Last updated: 19 January 2009
1. Introduction
2. Causes of problems and their prevention
2.1 Malware
2.2 Hard drive physical faults
2.3 Hard drive file structures
2.4 Missing or corrupt Windows system files
2.5 Unintentional deletion of important files
3.1 Backing up the registry
3.2 Backing up Email stuff
3.3 Backing up selected files from the master drive
3.4 Backing up the whole master drive as a compressed image
3.5 Backing up a compressed image of a partition or partitions from the master drive
3.6 Backing up the whole master drive as a clone on another drive
3.7 Backing up a partition from the master drive as a clone on another drive
4. Where to backup
5. Recovery
5.1 What caused the need for recovery?
5.2 Reinstatement of deleted files if you are able to boot into Windows normal mode
5.3 Reinstatement of an earlier version of the complete registry if you can boot into Windows normal mode
5.4 Reinstatement of an earlier version of the registry if you can't boot into Windows normal mode
5.5 Other ways of reinstating an earlier version of the registry
5.6 Reinstatement of all of a backup image or cloned drive
6.1 Two simple approaches to backing up
6.2 Final recommendations
Appendix 1 - Running
Microsoft SFC (System File Checker)
Appendix 3 - Notes on Table 1 (Backup
device options)
Appendix 4 - Using the Windows
Recovery Console
Appendix 5 - Running the utility
CHKDSK
Appendix 6 - Reinstating the master
drive from a compressed image or a clone on a backup drive
Appendix 7 - The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN)
Appendix 8 - Free versions of Acronis True Image - Seagate Diskwizard and maxblast 5
This article is based on my experience with PCs that have Windows operating systems. If you have a different type of operating system, some of the principles will apply, but the software referred to in the article will not be applicable.
I have tried to cover a lot of aspects relating to backup and recovery strategies. There are bound to be some errors and omissions. Part of the reason for that is that the operating system I am most familiar with is Windows XP. My recollection of the details of older operating systems is imperfect and I am not using these older systems on any PC. While most of the content in this article will apply to Windows Vista I cannot guarantee that as I do not have Vista installed on nay of my PCs and choose to not maintain Vista systems.
Sooner or later many PC users will experience problems in accessing data or applications on their PC or booting their PC. These problems can range from minor ones (e.g. the unintentional deletion of important files) to major ones (e.g. the PC will not boot at all). Therefore it is prudent to have a robust and failsafe backup strategy in place so you can recover from a problem situation easily and with minimal or no loss of information. This takes some amount of forethought and it is best to do that thinking now rather than wait until you are experiencing problems.
Many of the lesser problems might be solved easily by such means as restoring files from a backup archive, replacing the Windows Registry with a known good version or restoring the PC to a known good configuration through reinstating an earlier save Restore Point. More complex problems might be solved through reinstating a total image of the errant drive from a clone or compressed image that is known to be good. These types of problem solution require backups of some form or other. Without such backups some types of severe problems may require the user to reinstall the whole operating system and applications. In that event there would be loss of documents, pictures, data bases, emails, address books, financial records and other important files. Reinstalling operating systems and applications only costs time, but the loss of important information can sometimes be disastrous.
The risk of experiencing problems varies considerably between users. The risk of problems is low if all these conditions apply:
However, there will be many users for whom the risk of problems will be moderate to high and I am one such user. I keep my registry clean by using a number of registry cleaners. I have excellent software that provides protection against malware. However, I know that sooner or later I am going to put my PC in a state that means that either the registry is corrupted and/or the hard drive will not boot normally and/or I loose internet connectivity and/or some applications will not function as they should. Fortunately I implement a backup strategy that will guarantee that I can recover easily in the event of trouble. In spite of all the fiddling that I do with software, I have never yet got to the stage of having to do the dreaded 'Format C:' thing. If I had to do that it would take me at least a week to reinstall all the applications that I have installed.
The type of backup strategy that is appropriate for you will depend on your particular circumstances: your level of risk exposure, what hardware you have or are able to afford, what software you have for PC maintenance, what operating system is installed and so on. While there is no single backup strategy that is ideal for all PC users, the following suggestions may be useful to you when you are developing and implementing a backup strategy that meets your particular circumstances. If you can't be bothered with all the technical ins and outs, you might get some value from skipping to Section 6.1 in which I have suggested two simple approaches to backing up.
