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Conference noted::ibmpc-95

Title:IBM PCs, clones, DOS, etc.
Notice:Intro in 1-11, Windows stuff in NOTED::MSWINDOWS please
Moderator:TARKIN::LINND
Created:Mon Jan 02 1995
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:3023
Total number of notes:28404

2966.0. "how to clone your W95 system disk" by LEEDS::JOHN (John H. Leeds Jr.) Thu Mar 27 1997 11:35

    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
2966.1LEEDS::JOHNJohn H. Leeds Jr.Thu Mar 27 1997 11:383
    for some reason my instructions were not included, oh well, again...
    
    
2966.2disk copy of system disk for w95LEEDS::JOHNJohn H. Leeds Jr.Thu Mar 27 1997 11:4626
    do the normal stuff, ie fdisk and format the target drive.
    
    boot the system disk to full windows
    open a MSDOS window
    xcopy32 c:*.* d:/h/e/c/f/r/k
    
    this will give you a clean copy of the drive with all hidden files,
    etc.
    
    If you try this by booting only to the command prompt, not all the
    switches are available for use.
    
    or another method,,
    
    boot system to windows
    open up control panel
    open up system properties
    open performance, and select virtual memory
    select let me specify my own virtual memory, and set to none.
    exit and save
    delete swap file, or just reboot
    then using explorer, drag and drop c to d.
    remove original c drive, and replace with new copy. make sure drive is
    set to proper device number.
    
    John Leeds
2966.3Check out GHOSTDECIDE::MOFFITTMon Mar 31 1997 11:5315
Or get a copy of GHOST (http://www.ghostsoft.com) and make your life easy ;^)

GHOST will allow you to put a raw disk in your system and copy your complete 
existing hard drive to your new disk including partitions. It'll FDISK and 
FORMAT on the fly and allows you to expand or shrink FAT partitions on the 
target drive before you start your transfer. Drives of different sizes are 
supported (as long as the target's big enough to hold the information from the
source). GHOST also supports Win NT and OS/2 copies.

The downloadable version is good for a month. The full version costs approx 
$250 - pretty steep for a one time transfer but trivial if you've got to build
systems on a regular basis.

enjoy,
tim m.
2966.4QUARK::LIONELFree advice is worth every centMon Mar 31 1997 12:594
PowerQuest, the Partition Magic folks, are starting a beta test of a product
to do disk cloning.  I expect it will be a lot cheaper than $250.

				Steve
2966.5BULEAN::BANKSSaturn SapWed Apr 02 1997 09:541
Their web page is advertising that product for (I believe) $29.
2966.6I'd like just one more featureDECIDE::MOFFITTWed Apr 02 1997 13:4310
I spent some time reading the information on Powerquests Drivecopy and the one 
feature it appears to be lacking is the ability to resize partitions as you
copy your old drive to your new one. It looks like you can use PartitionMagic
to resize the partitions on your new drive once it's built but that means 
buying two utilities for around $100 rather than just the $30 Drivecopy.

Hopefully Ghostsoft will feel a bit of pressure to drop the price of Ghost
(which does allow on-the-fly partition resizing at copy time). 

tim m.