[Ham-Computers] Imaging and archives 101

[WØQFC]

John:

I would suggest that he make a CD copy of what is on the backup partition.

That way, if something goes wrong he will be able to restore the machine to 
it's original condition.

Hard drive failures are a fact of life and unless you have the backup CD you 
are out of luck with regard to returning the machine to it's original 
condition with a new hard drive.

73

Gene, WØQFC
SPRING HILL, FLORIDA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jandlmiller at bellsouth.net>
To: <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 1:39 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Imaging and archives 101


Before Vista a friend bought a new Windows XP laptop.  I think it was Media 
Center, in between Home Edition and Professional but it doesn't make any 
difference for this discussion.  He was told it had a 100 GB hard drive. 
When he got home he found  that it did, in fact, have a 100 GB HD but only 
80 GB of which he could use as drive C:\.  The other 20 GB were reserved in 
Backup D:\ for, he was told by a factory technician, PC restore and Norton 
Ghost.  Rather than taking it back he kept it, thinking that 80 GB is plenty 
of space for his work.

As it happens, he is not a Norton person.  He is one who wishes that 
Symantec would stop using the Norton name, which he holds in some esteem 
from his early days in MS-DOS 5.  I have suggested he not stay aware nights 
waiting for this to happen.  Regardless, he removed Ghost from his Backup 
D:\.

Additionally, he had a bitter experience when a Seagate HD quit working a 
day or
two after the warranty expired.  As it happens, he is not a Seagate person
either.

He is wary of hard drive life cycle, and believes than planned obsolescence 
is
alive and well in that industry.  If he were to get a letter grade on his
preparation for doom day  it would be A-Plus.  His backup preparation is
excellent and includes off-premise planning that costs him nothing.  He uses
Eazy Backup 4 (ajsystems.com) to archive to other media.

He says he knows that the PC restore files in partition D:\ will do nothing 
more
than restore his laptop to exactly what it was on the day it was delivered, 
and
he would have to add all software and newer drivers he has added since 
delivery.

He says he knows that as long as the existing drive is functional PC restore
will do in 10 or 15 minutes what it would take an hour or more to do from 
the
Backup CD that accompanied his laptop, and then it will take other hours to 
add
all the other software and drivers.

He's preparing to zap D:\ and reformat to join the existing C:\  partition 
as his computer
warranty is about to expire.

He wonders whether he should zap the D:\ partition.

I'd like to know what you would suggest.

John W0IKT

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