Before looking at possible elements of a backup strategy, let's look at some common problems and how they might be prevented from being problems in the first place.
There are many causes of problems that make it essential that you have an effective backup strategy in place. Here are a few of the common causes of problems.
To reduce the likelihood of experiencing a problem condition on a PC with a Windows operating system you MUST have adequate protection against malware (such as viruses, trojans, worms and spyware). The importance of having such protection cannot be overstated. Such protection is also important if you are to implement an effective backup and recovery plan. For example, restoring your PC using a backup that contains applications that were infected with malware before the backup was made is not a good outcome.
To prevent infection by malware you need appropriate anti-malware software, a hardware or software firewall, and to implement Microsoft's security updates when they become available for your operating system, Email application, web browser application and other applications that are targeted by malware (e.g. word-processing).
Suggestions about appropriate applications and firewalls that provide protection against malware and procedures that may be employed are made in this article on preventative maintenance: http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/maintenance/maintenance.htm
Some problems with hard drives that lead to loss of data or inability to boot are caused by physical faults. No backup strategy will be completely effective if either the hard drive from which you are backing up stuff or the hard drive (or other device) to which you are writing the backups is physically defective. Such defects are infrequent, but can be within the device's mechanical components, on its circuit board, or in the connecting plugs, sockets and cables that carry power or data. The faults may be intermittent and some only become evident in very cold or very warm room temperatures.
Most modern drives have SMART ( Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology) implemented in the drive's firmware. SMART monitors the temperature and other health attributes of your hard drives. If your drive/s have SMART you can implement a small freeware application such as HDD Health so that it runs all the time in the background. HDD Health can be configured so that it will notify you if it detects problems or based on past performance of the drive, it predicts that there will be problems in the future.
Inside your PC, connecting plugs, sockets and data cables for hard drives and optical drives can sometimes be a source of problems. However, if such gear was problem-free when first installed, it is unlikely that problems will develop later, so it is probably a good idea to leave things alone. The probability of problems developing is increased the more that such gear is unconnected and reconnected. If you have reason to believe that there are problems with such gear and you are confident about opening up your PC, at least check that the cables connecting the motherboard to your hard drive/s, floppy drive and CD or DVD drives are correctly seated, power cables are fully inserted, and there is no erratic behavior of a device when the power plug connected to it is gently wiggled. On some occasions in the past when I had been swapping a parallel ATA (PATA) hard drive in and out a lot, I experienced particular problems with the cylindrical sleeves inside the "Molex" power plugs that are inserted into the hard drive power socket (the plugs with four wires: two black, one red and one yellow). The problem was that a couple of the sleeves had become expanded through rough handling and were making poor contact. This was quickly fixed - the procedure is explained in this article: http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/power_connectors/power_connectors.htm I have noted similar problems with some Serial ATA (SATA) drives which can have power and data cable connectors that (in my opinion) are easily subject to detachment and poor seating.
If you have a backup device connected through a USB, eSATA or Firewire connection, make sure that the cable is in good condition and inserted correctly. If the device is connected via USB cable and it is capable of 'High Speed' USB 2.0 data transmission make sure to use a USB socket on your PC and a USB cable which meets the specifications for USB 2.0 High Speed data transfer. Not all sockets and cables are capable of doing that (see details in my article http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/USB/USB2.htm ).
If you are backing up to a device on a wired or wireless network, make sure that the cabling and wireless system are fully functional.
Some problems with hard drives are caused by faults in partition tables, file and folder structures, indexes and security descriptors. So if you backup your hard drive or selected parts from a drive that has such faults, you risk carrying over the faults to your backup.
If you are having problems with your hard drive, it's worth running the Windows utility CHKDSK. This utility checks the integrity of a hard drive's file system and if the /R option is used, it will attempt to fix any errors. See this article for an explanation of how to run CHKDSK: http://pcug.org.au/boesen/chkdsk/chkdsk.htm
Another type of problem that would be carried over to a backup drive if it were to exist on the master drive is corrupt Windows operating system files. Therefore, if you are having any problems with your PC, then before making a backup of a whole drive or making a clone of it there is value in checking the integrity of your Windows operating system files first.
