Discussion Forums > Technology

need to back up a hd

<< < (2/4) > >>

fohfoh:
Actually, I've taken an install from one laptop and used it on another laptop successfully without modification. You just get weird errors and fuckups with drivers which IIRC after an update, is resolved. However, I don't think you are able to validate the HDD (Not that I even bothered to see if it was possible though)

Put an SSD from one laptop into another, with similar specs... yes... but still.

Win 7 OS PRO though. Don't know if it's an important point to mention.

Freedom Kira:
There isn't really a point in imaging your drive for this. It sounds like you only really want to save all your files, rather than the entire drive. Programs can be reinstalled, after all.

As for moving drives around, it does work with XP the way fohfoh described; I've tried it myself. The hardware does have to be reasonably similar, though. In Windows 7 Pro, though, I tried to image a RAID 0 array of SSDs into one SSD, and it just plain refuses to boot properly, no matter what I did, including BIOS settings, Intel RST settings, and such. So there does seem to be some extra issues with Win7 that may screw you over. I don't see why a direct image from one hard drive to an identical hard drive would cause issues though, as long as it's put into the same machine.

Anyway, what I would do is take out the hard drive before sending it in, if the repairs you need don't involve the hard drive at all. Be sure to check with them to see if this is okay before you do so, of course.

Bob2004:

--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on January 10, 2012, 10:21:20 AM ---There isn't really a point in imaging your drive for this. It sounds like you only really want to save all your files, rather than the entire drive. Programs can be reinstalled, after all.

As for moving drives around, it does work with XP the way fohfoh described; I've tried it myself. The hardware does have to be reasonably similar, though. In Windows 7 Pro, though, I tried to image a RAID 0 array of SSDs into one SSD, and it just plain refuses to boot properly, no matter what I did, including BIOS settings, Intel RST settings, and such. So there does seem to be some extra issues with Win7 that may screw you over. I don't see why a direct image from one hard drive to an identical hard drive would cause issues though, as long as it's put into the same machine.

Anyway, what I would do is take out the hard drive before sending it in, if the repairs you need don't involve the hard drive at all. Be sure to check with them to see if this is okay before you do so, of course.

--- End quote ---

In theory, it should work even better in Windows 7 than in Windows XP, because it uses a new driver model which makes it completely hardware-independent. With XP, you have to completely reinstall the OS if you replace the motherboard or cpu, but with Windows 7 you don't have to. Obviously this is all in theory; in practice there are so many things that can go wrong, that you can never tell whether it'll work or not until you try.

My advice is still to make an image of the drive and give it a go, because if it doesn't work, you can just mount the image and recover your files from there easily anyway, and you haven't lost anything. If you try and just back up the files you want by themselves, you're guaranteed to forget something until after you've wiped the old drive and it's too late to get it back; with a disk image, you know that everything is safe and sound.

kenshin-dono:
Ok, people started talking about imaging a drive but not really clarifying what that means o_O Im not really clear on what it is. It sounds like it basically copies everything over and lets you restore it like nothing changed, and still use the programs, ect. If thats the way to go id need a good program to do it with. Acronis sounds decent but i was looking for something free and easy to use that i dont have to hunt a pirated version for

WHen my sister spilled crap all over her laptop and sent it out it got backed up to an external. On that it basically had a folder that had all the file structures that were on the hard-drive but in a folder form. I.e. It had C: then everything in there, everything on desktop, my documents, ect. Thats what i want to do. My files are all mixed up everywhere, just drag and dropping will take forever, and i think just dragging the C: drive over would cause problems and take a long time wouldn't it?

WHats the best way to get it like my sisters drive was? Was that a HD image?


--- Quote from: datora on January 09, 2012, 10:26:53 PM ---.
If you just want to back up data & don't care about the OS or installed programs, I have mine organized into directories and just copy the directories.  Pre-Win7, it used to be easy to copy your user profile &/or My Documents folder.  Win7 has made that a royal pain in the ass now, changing the structure of that and hiding it behind it's "libraries" concept.

If your data isn't well-organized, a drive image might be your best option.  The image you make can still be read as a remote storage device and you can slowly crawl through the drive and copy everything back that's important once you get your laptop back.  Last year I had three drives fail as boot drives, but slapped each one into an external case and have been able to check & copy directory by directory to recover all the important data, even though all my installed software was lost.

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on January 10, 2012, 10:21:20 AM ---There isn't really a point in imaging your drive for this. It sounds like you only really want to save all your files, rather than the entire drive. Programs can be reinstalled, after all.

--- End quote ---

This. The bold parts are what im kinda shooting for. I really just want all the files on the HD. I should also clarify this was a windows XP system (i skipped vista cuz it was shit)

So whats the best way for me to just get to all the files? Imaging? Drag and drop? Some backup program? I have a ton of text files with info, images, and anime spread everywhere. As well as tons of bookmarks and other things i want to recover.  There were some programs i like but i think i also have the install programs scattered about. Luckily i quit warcraft a while back so i dont need to save that =P


--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on January 10, 2012, 10:21:20 AM ---
Anyway, what I would do is take out the hard drive before sending it in, if the repairs you need don't involve the hard drive at all. Be sure to check with them to see if this is okay before you do so, of course.

--- End quote ---

the graphic card is pretty much fried. It kinda works sometims but usually not. I would love to just take the HD out, but i didn't request to do so at the time, plus, honestly im not comfortable taking a laptop apart like that. It will probably void my warranty anyway. A destop is fine, but laptops are a pain. Especially dells.

I was thinking of trying to do this today since i need to send it out really soon. Hopefully i get some replies by this afternoon. I would just drag the entire C drive over but im worried if something stalls partway or theres an problem that will screw it up. Im also not sure if that will get the destop and other stuff. Hell maybe the hitatchi backup program would work

^_^x KD

Bob2004:
If you just want to backup your files, then yeah, just copy/paste the contents of drive C: onto your backup drive. Then you can just copy paste whatever you need back onto the new laptop. Just remember, you won't be able to restore Windows from it, at all, since there's a lot of stuff Windows needs which can't be accessed, or which can't be moved while the OS is running (as well as the FAT, boot loader, system partition, etc), and these won't get copied - this includes all your settings. It also means there'll be a lot of wasted space on the backup drive (since you won't be wanting most of the Windows files etc if you can't use them), but it is the best way to ensure you backup absolutely everything you might want.

A disk image is, quite simply, a file, which contains the entire contents of your hard disk. The program you use to create it will basically make a perfect copy of your hard disk, contained inside this file. You can then use a program to restore the contents of this file back onto your hard disk, restoring it to the exact state it was in at the time you made the image, right down to the last bit.

Because these images are perfect copies, they contain everything needed to make Windows bootable, so if you want to restore your laptop to the exact state it's in now (Windows and all), then you'll want to use a disk image. Looking around, it seems like the best program for doing so would just be the free trial ofAcronis True Image - there shouldn't be any need to pay or pirate it, and it should be pretty easy to use.

So, basically: if you just want to backup your documents, pictures, and other files, without caring about Windows or your applications, then yeah - just copy/paste everything, and don't worry about using any special software. If you want to restore your entire hard disk back to the exact state it was in before you sent the laptop off for repair, then use Acronis to create an image of your drive, and then use that to recover everything once you get the laptop back. Either way works fine; it's up to you.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page