How to Ghost (or Drive Image) with no floppy

how do you intend to ghost the drive onto 1.44mb floppies anyway.
If you want a drive-drive copy you can do it by a number of ways:
Take the HDD out place it in a 3.5 to 2.5 inch adapter and put it into a normal PC as a slave and image it inside there.
Use a CD writer and Ghost7 or 2000 to burn an image from within ghost.
Connect you laptop to a network, Cat5 etc and use mulicasting Ghost to send an image to a host machine.
Use a crossover parrallel cable (laplink) and use Ghost7's Direct connection method to transfer the image.

Gt back in touch if you need anymore help.

I intend to Ghost either directly to the CD writer or to the D: partition.

I purchased the adapter like you suggested and tried it on 3 different machines, it would not be recognized on any of the three - I spent hours trying this.

I have Ghost 2002 and the most current version of Drive Image (I purchased it without reading the fine print where it says it can image from within Windows but not the system partition)

I am considering a USB to USB connection but their speed is limited to 6mb min. I have over 2 gig and this translates to 6 - 8 hours. I have an NT domain network but the notebook has XP Home and the reason I want to ghost it is that I want to upgrade to XP Pro (but not until I Ghost it first)

I would Use the NTbackup program ( should be included with XP )to backup all of C: to D: as a single file, Then use Drive image to backup  the file to CD's, or the entire D: drive.

Make sure you include the system files.

ALso backup the repair directory and see if there is an ERD utility in nt backup

I hope this helps !

partition magic ( www.partitionmagic.com) create a second partition, ghost the image to there, and then burn the image to cd. then create the PM boot disks

What kind of USB-USB connection have you got that's limited to only 6Mb/min? Theoretical throughput of USB should be 12.5Mbps, which translates to around 75Mb/min--if you're getting less than a tenth of that then there's something seriously wrong somewhere!

Having XP Home shouldnt make a difference, Knock the machine down into PCDOS and multicast over the LAN with ghost to your server. The XP Home doesnt have to be part of the domain.
If all else fails just use either a USB to USB or Lpalink parrallel cable and leave the laptop on overnight!

Sysexpert- now that is the kind of creative solution I was looking for, I will try NTbackup, but will it backup up all system files even while in use?

stevenlewis - the drive is already partitioned, and I you can only ghost if you boot from floppy which my system does not have (it can only have an external USB floppy).

pjknibbs - the USB to USB cable specs I looked at had a misprint they said they were rated for 6MB per minute. I just looked at others and they say per second. It looks like that is a viable option.

DriveImage doesn't need to be run from a floppy

Stevenlewis

Good catch, that statement confuses many until they try it. It just means that DI will reboot into a DOS like session and then do the image.  I use it all the time for backup image of C over to D.

ITsy

According to Powerquest website you can image a drive from Windows except the system partition/drive.

when you go to use DI, if you are doing the windows (active partition) it will tell you it will restart in dos mode, and then do the image. I have done this a number of times, and never needed a floppy, it just reboots to dos, and runs DI

Awilson111,

>>>>image a drive from Windows except the system partition/drive

That is the confusing part - while IN Windows you cant image the system partition - and that is why it drops to the DOS environment.  People think it should do it all IN Windows but it can't.  And they PQ really messed up explaining it.

And the graphic interface is such that you almost dont realize your not in Windows.  I guess some think all DOS must be done with stick figures but it is still a nice straight forward gui.

ITsy

Whenever I tried to image the c: (system) partition it would want to restart but it required the boot floppy, which there is none as I don't have a floppy in the system.

I downloaded it so I didn't get a manual but all the instructions I have seen say that to image the system partititon you have to boot from a floppy.

I hae imaged my sys partition (XP) and also have done 9x boxes, and never needed a boot floppy
It may want youto create a boot floppy (for recovery) but you can skip that

Ok I just ran Drive Image 2002 on my notebook and tried to create an image of c onto D. It gave me an error saying that I must run Drive image from DOS or from the Rescue Diskettes.

It gives the same error wether I do it manually or use the wizard.

I just walked my Dad thru this, it must restart in dos (but does not need a floppy to do this) follow the wizard, and at the end it will say that it must reboot to dos to perform it, let it

That is what I did and then starts to prepare the system to reboot then I get the error mentioned above. When I click OK on the error it closes the program.

I just looked the error up and there is a process to clear out certain sectors of my hard disk. I am not sure I want to do this, I have ordered the USB to USB cable. Once I do an image or Ghost then perhaps I will try the procedure Powerquest suggests to fix this problem.

video's
http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id2887.cfm

You can run it from dos, boot to dos, and change to the directory where you have DI
and then type pqi.exe and hit enter

How do you boot XP to DOS

didn't realize you had xp
press f8 after post, and choose command prompt

I don't ahv XP, here, bu win2k has the repair console that might allow you to run your program if F8 does not work.
Otherwise, the NTBACKUP solution should work fine if you backup the system state also.
Again I would do the ERD creation, and backup the repair directory under winnt separately.