In Windows 98, XP and 2000 and this can be done using the Microsoft's System File Checker (SFC) utility. Details about how to run SFC are provided in this article http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/SFC/SFC.htm. I'm not aware of an equivalent utility for Windows Me or 95.
In some cases the corrupt or missing files are the NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM files, preventing the PC from booting. Fixing this problem is discussed in this article: http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/maintenance/maintenance.htm
Another type of problem is loss of files of data through inadvertent deletion. If you are aware of this in time then such files may possibly be recovered through the recycle bin. If the bin has been emptied, there is a real possibility of irreparable loss. However, in some circumstances, even files that have been deleted and that are no longer in the recycle bin can be recovered. Fixing this problem is discussed later.
Having given consideration to the things that could limit the effectiveness of backing up, the next issue is what things you might backup. Depending on your particular circumstances, you may want to backup one or more of these things:
Making frequent backups of the registry can be a very useful element in a backup strategy.
3.1.1 Windows 95 registry backups
When Windows 95 boots normally, it backs up the registry files USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT automatically. If the registry becomes corrupt, these files might be used to reinstate the registry to the last good boot condition. The files could be copied manually to a backup folder somewhere. This is not a straightforward matter. This article and this article provides details.
3.1.2 Windows 98 and Windows Me automatic backups
For Windows 98 and Me, when you boot your computer successfully, the Windows application SCANREG creates a backup of system files and registry configuration information (including user account information, protocol bindings, software program settings, and user preferences), keeping five back versions. To save such files to a backup folder you could do that manually. SCANREG can be used to restore any of the backed up versions. Details about how to restore backup versions are provided here and here.
3.1.3 Windows 2000 registry backups
Windows 2000 includes functionality for creating and restoring registry backups. This can be accessed through Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup tab - check the 'System state' option. Details are given here.
3.1.4 Backups of the Windows registry using Windows System Restore and similar applications
Windows System Restore is a function that is included in XP and Me. It can be used to create 'Restore Points' which contain a snapshot of the registry plus a whole lot of other stuff including the Windows File Protection files in the folder \dllcache, various dynamic system files and local user profiles.
There are payware applications that can be used to create similar types of restore points.
If System Restore or a similar application is available for your operating system it can be used to restore the registry (plus the other stuff that is saved in a System Restore) to an earlier condition. However, it's interesting to note what Lars Hederer, author of the ERUNT application says about the System Restore functionality in respect of the XP operating system:
'In Windows NT and 2000, the registry is never backed up automatically, and in XP it is backed up only as part of the bloated and resource hogging System Restore program which cannot even be used for a 'restore' should a corrupted registry prevent Windows from booting. It has also become impossible to copy the necessary files, now called 'hives' and usually named DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM in the SYSTEM32\CONFIG folder, to another location because they are all in use by the OS. And though the registry in an NT-based Windows is less likely to become corrupted than in other versions, it can still happen, and for these cases NT is simply missing an option for easy registry backup and restore as there is in Windows 9x/Me, to get the system up and running again in no time.'
The effectiveness of using System Restore to reinstate a registry depends on the existence of a restore point that is recent enough and appropriate to your needs. System Restore reinstates more than just the registry and that may not be what you want to have happen. For instance, if you have installed an application after creating a Restore Point, then reinstating your PC as it was when the Restore Point was made will probably mean that the application will cease to be installed correctly.
I have found that on occasions, I have been unable to get System Restore to get me back to where I want to be. This is possibly due to my inappropriate understanding of this application. However, I have decided to not use System Restore as a means of reinstating just an earlier version of the registry and so I have disabled it (and in so doing, incidentally reclaimed a significant amount of hard drive space).
My view is that for just backing up the registry these freeware applications are a much better choice than System Restore or similar applications:
3.1.5 Using ERU or ERUNT to backup and restore registries
For Windows 95, 98 and Me operating systems, a better approach than manually saving registry backups is to use the Windows utility named ERU (Emergency Recovery Utility). This freeware utility backs up the relevant files into a folder and on a drive that you specify. You can then use the associated utility ERD to reinstate backups to your hard drive. This article provides a good description of the functioning of ERU and ERD.
For Windows NT, 2000 and XP an excellent freeware application that can be used to create backups of the registry automatically or on an ad-hoc basis is ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT). This invaluable utility is the creation of Lars Hederer. This article provides details about how to install and use ERUNT and to how to recover backed up registries using the associated utility ERDNT (sic). The installation of ERUNT also installs ERDNT, copies of which are included automatically in the backup folders that ERUNT creates. For making backups of the registry I would use ERUNT in preference to System Restore on an XP system.
