JohnthePilot

Hi Joe,
This is what I see when I select destination.



Regards,
John.

linderman

John:


yeah; you are going to have major problems backing up that big boot drive to that small 15 gig

an image is approximately one half the size of the copied one


example = if your C drive is a 40 gig partition then you will need a 20 gig space +or- to hold the image

thats another reason why your C drive should be kept to around 30 to 40 gigs

so a 250 gig drive could hold multiple images

in your situtation I would use the free program and buy another 250 gig drive to save to

I dont know about you, but my time is worth a hellva lot more than $50.00 for 3 or 4 hours of frustration while you reload an OS / updates / all programs / data / then tweak all your programs to run they way you like

thats pure for me

linderman

I think the program knows not to even bother trying to store to a 15 gig drive



check newegg.com for drives also ebay

JohnthePilot

I think you're right. 14 GB was fine for the important files that I couldn't replace. I got the large drive cos I've started downloading videos etc, and have (or had) loads of programs installed. Facing the hassle of reinstalling them all, copying the whole system is the only way to go, so I think it's going to have to be a new drive. I'll leave trying these progs until I've got it.
Regards,
John.

linderman

dont hesitate to give us a holler if you get more questions.

JohnthePilot

Hi Joe,
Couldn't resist trying out Drive Image and created an image on my main drive. It worked fine. I think I'll spend my money on a new hard drive and use Drive Image. I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
John.

linderman

Hello John:


yeah, I use both programs alternately I cant say one is better than the other!


in your shoes I agree with you, use the free prog and buy another drive

JohnthePilot

Hi Joe,
Let me bring you up-to-date. I wasn't sure what size HD to go for (money not being exactly plentiful ) so I had a look on PC World's Website. They are offering the 250 GB disc (same as my main one) for £84; only £10 more than the 160 GB disc, so I bit the bullet and decided to go for that. When I got to my local PC World store, they had sold out of the ATA and only had the SATA, which I can't use. On my way out I spotted a display stand with special offers and they are doing the Seagate 320 GB external drive for £79 so I got one of those. It's amazing. Simply plug it into a USB port and away you go. No messing about with jumpers, no struggling to physically install in the machine, and no formatting necessary. Plus it has the advantage that I can simply plug it into another machine if I want. All I've got to do is remember to back up regularly Drive Image here I come.
Regards,
John.

linderman

now youre cookin


with that huge drive you could make images every couple of weeks then delete the oldes ones in batches of four

first image

two week image

four week image

six week image

eight week image >>>> then delete week one >>>>> repeat steps

JohnthePilot

That sounds sensible. I'm still going to keep my documents backed up to my old second drive and to a DVD-RW as well. It may seem like paranoia, but once in the distance past having lost all my data I don't take any chances. It saved my bacon after my last crash as I only lost a day's work.
Regards,
Pilot.

linderman

Hello John:


as you have discovered (the hardway; we all seem to learn that way!) there is no redunancy that is overboard. The level of back-up you choose is a direct reflection to the value of your time and data to YOU


I have images on multiple drives, dvd images, server backed up images, USB portables have my images LOL

I hate having to install an OS, programs, updates if there is a way to avoid it!

JohnthePilot

Hi Joe,

I thought I'd bring you up-to-date on my experiences. I've been playing around with DriveImage and I'm really impressed with what it can do. Even more so cos it's free. I followed their advice and created a startup CD using BARTPE. This is available from www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/. It boots into a Windows environment and by incorporating driveimage_xml.cab as a plugin DriveImage can be started from the Start Menu. As I'd got all my data backed up I thought I'd give it a go and reformatted my main drive. The restore went perfectly and everything is now back to normal. Thnks again for your help and advice.
Regards,
John.

linderman

happy you enjoyed it John


and thanks for sharing your experience sure feels nice to have a sense of protection huh ?