Why didn't you restore from a Disk Image?

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Excellent analysis of the pros and cons, Leo. Personally, I take an image of just the OS and antivirus software installed and completely updated. I then take a second image once I install and update all of my applications. This takes up about 6 gigs and 15 gigs (on a detachable drive of course)respectively. I save all of my daily work to a detachable flash drive which I backup using the copy/paste method daily. This keeps my 3 systems in a nearly identical configuration. You are so right about the planning. I ended up with a 2 page document outlining all the steps to keep me organized and away from "playing" with the partially assembled computer ;)

So Ron, it would be safe to assume that I could image a freshly installed system before the drive is loaded with pictures, documents and programs, keep it on a safe media somewhere and then go to the partition that has my programs and image them also?

For instance, suppose my programs partition is compromised and I use my standby image of that partition and it seems to work well and suddenly I need to use my original OS image but they don't jive for some reason. Do you ever get into a problem with the applications and original image of the OS clashing?

I think the ideal situation would be what you're doing. Image the OS, then image the OS/applications, then daily update images of pics/music/documents.

Thanks.

Other reasons to restore from scratch:

Any yet undetected viruses, worms, torjans, registry errors, annomolies you've not been able to solve but have gotten used to, ... all will be reproduced from your latest reasons.

If before the crash, your operating system was an upgrade to a previous one, you can take this opportunity to restore with a fresh version without the old/version new/version adjudications you had before. Put another way...

when finished, your machine will look much fresher without leftover uninstall tails. Eg.: tight registry.

This restore opportunity becomes an excellent time to weed out programs you no longer use or have forgotten what they were full. My "start" menu is half the size it was before one of my computers crashed last month -- without any loss in what I've been doing over the past six months. For instance there's a 2004 mapping program I've been using less and less ... as a "collector" I couldn't drop it, but now, I'll not reinstall it., etc.

Last December I had three hard disk failures. I have since purchased another computer and reinstalled all of my software and three spare hard drives. I purchased Acronis and made three mirror images of the hard drive. I keep an additional copy of my files. I have swapped each of these hard drives from time to time and they switch out with no problem and the only time lost is the time it takes to remove and reinstall the hard drive and copy my current files over. simple and quick. thanks

I still use a Ghost 2003 boot disc to make images, then burn them to DVD for storage. I'm tempted to make images just after installing the OS, but then I realise the hours of work ahead installed apps, tweaks, etc. and decide to image after all that instead. I recently did this on a friend's notebook which didn't come with original OS or hardware media.

Good article.

Hi Linda...I actually don't have the applications on a separate partition. I simply have one image of just the OS and antivirus software for a situation in which I really need to go back to the beginning. Otherwise, I just use the second image (applications installed and updated) when I notice my laptop acting "different" (junk, virus...who knows). Since all of my daily files are saved elsewhere, I restore this second image every 6 months or so just for the heck of it. Best of luck!

Thanks Ron! I think I will go back to the old way I had before as far as OS and applications on the same partition. I landed up having some applications on the main partition and some apps on another partition. Don't ask why because I don't know, other than being leery of some of them not working correctly.

I WILL keep separate partitions for my videos, music and documents/pictures though.

I love Acronis.

Now....if we could only come up with a solution to be able to use an image of applications (and have it work correctly) when replacing a chip or mobo!

Thanks again!

Could anyone explain why my duplicate image I have made on an external drive of my C dive is much smaller than the C:/. It is actually 7GB smaller?

Good answer and clears up some questions I've had. Have lost two HD's recently but having a partial back-up of one, I've since become pretty anal about nightly backups of my three computers to their external HD's. I now better understand why the three choices need to be considered. Thanks!

Than you leo

I used Retrospect 7.5 Duplicate to WD 500 GB external hardrive. I copied C:/ to a patition using the duplicate function.

Kind regards

Ron Barker

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