My usual operating system is XP Pro. I have configured ERUNT so that it makes a registry backup each day at the time of the first boot. This requires absolutely no action on my part - it all happens automatically during the boot process. When ERUNT is installed it configures itself so that these saves of the registry occur automatically, with a maximum of 30 days' worth being kept. Alternatively, the number of days worth that are kept can be set to a smaller number. This article explains how the default installation does things and how to set the number of days to a smaller number if you want to.
In addition, prior to installing any application that has any chance of making changes to my PC that I might regret later, I make an ad-hoc backup of my registry manually using ERUNT. Making such ad-hoc backups is a matter of making a few mouse clicks and typing in the name of the backup folder to be created; that all takes about 20 seconds.
Backups of registries created using ERU and ERUNT are normally written to the master hard drive in a folder located under the C:\WINDOWS\ There are important benefits in putting the backups in folders that are located under the folder C:\WINDOWS\ because those backup folders would be accessible if you ever need to use the Windows Recovery Console (this is all explained below).
If you ever need to reinstate a registry saved with ERUNT, there are four ways of doing that, as I explain in Appendix 2.
Some users like to backup their Email address book and emails to make sure that they are not lost in the event of a problem with their PC. If you are using Outlook Express as your Email application, there is a very easy way to do all that and to reinstate saved backups using the freeware application Outlook Express Freebie Backup. This application works with all versions of Windows and of Outlook Express (I think). The backups are sent to a folder of your choice.
If you are using Microsoft Outlook (not Outlook Express) as your email client, the file OUTLOOK.PST is a database that contains Outlook's address book and emails. On my PC it is located in this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ Copying this file to some backup location would serve to save all the Outlook information. If you need to reinstate that file, copy it back to the folder in which it was originally located. However, before copying it back it would be prudent to rename the currently installed OUTLOOK.PST file (e.g. as OUTLOOK.PS1) just in case the file you are going to copy back is corrupt or inappropriate. You may have to do copying in Safe mode..
I do not have experience and knowledge relating to backing up stuff created by other Email applications.
One approach to backing up is to make copies of only selected folders of files or individual files that are the outputs from applications (e.g. word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, pictures, music files, tax returns and so on), but not the actual applications themselves, and not the PC's registry and other system files.
The rationale of this approach is that if a hard drive becomes corrupt or unusable, the operating system and/or applications can be reinstalled, and then the files that comprise the products of the applications can then be reinstated from the backup. In some circumstances this can be a relatively quick and easy operation and can be an effective approach for people who use few PC applications.
However, there are disadvantages with this approach:
Copies of folders of files and individual files could be made if and when the user remembers using Windows Explorer or a substitute (and much better) freeware explorer such as Xplorer2 . However, an easier method is to automate the backing up process using an application such as SyncBack. This is available as freeware, or as a more complex payware version. The way it works is this:
It is very easy to make backups by 'running' the profile or profiles. This is a matter of a few mouse clicks. Even simpler, you can set up a schedule for each profile so that it runs every N minutes, or runs at boot time, or once a day or once a week or at a particular time or whatever. This overcomes the problem of forgetting to make backups.
While this type of application may meet many requirements, it has some limitations and drawbacks:
There are backup approaches that overcome all the limitations and drawbacks relating to backing up only selected files or folders.
It is possible, for instance, to back up the whole master drive as a compressed 'image'. The image is in a format that means that the complete master drive can be recreated later from that image, or selected files or folders can be reinstated. The image can consist of a single large file or can be generated as a set of somewhat smaller files. I'll assume it will be saved as a single file. This file (or set of files) can be copied to another device just like any other file/s. It occupies somewhat less space that the files from which it was generated.
If there is space on the master drive for the image file it could be written to the master drive. However, that would mean that the image may not be accessible in the event that the master drive becomes corrupt or damaged. So it makes sense to write the image of the master drive directly to another internal or external hard drive or to a networked hard drive, or to move or copy it to another hard drive after creating it. If that is done you will need to have such a second hard drive. Of course you also need an application that will create the backup image and (if and when required), to restore the image as a bootable drive.
