[ernliz]

Sorry in advance, but this was a very poorly written article! I have a situation where I need a boot CD for my XP Pro system in case of hard drive failure. Spector's comments suppose that the original C: drive is still intact. Also, XP Pro doesn't have the winnt32.exe file, and some other issues. The article was enough to generate interest, but failed later in specific content. I hope he tries again, this time with better detailed info.

[rgreen4]

Even with an install CD for XP and Win2000 Pro, all you get is the original version of the OS that is on the CD. For example, I have a 5 year HP/Compaq D530 desktop. This is a business class machine, it came with XP Pro (SP1) and I later installed SP2 from the MS CD I ordered through PC World. So, if I were to reinstall the OS, it would take me about 45-60 to reinstall XP Pro (SP1), then about 30 minutes to update from the SP2 CD, and then Almighty only knows how long to install all the updates and patches since then.
A root canal is less of a hassle. Instead, many years ago I found a way to recover in about 5-15 minutes and everything is just like it was at some previous point. I am not talking about restore or recovery, but cloning. When Windows 3.1 was the latest and greatest, if you upgraded to a new HD, it was a hassle unless you had a program that Norton's had called Ghost. Most computer stores had an in-house copy and if you bought a HD from them, they would charge a reasonable fee to install the larger HD in your computer. They just connected both HD, used Ghost to clone the old HD onto the new one, and then removed or reformatted the old one. I thought that was a waste, so I would keep the old one as a backup.

As windows got more complex and I went from 3.1 to 98 to 2000 Pro to XP, I had to keep upgrading, but my last XP machine with Media Center Edition didn't like Ghost2003, nor did it like the newer Ghost10. Then I found Acronis True Image 10, which worked with all versions of XP and "sort of" worked with Vista. They have now upgraded it to Version 11 and it works fully with Vista. It even works with external drives, in that you can clone to a HD connected to a laptop via USB (something Ghost never did well).

I will not go into the technique here, as after much encouragement, I created a document in Other Software and Services titled [Cloning A Hard Drive|d-1276] which goes through the process. While you can use the software (which runs about $36 with free shipping) either after installing on the HD, or from the recovery disc. If you order directly from Acronis via download, don't order the backup CD unless you feel you really need one. I strongly recommend ordering the retail package and then you have the original CD and can install it to the HD,

Operating it from the CD will bypass many of the problems some report. One of the reviewers on the Newegg site complained about it not working on ICH9R chipsets on an ASUS MB, but it works fine on my ICH9R chipset on a Gigabyte P35-DS3P MB. I even cloned a Ubuntu 7.10 drive when running from the CD. I couldn't install it, but I think you can clone anything when running from the CD. BTW - I actually reboots the machine into Linux from the software when running from the HD. Linux heads can run it from the CD and clone all their drives.

I keep a cloned system drive for each of my machines, and update them every 3 months. When I install a piece of software that causes trouble, I just reclone the original back onto the current drive, and then update again. In an emergency, I just install the cloned drive and reboot. This does require you to store your data on a separate drive, or backup the data only on a regular basis (good idea anyway).

[ernliz]

Thanks rgreen4 for your comments about cloning a hard drive. This is obviously the best solution; however, in my case, it would cause a problem. And that's why I'd like to create a bootable CD. In fact, I have an image (Powerquest Drive Image) of my XP Pro C: drive on another partition of my one drive, but if the drive ever goes bad, I don't have a second hard drive to play with. Yes, I could buy another hard drive, or an external, just to have an image on, but this old computer is just not worth it. With a bootable CD of my bare-bones XP-Pro installation, I wouldn't mind the drudgery of installing the whole OS.

In any case, thanks for the good info. Lots of great reading!

EW