Discussion Forums > Technology
need to back up a hd
kitamesume:
XD thats why you outa do monthly checkups on your laptops, specially the intake/exhausts, if those get clogged with dust be ready for tons of crashes and eventually some fried parts.
for backup utilities just hit the manufacturer's site, obviously your HDD's brand, and they'll provide the rest, usually for free and should work.
PS: is ["right-click + select everything" -> "copy" -> "paste"] really that hard?
Freedom Kira:
Don't worry about imaging, then. If you do want to copy the entire drive, you will have to overwrite some critical Windows installation files when you copy back. It's no big deal if you have Windows already installed on the hard drive when you get it back, but to be safe it might be better to do the copy back when running Linux off a Live CD, because of the "overwriting Windows installation files" part.
If you copy the drive, though (and yes, it is basically open C: -> CTRL + A -> CTRL + C -> go to other drive, hope it's blank -> CTRL + V), you will copy all your installed programs along with your files. I'm not certain if it copies the registry too, but my guess is that it does. It will not copy the MBR and such, which is critical for making Windows boot and for the partitions to be defined properly. A disk image will copy the entire disk into a file, from beginning to end, including the MBR (but not necessarily your partition info). That is the main difference between a straight copy and an image. When you copy the image back on to a hard drive, it will also copy the MBR, meaning it will boot properly as well. But, like I said, if you have Windows already installed when you get the laptop back, you don't have to worry about this.
Anyway, AFAIK, removing the drive should not void the warranty. Out of all the laptops I've done that with, there is absolutely no way to tell when the drive has been removed. Just call in and ask if you can do that, because it'll save you a lot of time (usually just takes a couple of screws, piece of cake). If you can't do that, the next best thing to do is to copy only your files, because face it, it will probably take you about as long to filter out what to copy and what not to copy as it would be to just copy the entire disk, and it's a lot less risky and takes up less space in the end. Your main concern with files would be the whole Users folder in Windows 7, or the whole Documents and Settings folder in XP. If you have any other folders you commonly save stuff in, copy those too.
If you're absolutely insistent on not doing that, maybe try a backup program? I have personally never used one before though.
kenshin-dono:
thnx guys. I think i'll just try drag and dropping the c drive over to the HD and hope it works. Most of you suggest ctrl C + ctrl V, but im assuming good old drag and drop would work the same right? I was just gonna grab the C: drive and drag it over. Or i guess i could ctrl c and paste it. I dont think i need to do an image or bother installing and running a backup program
Im curious what my sister had done to hers. Was that an image program? It just had the entire C: file structure on an external HD. Im thinking i would probably get the same thing if i just copied the whole thing over
@freedom kira. Its a dell XPS.. 1730 i think? I saw the guy dissemble it when they replaced a fan a while back. Its a crapy design where you have to remove the keyboard and junk to get to anything. Huge hassle to actually remove the HD, so i dont think i'll bother with that. THanks for the suggestion though
--- Quote from: kitamesume on January 11, 2012, 07:27:39 AM ---XD thats why you outa do monthly checkups on your laptops, specially the intake/exhausts, if those get clogged with dust be ready for tons of crashes and eventually some fried parts.
for backup utilities just hit the manufacturer's site, obviously your HDD's brand, and they'll provide the rest, usually for free and should work.
PS: is ["right-click + select everything" -> "copy" -> "paste"] really that hard?
--- End quote ---
I actually did try to vacume the intake/exaust from time to time. The nvidia graphic card in this line was actually defective. There was a big lawsuit about it and they extended the warranty another year. THats why im getting a swap. Look up dell xps and nvidia graphics card lawsuit and you'll probably see tons of info on it.
