What Do I Need To Do This?

[AstroDav]

I posted this over on the "free drive imaging program" software page, but after reading a bit there, it seems that maybe I should have posted it here. So I'll just copy it over:

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I consider myself decently knowledgeable on matters concerning software & hardware....except coding beyond HTML, I know nothing about that. I build computers for donations to churches & under-privileged kids & have done that for about 10 years, for a total of about 40-50 of them. Because I don't want to be going back every couple months to work on these, they are loaded, tweaked, & ready when I start them up in the new home. So I have ALOT of experience at making computers work well.

But I'll never consider myself an expert, because there are a few certain parameters which continue to baffle me & most likely always will. The main one is backing up & making drive images. I just can NOT learn how to properly & easily do this, and I have really tried hard. Because of that, I'm asking for help here. Your suggestions (anyone) will go a LONG way towards deciding which method I put into place. And right now is the perfect time, since this computer is a "fresh" one, being loaded up only about 2 weeks ago.

What I want is a SIMPLE (remember, I'm dumb about this task) program to completely & identically copy this very system I'm on now, over to an identical hard drive. I bought twin 250Gig Seagates a year or so back, with the purpose to set up a RAID array to do this. Well, RAID sorta falls under the catagory of backing up, copying, making a image, etc., so that means I never could figure out how to do it right.

I wind up reformatting about every 6 months. Right before this, there's usually a couple of LONG nights spent copying over the data I can't bear to lose over to the second Seagate, then moving it back to the first after it's reformatted....but I KNOW there's an easier & better way. But I don't know how.

Which program will do the best job for me? I want it to preferably be able to automatically copy over "Disk 1" to "Disk 2" about every week or so. Then when I screw Disk 1 up, I can just switch over to Disk 2 (probably from within BIOS), start it up, & keep computing....just as if I were still over on Disk 1. All I would be missing is whatever I had changed since the last time it copied over.

So....any recommendations? Remember...SIMPLE (I can't learn how to do this very well). Ideally, there should be no boot-disc or anything like that involved, just a 250Gig HD which is an exact mirror of the 250Gig HD which I'm currently using....tell it to boot from that other disk & then I've got a fully functional computer again.

That's when I would reformat Disk 1, start using IT as the back-up, & continue the process from step 1. Thanks.

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So, in a nutshell, I'm looking for the SIMPLEST program, although still RELIABLE, which will make an EXACT image of the drive which I'm currently using, over on an identical hard disk. There should be NO BOOT DISK involved....just switch over to the back-up disk, either by BIOS or simply changing the cable over. And then I can start right up with a computer which is identical to what I had a week or so back, whenever the last image was made.

Thanks.

[chris.p]

Well, here are a couple of procedures you could run.

If you regularly load a clean new hard drive into machines, with a basic OS install, or OS plus working software, then what you could do to make your life easier is have a standard disk build that you have on the shelf, and just slot it into the next machine as needed.

A basic OS will image in 10 - 15 minutes, and rebuild to a new disk in 15 - 20 minutes or less.

If you are using Seagate disks you have about the best hard disks and one of the best imaging systems right there. Go online to Seagate and download the Seagate disk tools, aka Seagate Disk Wizard. This is a rebadged version of Acronis disk image.

Get a 500GB USB external disk. Make sure to get one with a fan, or build your own, otherwise the disk and data is disposable as the disk temperature goes up to 70 celsius plus. Install Seagate disk tools on your PC with the disk you want to create an image of - an image is a mirror image or clone or ghost - an exact copy that can be reused.

Creat an image and have it stored on your USB disk. Make a folder called /disk.images/ for them. In that, have a folder /basic.OS/, and another, /working.image/. Put a basic OS (a new Windows installs) in the basic folder, then copy the image over to the working folder. Install your working apps, then run an incremental image to the working image folder. So you have a simple, basic OS in one folder, and an expanded one with some apps on it, in the other folder. Then you have a choice which to restore.

