them on a reboot, and low and behold the PC booted to the Drive Image program allowing you to either copy or install a copy of your drives.
I did a dummy run as if to copy to an external drive, and after highlighting the drives to be imaged, it said it would take between 8 to 15 writable CD's, bloody hell. I would have thought it could have been more explicit than that, least ways ballpark needed assuming you use 700MB disks to backup your particulre image.
Of course on my old PC I added a spare hard drive and installed an OS, programs and data on it. I might just do that again, as it would just be a case of using Drive Image copy facility to update the spare regulary to protect against hard disk faliure. Had a few of them in my time, infact only component that has ever failed on me is hard drives. Of course a 'raid' MOBO means you dont even need software like Drive Image. But on has to work with what ones got and least ways doing an image copy would mean you would not need to download all those security patches and virus updates all over again.
Right a question for the pros, most likely Adept and Lobo [know offence intended to others ;)] I believe you can install a hard drive bay adapter that enables you to plug in a removeble hard drive [eternally] so that you can keep a backup copy of your system safe incase you get the PC nicked, are they called 'addies' and do you just use ordinary hard drives as you would if installing internally?
Cheers
I do hope joudi is taking this all in ;)
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Right a question for the pros, most likely Adept and Lobo [know offence intended to others ;)] I believe you can install a hard drive bay adapter that enables you to plug in a removeble hard drive [eternally] so that you can keep a backup copy of your system safe incase you get the PC nicked, are they called 'addies' and do you just use ordinary hard drives as you would if installing internally?
I assume you mean externally not eternally Tony ;D ;D ;D
I think that they are called "caddies",I have seem them for sale and will see if I can find an address for you.
You use a standard hard drive and fit the "Adaptor" in a spare 5.25 bay :-*
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Well there arent any that I can see in the usual on line sites that I use but found some here Tony :
http://www.dgdigital.co.uk/acatalog/Drive_Bay_Mountings.html
Next to the bottom section on here:
http://www.sapphiresystems.co.uk/shopping/cables.htm
http://www.geishapc.com/geisha1/hardrivmob.html
They are quite cheap so even if you go stateside to get one it wont break your bank Tony :-*
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Eternally ....what am I like... can you get dementia at 36 ::)
Cheers Sandra I was near with addies though ;D and thanks for the links :-*
Look I reckon you can also be called a Pro, so how much do I owe you........just pop it on my account..........I'll settle at the end of the month. ;)
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You couldnt afford me Tony ;)
Unless you made a real big score on your finacial wheeler dealer things one day :-*
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I believe you can install a hard drive bay adapter that enables you to plug in a removeble hard drive [eternally] so that you can keep a backup copy of your system safe incase you get the PC nicked, are they called 'addies' and do you just use ordinary hard drives as you would if installing internally?
Yes "Caddies" are available for IDE and SCSI drives. SCSI ones can even be "hot-swappable", meaning that you can remove and re-insert the drive whilst the computer is running. No such luck with the IDE ones unfortunately :( Caddies tend to sell for between £30-£100 depending on the quality. I used to use removeable hard drives all the time until I realised I was killing a drive every 9 months :o
Another more expensive, but probably more secure alternative is an external Firewire drive, which just plugs into a standard Firewire port. These are hot-pluggable and retail for between £200 and £300 depending on the capacity of the drive. If you don't have Firewire, there are also USB 2.0 versions available. I wouldn't bother with a USB 1 version as access will be very slow.
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Just found this site (http://cnb-host4.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/storagedepot?listPos=&op=catalogue-products-null&prodCategoryID=2) which on the face of it look like very nice prices for Firewire drives to me :)
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Thanks for the advice and links Adept. I take note especially in regard to the 9 month life expectency.
The security [getting nicked] is a low priority really, anyway when I go on holiday I take the hard drive out in less than 90 secs. I can save my data on a CD OK, it's the inconveniance of having to go through a clean install on a new drive that I really wish to avoid.