HELP NEEDED in backing-up an entire OS in HD

Hiya, folks

I am running Win7 in an IDE HD DDR333. I want to back it up in another external IDE enclosure so I can use it when my installed HD crashes or breaks for some unexpected reason. I tried running puppy linux and copied everything from my existing HD to the external HD. When I detached my notebook's HD and replaced it with the external HD, I boot up my notebook and saw in BSOD "bootmgr is missing. Please restart". I thought after copying everything from my previously installed HD to my external HD and attaching would have no difference running my notebook. Is that possible? Or I lacked some necessary procedures to fully create a back-up HD? Hope you can help me on this concern.

Thanks in advance (^^,)

 

What you have just done will not work. To make a proper image of the drive, you will need to use imaging software. Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost (2003 or earlier) gets my recommendation.

 

Clone the disk. The easiest tool I have experience with is Acronis True Image. Select the option to "clone" the entire hard drive.

I don't recall if the free trial has clone functionality, but it's worth checking:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Alternatively you can get it (slightly limited) for free if either of the drives involved is Maxtor, Seagate or Western Digital:

Seagate

Western Digital

Maxtor

Additionally, I suggest creating images rather than a cloned backup. It will conserve hard drive space and not prevent you from using the second drive when the backup is unneeded.

 

Yeah, what you're doing won't work. Try out Norton Ghost. I used it once, and it did what I wanted.

 

Thanks a lot

WHat's the difference between the free one and the paid?

Is there a free back-up software that has all the features I need for a complete back-up? The Acronis trial version, apparently, does not support other necessary features

 

Not to my knowledge. Though you can try EASEUS Disk Copy, I'm not sure about the features though.


Oh, BTW, I think it's best you use the EDIT function, instead of what you are doing

 

what do you mean edit function? Which would you prefer more, Norton Ghost or Acronis? What I only need, btw, is just the make a complete back-up of my currently installed HD including its OS to an external HD; that, there will be no problem afterwards even I replace my currently installed HD and attach the back-up one. Just like nothing happened at all. Which free trial version could do that? Acronis or NGhost? Thanks

 

On your post, down the bottom, you will see the EDIT button. That's easier then making a new post. -Maybe not for you, but for us. Yes.

Norton Ghost all the way. My school uses it all the time to make backups of the HDDs.

 

I'm a big fan of CopyWipe: http://www.freewarefiles.com/CopyWipe-For-Windows_program_20762.html

Haven't tried to backup to a external enclosure, but it supports it.

 

Try Clonezilla or PING, both freeware and very reliable, more than ghost or acronis IMO.

 

Windows 7 backup and restore works great, you already have it, no need for other software to create an image.

Start>All Programs>Maintenance>Backup and Restore

In the left panel select "Create a system Image", it will ask where, you select your external HD.

If you really must Clone your original HD, I second Acronis True Image 2009, I just used it again last night to install a new Hitachi 500GB 7200 drive in my laptop to experiment with. Doesn't get much easier.

 

I purchased Acronis and did a clone disk. It was successful! I was able to clone my old HD to my new HD and didn't miss a single file or programme! Thanks for the help guys

 

before you go any further, research 'bootable media'

I think you're lacking some basic knowledge on how things work

 

Hehe, same here. Although my school recently switched to a tool developed by our Education Department. Apparently Ghost wasn't working all that well.

Also, where did you get that Veriton 3600G?