I, too, am looking for a HDD backup solution that will allow me to do a
complete copy of a Win2k drive so I can remove the source drive, install the
backup drive in its place, then reboot to a running system.

When I upgraded/replaced HDDs in Win9x machines, I used XCOPY /R/I/C/H/K/E/Y
or XXCOPY's /clone command to copy the old drive to a new drive. I then
removed the old drive, change the jumpers on the new drive to "master" and
rebooted and was back in operation as usual. This doesn't work with Win2k. I
suspect because some critical file or files are locked during backup because
they're in use and never make it to the backup drive.

This is what's keeping me from switching from Win9x to 2k. I change drives
every year or so and I don't want to have to reinstall the OS and all the
programs. Any tips on how to get an exact backup will be a great help.

Thanks.

- John
www.hajinlian.net


----- Original Message -----
Subject: [PCBUILD] best HDD copy solution


> Could someone tell me the best/safest HDD copy solution which is suitable
> for normal home user?
>
> I'm asking because I have a long unsolved problem. Whenever I need to
> complete copy from one HDD to another, I usually use Ghost, which is good
> for any win9x machine, however, when copy win2k/NT machine with large NTFS
> partition and/or extra security setting, Ghost usually failed to make a
> workable copy. The only "solution" was to try again and again, until got a
> copy that works, but as you can see, this makes Ghost a "bad" solution for
> such task.
>
> The basic problem with Ghost are: 1) it doesn't like large NTFS partition,
> as a result, the copy HDD won't boot; 2) Ghost may not be able to bring
over
> the security setting, sounds strange.
>
> I really need to know how to make safe transfer from one HDD to another
with
> NTFS and win2k/NT.

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com