There are a number of applications that can be used to create backup images and if required, to reinstate the complete drive from the image or to reinstate selected files or folders. Examples are Acronis True Image and Symantec's Ghost (which incorporates what used to be called Powerquest's Drive Image). Under some circumstances, you may be able to use the freeware applications Seagate Diskwizard or Maxblast 5. These two applications are rebadged full-featured versions of Acronis True Image (see Appendix 8 for details).
If your recovery situation is one in which you only need to reinstate selected files or folders, applications such as Acronis True Image, the Seagate and Maxtor versions of Acronis, and Symantec's Ghost allow you to view the contents of a saved image as if it were another drive and to access all the files and folders that are within the image. This would be useful in the event that you have deleted some files from you master drive or they have become corrupt after the compressed image was created. The application that was used to create the compressed image can be used to access all the files in the image in an Explorer type user interface, and you can then copy any of them back to the master drive.
Creating an image of the master drive is very easy - run the imaging application, identify what drive is to be imaged, indicate what folder on what device (hard drive, CD or DVD) the image is to be written to, select a compression ratio then hit Go. Go and have tea or a walk or join the couch potatoes for a while. Acronis True Image also allows you to choose between making a whole new image or making incremental changes to an existing image (that is, adding information that updates what was saved as a prior image).
Creating an image can usually be done in the Windows environment. It is important to close any applications that could affect the creation of the image (e.g. incoming Emails, scheduled malware scans). To ensure that does not occur you could use an application such as EndItAll2 prior to starting the creation of an image to close down such applications.
When you first start making backup images, it is sound practice to 'verify' the integrity of a few images created. This is particularly important if your backup device is in an external enclosure. I suggest that you undertake a verify operation on the first two or so images that you create so that you have complete confidence that the images created will be recoverable if/when you need to use them in the future. Applications like Acronis True Image, the rebadged versions and Drive Image include verification functionality. In addition, after creating an image, you should check to see if its contents can be accessed through the backup application's 'Explore Image' functionality. This check should involve copying some of the files in the image back onto you hard drive just to make sure that the contents of the image are accessible.
Depending on the space you have for storing backup images, the frequency and magnitude of changes that you make to your applications, and the extent to which you are paranoid, there could be value in keeping more than one image. For example, you might create one image, then an additional new image say three weeks later. Then after a further three weeks delete the first image and create a new one, so that only two images are ever kept - the rolling image approach. The advantage of having two rolling images is that if the most recent image does not contain exactly what you want to recover, or if it has corruption in it of some sort, having an image made prior to that could be of some benefit. However most users would regard this approach as being overkill and would only ever keep a single image, with the prior image either being deleted or else updated using the incremental Imaging approach (if the imaging application supports that approach).
If the image is created onto CDs or DVDs, the incremental backup method is particularly useful, because the existing CDs or DVDs are maintained and only the incremental stuff is written to an additional CD or DVD.
If your master drive were ever to becomes unbootable and less radical fixes fail to correct the problem, then a saved image can be used to recreate the whole master drive with all of its contents exactly as they were at the time the image was created. Backup applications such as Acronis True Image, the rebadged versions and Drive Image/Ghost also have functionality for creating a bootable CD 'rescue' or 'emergency' boot CD. Using the CD you can then boot your PC into the backup application's interface and reinstate the image onto your master drive or onto another drive. Therefore the very first thing that you MUST do after installing such a backup application is to create such a CD and to store it in a safe place.
The frequency with which an image is created depends on the user's needs and the frequency and magnitude of changes made to applications and data on their master drive. In view of the fact that creating a full image or an increment to an existing image only takes a relatively short time, it is not an onerous task to do that. However, it is also possible to add uncompressed copies of selected folders and files onto the backup drive on which was written the compressed image of the whole master drive. These added folders and files would not be written into the image; they would simply be additional folders and files that are visible to any explorer application. That could be done daily or more frequently if required using an application such as Syncback. This is the process described above. This would mean that in the event of a problem with the master drive, the backup drive would contain an up to date version of just about everything of importance to the user, either in the image file or in the additional uncompressed files. This could be done on a set schedule (Syncback has scheduling functionality), or less regularly. You could, for instance, ensure that your whole My Documents folder was kept up to date on the backup drive. However, if you decide to keep copies of selected folders or files using an application such as Syncback, keep in mind that malware acquired since the clone was made might then be transferred in files that are written to the backup drive.