I hope this helps !

First laptop should be attached with other pc through lap link cable and transfer all the data on that pc.After copy ghost.exe file from that computer and make clone on the desired hard disk.Then remove that disk.Your clone is ready.I think this is a reliable and no time consuming method.

My intentions are to use a USB to USB File transfer cable to Ghost the notebook hard drive. But I am not sure just how this is done, surely the notebook will have to be up and running (with WinXP Home) but can Ghost ghost a running operating system, it doesn't sound like it could. Can anyone shed light on this.

awilson1111

You either need to reject ajmalkhansw answer to put this back in open discussion or accept the answer to close the question.

As it stands now it is locked and out of general discussion.

ITsheresomewhere

No Ghost can not, but it may work in Command prompt or repair mode.

Again, Using NTbackup may be a better solution as it is designed to work within windows.

Read the Help within NTbackup, and follow the wizard.
Include system state.

If you want the system files also backed up then create an ERD floppy and also copy the \winnt\repair directory or similar to your D: drive. the repair direcroy normally contains a backup of your system files after creating an ERD.

I hope this helps !

SysExpert - the whole problem is that there is no internal floppy drive, this is what is causing all the problems. Thanks anyway though.

I would like a small bit of clarification - on Drive Image - you said you downloaded it and encountered an error message.

Did you download the full paid for version?

If you did you have support from Powerquest and did you contact them for further assistance?

ITsy

Also one other thing

What media came with the notebook - a recovery cd - a full Windows CD  what do you have in case things fail?

ITsy

ERD floppy will create and update the repair directory, which is all that you really need. You do not need the ERD floppy, just the data on it. The repair directory is sufficient.

It may prompt you for a floppy, but it will be after it has updated the repair directory.

I hope this clears things up.

ITsheresomewhere  - yes it is the paid version of Drive Image, and I found out that the "virtual floppy" that Drive Image is created in a specific area of the hard drive and my hard drive has data on it so Drive Image will not boot from its "virtual floppy". There is a procedure to move the data but the recovery process if this casues the system to crash requires a boot floppy to restore the data back to its location.

The notebook came with a recovery disk, not a Windows disk.


 SysExpert - If the system crashes after I do an NTbackup of the disk, how would restore it from the NTbackup?

I have heard from Symantec that Ghost can't ghost a hard disk over a USB to USB file transfer cable, but that it might be possible to create a bootable CD from their boot floppy. I may try this.

What bios version is in the laptop?

I'm still getting my head around the fact that the pc will not boot from a floppy disk. As far as I'm aware the IBM Compatable PC platforms are all required to boot from a floppy if available. Exactly what type of laptop is it?

I've searched the web for USB boot devices, some say that you cannot boot a USB CDRom etc, however every one has said it only supports the floppy.

If you have a USB external floppy drive then the bios should support booting from it.

If it doesn't, then upgrade it, set the floppy to the first boot device and try again.

Failing all of this, if your laptop can connect to a network. Copy your data off the PC and reinstall the thing, then copy your data back on.

Hope this helps, Regards Chicko.

Regarding recovery.

on drive d: you should place the entire i386 directory for XP.
Or you can use the bootable recovery XP CD to reinstall.

Then you restore using NTbackup.

Your data should all be backed up on CD periodically, so that even if the drive totally crashes, you still have your important data.

I hope this helps !

I'm baffled about all the trouble and not certain that your load of DriveImage isn't a bad one! I've been using DI since version 2 and have always been able to create an image of my Windows partition (these days it's C: w/a dual boot to DOS 7 (aka Windows 98 sans the gui...also on C:)by pointing it at any other partition (or to a burner).
What version of DI are you using? At what point does it ask you for a floppy? What exactly are the messages you're getting--and when?
I'm intrigued!

awilson1111  06/29/2002 04:30PM PST  
"According to Powerquest website you can image a drive from Windows except the system partition/drive."
...
Couple of points here:
1) What PQ probably meant was that you can't a) Create an image while Windows is running...which is true; you'd run into problems backing up the protected files (like User.Dat) that Windows is in control of and won't "share" with others and/or b) You can't create the image of a drive to it's own partition--i.e.: a C: image stored on the C: drive...though you could create C: on D: and D: on E: or C:...well, you get the point! <grin>
2) I'm wondering now: 1) What version of DI you're running? and 2) Do you have another partiontion on your drive to save to?