Backing up an entire boot partition (ie c: drive) with xxcopy /clone parameter creates an exact duplicate of
the partition and if the original HD fails all one has to do is fdisk the back up drive to make it the active
partition (bootable). Change the jumpers to make it master and your system is restored. (there are some
variations based on your specific operating system). Ghost images are also complete system backups and when
restored to the boot partition will completely get you up and running.

Hope this answers you question


On Thu, 8 Feb 2001 07:44:35 -0500, Frank R. Brown wrote:

>First off, thanks for everyone's suggestions.
>
>I guess I'm getting talked into using a hard drive and something
>like second copy 2000 or xxcopy for backing up data files.
>
>I'd like a little more advice on whole machine backup.
>
>Since some of the machines I want to back up are laptops,
>the plan of adding a second hard drive to the machine and
>running ghost --- instant recovery by simply switching over
>to booting off the second drive --- doesn't seem practical.
>
>What whole-machine backup solutions might I want to look
>at, and do they really work?
>
>(In all my years of computing --- which pre-dates windows by
>several generations --- I have never seen a whole-machine
>restore succeed.    Not that they can't, but what I've seen
>is either no whole-machine backup available, available, but
>not attempted, or attempted, but failed.  In practice, I've seen
>reinstallation of the os, &c., followed by recovery of data files
>from whatever backups were available.)
>
>Let's say I have a laptop and use ghost to a network drive
>(or use ntbackup to a tape drive).  Let's say I lose my
>hard drive, and replace it, possibly with one of larger capacity.
>How do I do a whole-machine restore?  Do I need to do a
>plain-vanilla install of the os (I use nt) to get things going, and
>then the restore procedure overwrites the temporary copy of
>the os?
>
>As John Chin <[log in to unmask]> said,
>"Learning how to tell the wheat from chaff on a Windows system
>takes time."  (I call this the windows file-splatter disease.)
>It seems to me you either really do a true, complete whole-
>machine restore, or you don't do it at all.
>
>Have people perhaps found reinstalling the os, the apps, and
>then recovering desired data files to be the more practical solution?
>
>
>"Frank R. Brown" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> What do people recommend for a home backup
>> solution?
>> ...
>
>     Frank R.Brown
>     Frank.R.Brown@MailAndNews

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