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Number   :  7745
Date     :  2004-04-22
Author   :  Kan Yabumoto
Subject  :  Re: Help needed to clone hard disk
Size(KB) :  3



Jill wrote:
>This is a repost; I hope no one minds.
>I'm looking for a little guidance from the knowledgeable people in
>this group, please. I have a new WinXP (home)
>laptop that I want to backup by cloning the C: drive to an external,
>bootable drive, just as I have always done with my old Win98SE
>desktop and xxcopy. Could someone please tell me what the best
>solution is? I've been reading some of the messages on this forum
>about XXClone and how easy it is to use, but I don't have a floppy
>drive on this laptop (at least, not yet). Is that a real problem?
>What about xxcopy? Can it make a bootable clone of an XP system? I
>was under the impression that it couldn't, but I've been seeing a
>few people say they've been making their backups with it. Perhaps
>they aren't making bootable clones? Thanks in advance for your input.
>Jill



In the earlier versions of XXCLONE, we provided the
feature to add a few extra lines to the C:\BOOT.INI
file. But, we decided to drop this feature because
in some cases, the change in C:\BOOT.INI file may
make the original system from not booting at all.

So, to make it safer to everyone, we chose not to alter
any critical data structure (MBR, BootSector, and BOOT.INI)
in the source volume. Instead, the testing the
bootability of the cloned disk needs some other method.

Our preferred choice is to use the floppy disk which
any problem will be confined to the floppy disk and
we will not risk the bootability of the existing system.

I assume your laptop's BIOS has an option to boot from
the USB-connected device. If that's the case, you may
choose that option and let it boot from the target
volume directly by selecting the BIOS settings.
But, in such a case, you need to edit the BOOT.INI
file on the target volume which currently has only
one entry (to boot itself as Disk0 --- maybe, we
should have added another entry to boot from Disk1).
In your case, you need to manually edit to do so.

Here's how:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_masc.asp

This is a little messy because it requires a little
advanced knowledge in computers to handle the
BOOT.INI editing.

In my opinion, the floppy disk drive is still a useful
device whose convenience here and there deserves the
little extra price.

If your laptop has a USB-boot option and if you can
insert a boot diskette into the external USB-floppy
disk, then, you should be able to follow the
XXCLONE instruction using the floppy disk-based
boot control. Note: I have not done this. Our
laptop computer does not have USB-boot option and
we have not tested this. But, if everything works,
USB-floppy disk should handle the boot-control
function needed by XXCLONE (I wonder if someone
actually tested this...)

Then, worst comes worst, you may choose more
elaborate scheme of physically swapping the target
hard disk and the internal disk to do test the
self-bootability.

This may be a bit messy.

1. Get an external USB-interfaced hard disk (with the
same form-factor as the internal disk --- usually
2.5" disk)

2. Run the XXCLONE operation to the USB-harddisk.

3. Physically swap the disks between the internal
disk and the newly cloned disk.

This is a great inconvenience. But, it was your choice
to save pennies by not paying for a built-in floppy disk.

In my opinion, using XXCLONE on a daily basis without
ever testing the self-bootability is a big mistake.
You would find out the worst case scenario only when
your main disk is inoperable.

Kan Yabumoto



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