Split the image created files to 700MB, don't use compression, don't exclude any files or folders.

As you most likely have a few machines kicking around it's easy for you to test the resulting images: create the Acronis boot disc (a CD), load it to the bare drive to be restored, run it, point the loader to the image file n the USB disk, and 15 minutes later you have a fully-built new drive. A skinny OS restores in 8 minutes if everything is OK.

Sorry but you need a boot disc. There's nothing to do though, this system uses all-GUI working, there is no DOS or command line stuff. All mouse and cursor, couldn't be simpler. As I say it's 8 minutes from bare metal to working drive, for a super-skinny image.

So that's the basic procedure: create a nice, clean, new Windows install. Clean it up, ie defrag and fix the registry as a new Windows install is a toilet. Image it. Copy that image to another folder on the USB disk. Add to it with an incremental image or two, after adding some apps and data.

1. Use either of those two images on your rebuilt machines.
2. Do that n number of times, removing the disks from the PC and storing them - then you have some fully-built disks on the shelf. However there can be issues with slotting built disks into another machine, depending on various factors. Try it and see.

None of this is in any way difficult as it's all GUI-controlled (mouse and windows) - no command line. Just minutes from bare drive to full build. However if you try and image old installs, and reinstall them to another machine, then you could be in for 2 hours each way. I just use clean new builds because of this. Then add in your working data from backup files like Titan or Freefilesync.

Nobody who knows about images ever builds a Windows machine from scratch now, except for odd reasons like getting a new OS version or something.

[Sope]

Hope you don't mind me butting in on this, but could you clarify this bit please?

Originally Posted by chris.p

Clean it up, ie defrag and fix the registry as a new Windows install is a toilet.

Specifically, how do you go about fixing the registry? If you use an automatic registry cleaner, which one do you find safest for this purpose?

Also, if you create a basic standard OS image on hard drives in advance, ready for use in various different machines, how do you fare regarding drivers? Is it the case that Windows will just reconfigure itself accordingly when booted up for the first time?

Cheers.

[chris.p]

OK. For registry cleaners you could try our Best Free Registry Cleaner page. I use Eusing on new installs like this, as it can't create too many problems by being too aggressive (which all these reg cleaners are to a certain extent). I don't use this on a mature install, I use an old one that is slow, steady, and never makes mistakes - because it asks you about each entry and tells you exactly what file or setting it controls. For example a very large number of dead keys are to font files no longer in place, which I never worked out why... Also temp files and other junk.

But if I have someone's system with 2,000 faulty registry keys in it, as an old install that is well-used will have, then it will definitely make it run faster - no question about that (although it doesn't need that again for a long, long time). So I sit them down with it and tell them how to use it, and it takes them an hour [jeez I don't have time for that ]. But there are no mistakes. I've found that ordinary reg cleaners can go a little too far sometimes, and you get odd little glitches after that. Just annoying little things missing and so on.

As far as drivers go, you have to reinstall them or update them. Windows from XP onward is amazing with drivers, it's definitely one of the main reasons it's such a good OS, you can plug stuff in and it just works. But this won't apply to chipset drivers or whatever, you'll have to change them. I never found a PC that wouldn't work with the wrong chipset drivers and stuff, but they will go better with the right ones. Plus you've got LAN, Wifi, sound, gfx, etc that may or may not work. Just update them (ie change them from the ones on the image file). I get all my drivers from the manufacturer's websites, in the download section, they are all pretty good there now. In 2002 it was diabolical but now you can get all that stuff easily.

Never buy a weird brand of anything though, you can't always get the drivers. Stick with Tosh and Radeon etc then it's 5 minutes to get any driver.

I'm not a hardware guy though, just an average user. Other people here know much more about this stuff. I just know web technology now, got lost around 2006 as far as hardware is concerned, don't have the time. No idea which end of a SATA disk you put the coal in That's why I like simple, fast solutions.