Testing an Image

My desktop has two HDDs, 'C' with the Operating System (XP pro SP3) on it, and the second HD partitioned into drive 'E' and 'F'.
I have, successfully I hope, created a full image of 'C' on to 'F' as an attempt to safeguard the O/S should drive 'C' completely crash.
I would now like to make sure that the created image is good and that it will successfully boot from the system from the drive 'F' but am a bit unsure how I can achieve this.
My thoughts are that I can go into BIOS set up and disable 'C' then, using the rescue disc (Macrium) that I created, try to boot up.
My question is, is that a way of doing it and, more importantly, IS IT SAFE.
Thanks for any moral support anyone can offer.

 

Hi Steve
I used Macrium Reflect.

 

Yes Pete, there is a facility to verify and I've just done that. It says that the verify was successful but that doesn't necessarily mean I can boot from that image, does it ???.

 

You won't easily be able to boot to that image. Even if your F: drive is on a Primary partition, it probably isn't set active. Not only that, you probably wouldn't want to since it will be an F: drive with a C: drive installation on it. All of the shortcuts and registry references will still be pointing to the C: drive so you won't really be able to test things on the F: drive properly.

There are ways to do what you want but you may not want to invest the time and effort required. If you do and you think you're up to it, ask and I'll guide you through it. I see you are a beginner/intermediate so don't be afraid to decline. I don't want to get you in over your head.

 

If I understand "Lydeard ", he would like to "Live Test" his image.
This can be done with Acronis True Image Home 2010.
Requires Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise.
You can only boot from the VHD file the same machine that was backed up.
This allows the following ....

Acronis True Image Home 2010: Booting from VHD File to Windows 7
Converting TIB to VHD Files Using Acronis True Image Home 2010

 

Thanks Dennis, you are quite right, I would like to 'live test' the image so that I know that it is in good working order should I have a disaster on my 'C' drive and lose the O/S on that. I imagined that if I imaged the O/S to my second HDD and 'C' crashed I would quite simply be able to throw it away and carry on using my PC using the existing 'F' drive with the imaged O/S on it. Seems as though it's not quite that easy.
Unfortunately I have Windows XP Pro (not Windows 7) so don't imagine I can try your suggestions but thanks anyway.

 

I'm not familiar with the program you used to create your image backup file. But with any version of Acronis image file created on you XP, you would "boot" your computer with Acronis rescue CD. You would then "RESTORE" the created image back on to "C Drive ". After successful completion, your "C Drive" would be identical to the point in time the image file was created and stored on your 2nd hard drive.

PS
I will be away from my computer for next 11 hours. Anyone is welcome to jump in.

 

Surferdude2,
Thanks for your offer to give me further assistance which I am tempted to accept and I understand what you say about the limitations of trying to run my PC from the image on 'F' drive.
Perhaps you could give me a rough outline of the steps we would have to go through in order to achieve what I am trying to do and then I can decide if I am likely to be up to it or if I'm likely to be wasting your time. I am keen to learn how to find my way around but the last thing I want to do is upset what has been a very good tempered PC.
Just to recap and to make sure there is no misunderstanding before we start: I was hoping to pretend that my 'C' drive had become unusable and prove that I would still be able continue using my computor from the image created in 'F' drive (I don't have the Windows Installation or Start Up discs or any other recourse to recovering the O/S).

Whatever, many thanks and regards.

 

OK Lydeard,

First off, not to worry about wasting my time. I'm here to help.

Although there are several ways to do what you are considering, allow me to suggest one that I use that serves me well.

I have cloned the contents of my system drive to a partition on one of my other physical drives. I stressed system drive because that term is used when referring to the drive that the BIOS sees as the active partition on the first physical hard drive.

Then I configured my boot.ini file so that it would allow me to select which drive and partition I wanted to boot. That's a typical dual-boot system but in this case, both systems are identical at the outset.

All of that is very easy to pull off since there is a free software that walks you through it very well. It's called XXclone. I have used it since it first came out and find it to be very reliable. The free personal use version is all that you will need for this job. There is a link to the on-line user manual there on the site page so take a look at it and see if you think it's something you might want to consider.

I find that having a dual-boot clone available for testing and other uses, such as allowing any children to learn computing on, is a very handy thing to have. If/when the clone gets out of shape, I simple re-clone it and start anew with a fresh copy of my system drive.

I'm not suggesting this is the ultimate way to backup your system since I also use full system drive imaging to another media for that but let's stick with this XXclone concept for the moment.

If you decide to go for it, post back any questions you have before making your move and I'll try to answer them.

 

Many thanks Surferdude2, I'll have a look at XXclone and get back to you. What, briefly is the difference between Imaging and Cloning because I think you are suggesting scrapping my existing image and starting again with a Clone ?

 

A clone is an exact copy of the partition data. An image has come to be considered as a copy of the partition in a compressed format that isn't directly readable without special software.

When you clone a drive, all existing data will be wiped clean from the target (destination) partition and all new cloned data will replace it.

 

I'll add that you can't believe all that you may read via a Google search about the meaning of cloning. XXcopy does it a different way and many of the old limitations do not apply.

Some will tell you that the source and target partitions must be the same size. Not true. The target must be only at least as large as the source data will occupy using XXclone.

Some will tell you that when cloning, you must clone the entire drive, meaning all partitions on it. Not true. XXclone will clone any individual partition you choose. It's a neat product and has several useful tools to perform operations other than cloning.

A nice side benefit is that when cloning with XXclone, the target data is written without the fragmentation that the source may have had.

XXclone says it offers a different way. I agree.

 

Thanks again, I like the sound of XXclone and will download and will have a look. Just to say that I have other committments coming up over next two or three days so will probably 'go quite' until sometime over weekend. Will let you know how I'm getting on then with, quite likely, some more questions.

 

Fine, I'll be around and checking from time to time.

Regards, Dude

 

Hi Dude. I'm back again.
Have downloaded XXClone and tried to get going on it but, unfortunately, have soon run into problems. It is not recognizing the drive I would like to clone to. I have 'C' drive which I want to clone from, on my 1st HDD then I have a 2nd HDD partitioned as 'E' and 'F' and it is 'F' that I want to clone to. I have deleted and reformatted this 'F' drive ready to receive the clone so it's all empty and clean but it doesn't show on XXclone's drop down list for Target Volume. Any ideas before I try to get help from XXClone themselves ??.
Graham

 

Hi again!

I had that happen on one of my drives and it turned out that the boot flag was set improperly. Normally that never gets corrupt but it can happen.

The easiest way to check and correct that is to use the free tool made available by Symantec called PTEDIT32. Download that and unzip it to its own folder. It requires no install - runs as stand alone tool. Double click the ptedit32.exe file and it will display your detectable drives and list their flags and other parameters. Find the drive you are having problems with and verify that the BOOT number listed is 80. Change if need be. I found my problem drive to be flagged as 81. It worked properly in all respects but XXclone could not see it.

I never tried it but I think the hard drive manufacturers diagnostics disk may have been able to detect and fix that problem also.

 

Thanks Dude,
No luck I'm afraid. Ran PTEDIT32 and got excited because BOOT number was showing 00 so changed it to 80 as suggested then, just to make sure I reformatted the partition and rebooted. XXclone still not seeing the drive. Had a look at the HDD manufacture's diagnostic tool but it frightened me to death so am beginning to think it is a 'lost cause'.
I can't attatch a screen shot of the PTEDIT32 because I'm not subscibed but am happy to type values from its box if they are likely to be any help.
Graham