(WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK)
If anyone's noticed on new machines with Vista, some of them don't use Ghost or similar based tools for image restores for the manufactures that use them, they instead use a new method that integrates to the Windows Recovery Environment. (I don't know for sure what all manufacturers do this, I know Dell does). They do this using a new disk imaging system that integrates with the WinPE called ImageX
ImageX has multiple benefits:
The tools for it are freely downloadable in the Windows Automated Installation Kit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
AFAIK, this isn't just limited to making Vista images, either, so you could backup XP images as well with this tool.
And finally, here's a useful guide on how to prepare the WinPE disc, how to apply network drivers to it, and how to backup and restore images over the network:
http://fatfitz.net/index_files/Page539.htm
It has much more function, too, as it is created for IT use for managing many multiple computers, but those aren't necessary for simply backing up an image of your drive.
My results:
I backed up my Vista on my 1530 so i could move the partition and dual-boot Linux. with fast compression enabled, the image size was 9.84 GB (pretty good since the used space on the disk is 24.5GB). it took 2 hours to back up over my network, and 45 minutes to reapply
Because I was also interested in preserving MediaDirect, the first time I did it, everything ended up completely broken after fussing with a few different things, because the partitions were all out of order and the MediaDirect partition had lost its special Dell designations. I ended up having to trash all the partitions, then using the MediaDirect disc to repartition it so everything was partitioned correctly. then I reapplied the image, booted to the Vista disc to fix the boot sector (because the image was backed up from a different partition is my guess), and then reinstall MediaDirect when i was back in Windows
So there you have it, a easy way of backing up your drive, using a completely free tool!
If anyone's noticed on new machines with Vista, some of them don't use Ghost or similar based tools for image restores for the manufactures that use them, they instead use a new method that integrates to the Windows Recovery Environment. (I don't know for sure what all manufacturers do this, I know Dell does). They do this using a new disk imaging system that integrates with the WinPE called ImageX
ImageX has multiple benefits:
- it is file based, not sector based, so it can easily be used on different sized hard drives
- since it is file-based, it is non-destructive on files not in the image, if you choose to apply the image as such
- it can be used remotely, over a network
- it can store several different images together in one collection
- has several layers of compression to save on size, and can be set to selectively not compress certain types of files that dont compress well
- it's free!
The tools for it are freely downloadable in the Windows Automated Installation Kit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
AFAIK, this isn't just limited to making Vista images, either, so you could backup XP images as well with this tool.
And finally, here's a useful guide on how to prepare the WinPE disc, how to apply network drivers to it, and how to backup and restore images over the network:
http://fatfitz.net/index_files/Page539.htm
It has much more function, too, as it is created for IT use for managing many multiple computers, but those aren't necessary for simply backing up an image of your drive.
My results:
I backed up my Vista on my 1530 so i could move the partition and dual-boot Linux. with fast compression enabled, the image size was 9.84 GB (pretty good since the used space on the disk is 24.5GB). it took 2 hours to back up over my network, and 45 minutes to reapply
Because I was also interested in preserving MediaDirect, the first time I did it, everything ended up completely broken after fussing with a few different things, because the partitions were all out of order and the MediaDirect partition had lost its special Dell designations. I ended up having to trash all the partitions, then using the MediaDirect disc to repartition it so everything was partitioned correctly. then I reapplied the image, booted to the Vista disc to fix the boot sector (because the image was backed up from a different partition is my guess), and then reinstall MediaDirect when i was back in Windows
So there you have it, a easy way of backing up your drive, using a completely free tool!
