Cloning the Dell Hard Drive Image

So I want to make a backup of the hard drive as it was delivered by Dell, with the hidden partitions, etc before I install Linux.

How can I do this?

 

Get Acronis Disk Image Trial version. It lasts 15 days but is free and you can make a complete disk backup. the backup as no time limitations.

 

acronis will screw up the MBR and MediaDirect partition won't work any more after the cloning.

 

I thought the 15 day trial of acronis didn't let you make bootable media? So how would you get an image without loggin into windows? Or am I missunderstanding the issue (sounds to me like someone wants an image of it before accepting the EULA).

 

Acronis works fine. You log into windows, install the trial, backup the system to disk and its done...

 

OIC I was thinking he wants to back up the drive before he gets windows loaded (ie the way it ships from dell... gotta accept EULA, do initial setup etc) the only way to do that is the bootable disc.

 

Care to elaborate? I've made a backup of the original Dell HDD image using acronis, then used the image to create a copy of the factory hdd, vista worked on the copy but MediaDirect didn't. Every time I try booting computer using mediadirect button it takes me to vista and launches media direct there instead of going to the mediadirect partition. THe original, of course, works just fine, but the copy is screwed up.

 

I dont really understand... if the original backup disk works fine then it performed correctly no?

Next, although I havent used Acronis in3-4 months, I recall it doing the exact backup you want. If you want a complete system backup, it will give you exactly that. When I tested it and then restored the Acronis System Image after its expiry date, it worked perfect (and this was with a MD3/Vista/XP boot setup.

You seem to be describing that you only backed up the OS or that you created a backup of the factory Image and then tried to back that up from disk once again?.

 

i backed up the whole thing. WHen I made a copy of the drive using the image or using the cloning, either way the MediaDirect partition got disabled. Acronis does not do it's job of copying the MBR properly or something, 'cause the MediaDirect partition hook up gets broken.

 

Interesting... I made a backup of one of my vostro drives specifically to get the working MD partition. Now it's a bit fuzzy exactly what steps I took (because I have done so many) but I am pretty sure the full HD Backup I did with Acronis restored a working MD partition.

In fact I used that exact feature to get MD working on my Vostro that, for whatever reason, would not install MD right using the MD restore CD by imaging the working drive, then putting that image on the drive of the one that didn't work.

 

humm... no !

When you take your computer out of the box, boot it with a Knoppix CD which has all the included tools for what you need, specifically qtparted and partimage

 

OP,

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/

It's 128kb..no install needed, back a backup once and you can restore at any time free. After 30 days you will need to buy it in order to continue making images. It makes a bit for bit company..

Recommended by Steve Gibson, the man who created Spinrite, and discovered spyware.. www.grc.com

Can be ran in windows and dos.

This will allow you to do exactly as you requested.

 

Acronis costs money. If you have Vista, it already comes with Complete PC Backup, which produces an image of every partition. It is misleading because it says it will back up c: and d:, but in fact it makes an image of the whole drive with all partitions. You can then restore it using the Vista DVD, onto any drive; you don't have to partition or format it. (This is basically what Dell System Restore does in Vista; it uses Vista's imagex.exe to restore the whole drive. Only difference is that it restores from a virgin image.)

There are other free drive imaging programs:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

Another possibility is to buy a new hard disk (cheap these days, although laptop HDs are more expensive than desktop HDs). That way the original HD can be put away as a backup. If you factor in the cost of effort and hassle, this could even be the cheapest solution. And this way you don't have to worry about whether the restored image will be the same as the original image.

PS I don't know Acronis, but the debate may have to do with whether the "image entire drive" or "image the OS partition" option was used. Acronis may have both capabilities.

 

Hi & thx for the tip
I'm afraid I have zero (etwa... Null) experience with Linux and would like to know if Knoppix supports USB and/or eSATA interfaces so that I can do a Disk Image directly to another HDD (of same or greater size). This will do away with using X-mal DVDs for the drive image, etc.

 

As Anzial says the Acronis TI screws up the MBR. I tried this a week back. I cloned my original 80GB HDD into a 320GB HDD and found that only the OS part is working and nothing else. The media-direct, the Dell Utility partition won't work. It's a full Drive Cloning that i did. May be it has got something to do with the difference in sizes of the source & destination HDDs. I am yet to experiment on that part.

I was going through some other threads on NBR and read in one of the threads that by booting with the Vista DVD and by choosing the repair Option, this problem will be solved. I can't confirm it as i am yet to try it.

 

Please dont revive old(in this case ancient) threads.

Thanks

-Kdawgca
NBR Mod