- Creating A Recovery Partition -

[hiroki]

This has been driving me nuts but does anyone know how to create a recovery partition without having to use software such as Norton Ghost, Acronis etc.

OEM computers (HP, Dell, PC World etc) have theirs set up so if a virus corrupts the C: drive, and you need to format you can just hit the F10 key (or F11 etc.) in bios to access the recovery partition without using the Ghost disc.

Does anyone know how to make a recovery partition like that?

Thanks

- Lee

[Jimdefruit]

The biggest problem I have found is that when a hard drive gets corrupted, it is well and truly ******. I cant help with the recovery partition because even with the OEM systems, I have found they rarely work. They rely on a boot CD to find the backup data and in the end it is easier to install a fresh system and in any case your important data is lost.

I prefer having dual hard drives with a dual boot setup, each hard drive having its own boot sector. Important data files, I save to both systems.

I have tried raid and it let me down in a big way so I would not recommnd that.

[hiroki]

Currently I am using Acronis 11 and it's good and I backup to my external drive but I keep loosing track of the boot disc and it's becoming a pain which is why I want a self booting backup

[brian873]

I would not go down the 2nd route. I would explore creating a slipstreamed version of your OS it is a whole lot easier to maintain and update.

I would consider creating two partitons though. The first one for your OS and the second for your data. When you feel a clean install is needed pop in your automated installation disk and it will restore everything to how you want without the need to copy your data of and on.

Check out NLITE to do this

brian

[hiroki]

Is nlite safe to use??
I mean they dont modify the files in anyway do they??

[brian873]

I have been using it for around 4 years and never had a problem.

It does modify files as it slip streams your drivers and so on in to the install but I would not consider that a reason not to use it.

Try it out on a VM first and see if you like it

[hiroki]

What I plan on doing is using boot & nuke to lowlevel format my pc and then install xp and my drivers and then install nlite and then make a disc for my pc.

Ive looked into nlite it seems good, I just plan on doing a basic xpsp2 cd with my product key already entered on the cd...is that possible do you know?

Thanks for your help so far

[Cindy]

hiroki

If your system supports boot from Flash drive why don't you use that. You can leave a Flash drive in a tower system or you can now get Flash drive clips for Laptops "better then keep loosing your disks".

[Gav]

Originally Posted by hiroki

What I plan on doing is using boot & nuke to lowlevel format my pc and then install xp and my drivers and then install nlite and then make a disc for my pc.

Ive looked into nlite it seems good, I just plan on doing a basic xpsp2 cd with my product key already entered on the cd...is that possible do you know?

Thanks for your help so far

I think nLite can do that, nLite is fantastic, I always use it when I'm building computers en masse or for friends/family. It saves so much time, you can set it up to do a fully automated install, with all your drivers, all the most recent updates, with your settings however you want them, the XP 'branded' with your name as well as just speeding the system up by removing tonnes of crap.

[Shaddax]

Originally Posted by brian873

I would consider creating two partitons though. The first one for your OS and the second for your data. When you feel a clean install is needed pop in your automated installation disk and it will restore everything to how you want without the need to copy your data of and on.

brian

This is true, but of course any applications which were installed will need to be reinstalled if the primary partition has been formatted. This should be reasonably ok given that the application may well be on the data partition (or on dvd etc) but it is something of a chore to put it mildly.