My issue with just copying and pasting is that im worried that the screen will die partway through the transfer again, or it will crash.. what the hell do i do then? How would i know its done? I would lose the data that was being copied. Well wish me luck guess i'll go try it here in a few minutes
^_^x KD
Bob2004:
--- Quote from: kenshin-dono on January 11, 2012, 09:20:23 PM ---thnx guys. I think i'll just try drag and dropping the c drive over to the HD and hope it works. Most of you suggest ctrl C + ctrl V, but im assuming good old drag and drop would work the same right? I was just gonna grab the C: drive and drag it over. Or i guess i could ctrl c and paste it. I dont think i need to do an image or bother installing and running a backup program
Im curious what my sister had done to hers. Was that an image program? It just had the entire C: file structure on an external HD. Im thinking i would probably get the same thing if i just copied the whole thing over
@freedom kira. Its a dell XPS.. 1730 i think? I saw the guy dissemble it when they replaced a fan a while back. Its a crapy design where you have to remove the keyboard and junk to get to anything. Huge hassle to actually remove the HD, so i dont think i'll bother with that. THanks for the suggestion though
--- Quote from: kitamesume on January 11, 2012, 07:27:39 AM ---XD thats why you outa do monthly checkups on your laptops, specially the intake/exhausts, if those get clogged with dust be ready for tons of crashes and eventually some fried parts.
for backup utilities just hit the manufacturer's site, obviously your HDD's brand, and they'll provide the rest, usually for free and should work.
PS: is ["right-click + select everything" -> "copy" -> "paste"] really that hard?
--- End quote ---
I actually did try to vacume the intake/exaust from time to time. The nvidia graphic card in this line was actually defective. There was a big lawsuit about it and they extended the warranty another year. THats why im getting a swap. Look up dell xps and nvidia graphics card lawsuit and you'll probably see tons of info on it.
My issue with just copying and pasting is that im worried that the screen will die partway through the transfer again, or it will crash.. what the hell do i do then? How would i know its done? I would lose the data that was being copied. Well wish me luck guess i'll go try it here in a few minutes
^_^x KD
--- End quote ---
If it crashes while you're copying, then most likely you'll just end up with whatever files it had already copied being copied absolutely fine, whatever file it was in the middle of copying being partially copied, and the ones it hadn't got to yet simply not being copied; there won't be any real problems. To resume it, you could probably just restart the PC, copy/paste it all again, and tell it not to overwrite any existing files when it asks. If the screen dies, you should be able to tell when it's done by looking at hard drive activity - both drives should be active pretty constantly while copying, then both will die down to almost nothing when they're done.
Also, to save time, don't copy/paste everything on your C: drive. Pretty much just copying the Program Files folder and the Users folder (and any other folders you might have created yourself - I have a C:\Games folder, for example) will backup all your data. The Windows folder, for example, won't contain anything useful for you.
kenshin-dono:
Hmm thanks. I guess listening for the activity would work. I just hope it holds together loing enough to do this. But looks like i have a problem:
I copied the C drive and went to paste it and just a few moments in I got an error that a file was being used and couldn't be copied and the whole transfer shut down. I tried again and another file gave me the error and shut it down. I thought it was supposed to keep going and just skip that file when that happens?
Its looking like just copy and pasting isn't gonna work if i keep getting those error messages. Is there a way to skip them without it stoping the whole process? Well i would just copy the program and user folders but i had stuff scattered everywhere and dont want to miss anything. I dont have time to sort it all right now, and i want to be POSITIVE i dont miss anything, so i just wanted to copy the whole C drive. Its not looking like that will work though >_<
*EDIT*
Fuck.. well this isn't working. I keep getting a message that certain files cant be copied because theyre in use.. thats fine, but the problem is every time it happens it stops the copy process. Ive done it over like 5 times now and its just not happening. I guess im just screwed. Copying the whole C: drive does <b><u>NOT</b></u> seem to work. Unless anyone knows a way to skip those files or keep it going
shit not sure what to do now. I really didn't want to mess with the backup programs. Man i hate computers. Just tried backing it up manually folder by folder and when i do documents and settings i get a constant 'cant transfer NTUSER' message. So i cant back that important folder up. grrr
^_^x KD
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