Problem How to make a windows backup partition

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hey Certforums!!

I was wondering, Actually hoping that someone could help me.

I wanna learn how to make a windows backup partition. Both, how to get the backup image or whatever needs to be done and how to make a partition, i did the partition in vista, vista has built in partion manager thing..
Also, if it is an image, how to get the image on that partition.
Never had to do this before but now i wanna earn money fixing peoples PC's then i need to know these things.

As we speak, i have norton ghost 15 dunno how to use the thing though lol.

I hope someone can help me out.

Thanks in advance =]

Special Brew!

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Do you mean cloning/copying a image of the hard drive or system partition?

 

Well, basically i just had to replace my hdd as my old one completed died on me. So basically, i brought a hdd on ebay, installed it, installed windows etc.

But how do i make a windows back-up partition in case anything goes wrong that isn't a hdd fault, for example, a corrupt windows.. A simple back-up would set windows back to my healthy windows back-up partition.

Also, along side this, i'd like to make this on a partition, but not only windows on it, i want the back-up partition to have all my basics on there, like AVG and all the drivers etc.

I hope this makes sense to you.

thanks for your reply,

Special Brew!

 

There's lots of ways to solve this problem! I don't have ghost and so I can't comment on it. However there are many programs that allow you to do that. There's even the open source (ie. free) clonezilla which I have used. But foremost (although this might be obvious) get a second hard drive. DO NOT USE THE SAME HD FOR YOUR IMAGE DRIVE. If you do and the drive goes..... so goes your image! I suggest using the second drive for the image and then disconnecting it from your system (to avoid possible virus, etc. corruptions). Just put it on the shelf or at least keep it in the PC box with the cables off!

 

try Comodo Time Machine.
A very good piece of software for creating images.
Or if you're using Windows 7, use the built in back up. It is surprisingly amazing!

 

Acronis tbh.

It's a great utility (much better than Ghost is now days). I use it myself for my laptop (it can clone the drive to a remote network location or USB drive).

 

Cheers For the replies guys, Appreicate it.

how can i save an image of my windows to file, then put the '' image '' on the partition???

Because, of course i'll use external hdd, but if i'm fixing people's computers, they want back-up partition.

So how do i do that =\?

No one seems to know, or know what i mean.

Thanks for reading, i hope someone knows.

Special Brew

 

Are you talking about a hidden partition in the style of many of the big box manufacturers?

 

You could always back up the machine using winpe to an external drive. Create a small partition. Copy the wim file to that partition then mark it inactive so the user cant see it. Then use winpe to restore if needed

 

PE is a messy way of doing it, usually because it wants a Syspreped image rather than just an 'image', I would still stick with using Acronis (which can provide you a recovery partition) but obviously that will have a licensing cost associated with it.

I would advise that if you're doing this for 'clients' then you're probably breaking the licensing agreement for ghost unless you have purchased an enterprise agreement.

 

Yeah, like when you buy a brand new laptop, it comes with a windows back-up partition to restore windows if need be.

I'm not using ghost illegal, i've not actually used it at all, not even for myself.. I've been looking online for pc repair company prices. and saw they charge for doing a partition for windows back-up etc.

As anyone, when i see something new, i wanna learn to do it myself.

I hope i've cleared it up a little bit lol.

Just trying to learn a little more, considering no websites seem to give a decent amount of advice nor information.

Thanks again,

Special Brew!

 

Why not just mirror your system drive?

 

All i want to do is set-up a partition with a windows back-up, just like you get with a new laptop.

Thanks for your reply,

Appreciate it.


Special Brew!

 

If you get the Windows 7 operating system there no need for third party software like Norton Ghost and Acronis as there is now a cool easy backup tool with Windows installed to clone and backup the system drive.

 

That is the question.

 

You're right, it only saves to CD/DVD or external HHD.

How can i send it to the partition i've created for windows back-up?

Thanks

Special Brew!!

 

No doubt there will be a few different ways to do this, I personally would use acronis as simon has mentioned. It can create a recovery partion on the same drive. But as also said, you need to watch the licensing if you intend to install it for customers.

 

I will look into the Acronis idea, thank you.

As longs as i can do it for myself, i don't really care.

You mention licenses, but how do i work my way around this, meaning if i am asked, how can i do it for them ?

Thanks again,

Special Brew!

 

I assume you would need to buy a copy per installation or there may be an alternative way to license. Best to e-mail/phone acronis to verify, you can download the trial and have a play about with Acronis True Image Home 2011 here

The feature your looking for is called Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.

 

You don't 'work your way around it' as DC suggests you'll probably have to buy a license per install, there may be some sort of 'bulk purchase' option if you'll be doing it a lot.

Anything else and your very likely to be in violation of Acronis' license terms which opens you up to a whole world of hurt.