Most users have only one partition on their master drive. If that is your situation, skip this section.
It is possible to make a compressed image of a selected partition of the master hard drive rather than the whole drive. This is done in the same way as creating a backup of the whole drive. The contents of such images can be viewed in the same way as can the contents of whole drives.
Again, make sure to do enough verifications of any images made to give you confidence that images are being created OK.
In the event of there being a major problem with the master drive, having a compressed image of your whole master drive enables you to recreate it. For instance:
Those processes are a tad involved. There is a simpler way to achieve an outcome of a bootable drive that contains the full contents that were on the backed-up drive at the time it was backed up. This involves creating a 'clone' of the whole master drive onto a second drive. The master drive and the cloned drive do not need to have identical capacities. However, the backup drive needs to be at least large enough to contain the content being cloned from the master drive. It can also be a larger drive than the master drive.
Such cloning can be done through applications such as Acronis True Image and its rebadged versions, Casper, Ghost and Drive2Drive (for Windows 95, 98 or Me only). Ghost uses the term 'copy' rather than a 'clone'.
There is no compression of contents during the cloning process and the clone is virtually a bit for bit copy of the original drive. With the exception of some drives that have dual boot systems, the content copied onto the backup drive will be identical to the content on the master drive, including its boot system. It is possible to access all the files on the backup drive through Windows Explorer or some other alternative to that application. It is also possible to boot your PC using the cloned backup drive, providing that the drive is connected to your PC using appropriate cabling, drive jumper setting and BIOS settings. The clone drive would have ALL the functionality of the master drive from which it was cloned.
If you have created a dual boot system on the master drive and one of the dual boot operating systems is Linux then cloning might generate a clone drive that is not bootable, or that has a different boot behaviour to the master drive. In that case you will need to do a Google search to find a solution that is appropriate for the way in which you have set up your dual boot system.
A major merit of the cloning approach is that if the master drive becomes unbootable and recovery through other means has been unsuccessful then the backup drive can be used to boot the PC and it can be used immediately in place of the old master drive. You may need to do some fiddling with jumpers on a Parallel ATA (PATA) drive to ensure that either 'cable select' is selected (and the right drive is connected to the right cable connector) or the 'master' and 'slave' jumpers are set appropriately. Setting of jumpers is not required for Serial ATA (SATA) drives. In some PCs (e.g. ones that have a mix of parallel ATA drives and serial ATA drives), the PC's BIOS configuration may need to be set so that the backup drive is given boot precedence over any other drive in the PC. However such changes are reasonably easy to implement.
After booting into Windows, what used to be the backup drive will then be the new master drive. Once that you are CERTAIN that your new master drive is functioning perfectly, you could then run whatever diagnostic applications you might have on the drive that used to be your master drive to see if it can be fixed without the need for reformatting. If appropriate, and as a final resort, you could repartition and/or reformat that old drive. If the old drive is healthy in a mechanical sense and you wanted to use it again as the master drive, you could clone the backup drive back onto it, change the cables and/or jumpers and/or BIOS settings, and reboot using the old master drive.
As with compressed images, a limitation of the approach of cloning the whole master drive is that its contents will become out of date after the cloning operation. However, it is possible to use an application such as Syncback to keep the contents of selected files and folders on the master drive up to date also on the backup drive. You could, for instance, ensure that your whole My Documents folder was kept up to date on the backup drive. This is similar to the process described above except that the backed up files will overwrite the equivalent files that are on the backup drive. This backing up could be done on a set schedule (Syncback has scheduling functionality), or less regularly. However, if you decide to update selected folders or files using an application such as Syncback, keep in mind that malware acquired since the clone was made might then be transferred in files that are updated onto the cloned backup drive.
Having created a clone of your master drive for the first time, it is worth doing a 'fire drill' to make sure that the backup application worked properly. So see if you can actually boot using the backup drive and run a few applications so that you have confidence that the cloned drive has all the functionality of the master drive from which it was cloned. This is something that could be done the first time you create a clone - if that works OK, I would not worry about repeating it every time that a clone was created.
Most users have only one partition on their master drive. If that is your situation, skip this section.
