cabster21
01-04-2012, 01:07 AM
So it was covered in the current episodes so I thought I would shoot a few issues.
It's fairly common for people to request a mirror image to a new system, they don't want to install programs again et cetera.
So a couple things to look out for, if you're moving from Intel to AMD you will need to look at the PPM registry key, Google it, it's changing a 4 to a 1. Simple but will save you trouble.
Different motherboard? The controllers will be different (could be) go into device manager and install the default controllers. Maybe a no no for performance but a valid step if you're changing a a mobo that has different controllers. (this is the same if you're just changing the mobo and no mirroring the disk).
You may want to a use a program that has a pre OS boot, something like Keriver 1-click restore free will allow you to create a baseline and restore this from its own GRUB4DOS menu, you don't have to use this though and you can edit it to support dual boot. So if Windows doesn't boot you're not lost.
There are plenty others but this is a very user friendly version. Many you can also create a bootable disk, essentially like DRBL based that allows you to boot from a USB drive and restore your disk.
Paid programs have better support for proportional restores so you can restore to different size disks, only if you have the space though. Like said in the show keep media items on a backup slow disk.
If the drive is actually damaged in the sense it has bad sectors you can use the free DOS disk sentinel to confirm this providing SMART is supported http://www.hdsentinel.com/hdsdos.php if this shows a failing drive you want to boot into a Windows CD/DVD (must be the same, I.E. 64bit to 64bit) and complete a chkdsk /r and then try and image the drive and write it.
You may also want to do this to the new imaged drive and then do a sfc /scannow once it has booted.
Obviously clonezilla is an option that should be known, you don't have to use the more complicated server edition for a single PC but it doesn't look as nice as say Acronis, which is essentially EaseUS todo backup.
Also don't ignore the idea that it's time for a fresh start, if the drive is detected in the BIOS but you need a new one just boot with both and copy the data you need while starting from fresh. It isn't such a bad thing with Windows.
As for Linux based system, Linux doesn't register itself and can write system files. This means you can essentially create a tar file of the entire system excluding mnts and write it back when needs be.
Or look into lathe, it allows you to set up your drive, install all applications and then boot into a temp file system preventing any changes. Obviously if the drive fails you need to image the drive back, but that's not a problem with the likes of Clonezilla.
Also you can use Gparted (or any live distro that includes gparted such as backtrack and I think blackbuntu). This will allow you to shrink the drive or at least remove the media partitions to mirror to a smaller drive.
Although this is another positive for smaller SSDs, much easier to mirror to an external USB drive, it might take slightly longer to image it back but it's worth it. Before you image the drive remove large files such as games and HD movies and the file isn't really too bad.
Cheers,
It's fairly common for people to request a mirror image to a new system, they don't want to install programs again et cetera.
So a couple things to look out for, if you're moving from Intel to AMD you will need to look at the PPM registry key, Google it, it's changing a 4 to a 1. Simple but will save you trouble.
Different motherboard? The controllers will be different (could be) go into device manager and install the default controllers. Maybe a no no for performance but a valid step if you're changing a a mobo that has different controllers. (this is the same if you're just changing the mobo and no mirroring the disk).
You may want to a use a program that has a pre OS boot, something like Keriver 1-click restore free will allow you to create a baseline and restore this from its own GRUB4DOS menu, you don't have to use this though and you can edit it to support dual boot. So if Windows doesn't boot you're not lost.
There are plenty others but this is a very user friendly version. Many you can also create a bootable disk, essentially like DRBL based that allows you to boot from a USB drive and restore your disk.
Paid programs have better support for proportional restores so you can restore to different size disks, only if you have the space though. Like said in the show keep media items on a backup slow disk.
If the drive is actually damaged in the sense it has bad sectors you can use the free DOS disk sentinel to confirm this providing SMART is supported http://www.hdsentinel.com/hdsdos.php if this shows a failing drive you want to boot into a Windows CD/DVD (must be the same, I.E. 64bit to 64bit) and complete a chkdsk /r and then try and image the drive and write it.
You may also want to do this to the new imaged drive and then do a sfc /scannow once it has booted.
Obviously clonezilla is an option that should be known, you don't have to use the more complicated server edition for a single PC but it doesn't look as nice as say Acronis, which is essentially EaseUS todo backup.
Also don't ignore the idea that it's time for a fresh start, if the drive is detected in the BIOS but you need a new one just boot with both and copy the data you need while starting from fresh. It isn't such a bad thing with Windows.
As for Linux based system, Linux doesn't register itself and can write system files. This means you can essentially create a tar file of the entire system excluding mnts and write it back when needs be.
Or look into lathe, it allows you to set up your drive, install all applications and then boot into a temp file system preventing any changes. Obviously if the drive fails you need to image the drive back, but that's not a problem with the likes of Clonezilla.
Also you can use Gparted (or any live distro that includes gparted such as backtrack and I think blackbuntu). This will allow you to shrink the drive or at least remove the media partitions to mirror to a smaller drive.
Although this is another positive for smaller SSDs, much easier to mirror to an external USB drive, it might take slightly longer to image it back but it's worth it. Before you image the drive remove large files such as games and HD movies and the file isn't really too bad.
Cheers,