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Number   :  6774
Date     :  2004-01-07
Author   :  Kan Yabumoto
Subject  :  Re: Boot drive problem
Size(KB) :  3


DES wrote:

>As I understand it, when xxclone makes a bootable "copy" it only
>swaps the OS partition drive letters. (I had a brief discussion once
>about the concept of a "System Disk" (many partitions) and was blown
>off as this "being too complicated for the average user"?) Anyway,
>your F: becomes C: and you C: become F: (on the copy), but it's up
>to you to swap D: and G: via Disk Management. Or, yes you booted F:
>OK (as C:) but D: is still back on the original disk. Get it?
>
>You may see all this at HKLM\System\MountedDevices\, the DOSDevice
>values. Where in XP (NTFS period?) the drive letter assignments are
>coded to the physical drive. As an example, I currently have 3
>disks of 6 partitions each and manually make each bootable after an
>update via swapping drive letter groups here. It's a semi
>complicated scheme of one time Exporting this key and editing it
>(retaining only the DOSDevice values to make the each of the 3
>physical disks C: thru H: in my case). In RegEdit you may File\Load
>Hive into HKLM (X:\Windows\System32\config\System) of the non-
>running OS copy as a false key (I use "Loaded Dat", and this false
>key will simply be lost should the machine go down). Merge the
>edited .Reg file, then select false key and Unload Hive to put it
>back. Too complicated?

Are we arguing what's too complicated?

My answer is that the use of RegEdit is too complicated
for typical XXCLONE users that we have in mind.

Here's a hypothetical scenario how XXCLONE may be used.

A high school biology teacher sets up her own web page
for her class and her computer is running out of the
disk space. She visits CompUSA and buys a disk. This
is her first time to open the computer cover. She
manages to plug in the new IDE disk. Obviously, she
is not stupid and can follow instructions. Somehow,
the tool that comes with the hard disk (e.g., MAXBLAST)
does not work well when she tries to duplicate her
XP on the new disk. So, she goes to Google and finds
XXCLONE. Our web page has a few testimonials which all
say it's simple and she believes it and places an order.

We are aiming XXCLONE for a scenario like this.

We don't expect the user to know the following jargons:

MBR, Primary Partition, Active Partition,
boot sector, RegEdit, HKLM,
Batch file,
How to open the DOS Box.
How to create a batch file.

Once she gets her XP running on the new disk, the
XXCLONE's primary objective has been met. She may
learn to make XXCLONE to a little more for daily
backup. For this she may need some help and learn
some new trick from this discussion group. If she
feel it is beyond her head to learn the batch file
technique or XXCOPY, that's perfectly fine. But,
as long as her system is relatively simple, she
need not know MBR and partitions. And, that's her
advantage ---- for her, the computer is just an
office equipment and she has no ambition to learn
the MBR or RegEdit. I would certainly discourage
her to add 2nd partitions. She wants to spend her
time on HTML and web page generation.

We estimate there will be more people like this
biology teacher than people who feel at home with
RegEdit and swapping drive-letters. I don't think
we are underestimating the intelligence of anybody.

Kan Yabumoto



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