A variant of the cloning approach is to clone a partition or partitions from the master drive onto a backup drive, rather than cloning the WHOLE drive. Not all backup applications provide this functionality. Acronis True Image does not have the functionality; Casper does.
This approach might be useful in this type of situation:
The approach may also be useful in the event that the user has a backup drive that is not large enough to hold a clone of all the contents of the master drive.
There may be variants to this approach that suit some user's particular circumstances. However, while this approach may save time in creating the compressed images, it is not one that appeals to me because of its complexity, and because I would have to do a major reorganisation of my single-partition master drive into a multi-partition master drive.
So much for what to backup. Let's now have a look at where to put the backup/s.
Backup devices onto which backups could be written are shown in Table 1, together with an assessment of their advantages and disadvantages. Explanatory notes about content with a number in parenthesis (e.g. (1) ) after it are in Appendix 3.
|
Target
backup device
|
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
|
Master hard
drive (e.g. put the backed up stuff from Drive C onto Drive C) |
Easy Very fast No additional hardware required |
Files may be inaccessible if the master drive crashes or becomes unbootable. Backup is not totally isolated from possibility of infection by malware (1) |
|
Thumb Drive (aka Flash Drive, Pen Drive) |
Easy Very fast Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable Drive can be unplugged easily so that it is then completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware |
Additional cost if drive does not already exist Small capacity Ties up an expensive device (in terms of $ per Mb) which is much more applicable for other purposes. |
| Network drive |
Easy Reasonably fast Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable |
Backup is not completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware (1) Wireless network may be slow |
| Other internal drive in stand-alone PC |
Easy Very fast Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable. |
Backup not completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware (1) Additional cost if drive does not already exist (2) |
| Drive in removable caddy (aka 'mobile rack') (9) |
Easy Very fast Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable Drive containing backup can be removed easily so that it is then completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware Drive can be stored in a safe location or off-site If the backup is a clone of the master drive or an active primary bootable partition from the master drive, the PC can be booted directly from the drive in the caddy. (10) |
|
| Drive in an external enclosure that has a Firewire interface to the PC |
Easy Reasonably fast (6) Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable Drive containing backup can be disconnected easily so that it is then completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware Drive can be stored in a safe location or off-site If the backup is a clone of the master drive or a bootable partition from the master drive, and the PC's BIOS supports booting from a Firewire device (very few seem to be able to do that), it may be possible to boot the PC directly from the drive in the enclosure. (11) |
Cost of hardware If the enclosure is fan-ventilated it could be a tad noisy (7) (but in my view, having a fan in the enclosure is essential if the enclosure is used for more than 30 minutes at a time) Most PCs are unable to boot from a backup drive in a Firewire enclosure. If the enclosure has both Firewire and USB interfaces it is possible that this disadvantage can be avoided if the PC can be booted using the drive connected as a USB device.(11), (12) |
| Drive in an external enclosure that has a USB interface to the PC |
Easy Reasonably fast (6) if operating at USB 2.0 'High speed' rate Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable Drive containing backup can be disconnected easily so that it is then completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware Drive can be stored in a safe location or off-site If the backup is a clone of the master drive or a bootable partition from the master drive, and the PC's BIOS supports booting from a USB device, it might be possible to boot the PC directly from the drive in the USB enclosure. (11) |
Cost of hardware lf the enclosure is fan-ventilated it could be a tad noisy (7) (but in my view, having a fan in the enclosure is essential if the enclosure is used for more than 30 minutes at a time) Slow if the drive is only working at the USB versions 1 or 1.1 rate (8) Slow if USB 2.0 sockets or cables not to USB 2.0 standard (8) Not all PCs are able to boot from a backup drive in a USB enclosure.(12) |
| Drive in an external enclosure that has an eSATA interface to the PC | Easy Very fast Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable Drive containing backup can be disconnected easily so that it is then completely isolated from possibility of infection by malware Drive can be stored in a safe location or off-site Might be possible to boot the PC directly from the drive in the eSATA enclosure. |
Cost of hardware lf the enclosure is fan-ventilated it could be a tad noisy (7) (but in my view, having a fan in the enclosure is essential if the enclosure is used for more than 30 minutes at a time)
|
|
CD, DVD |
Fairly easy Files not lost if master drive crashes or becomes unbootable CDs/DVDs can be stored so that they are isolated from possibility of infection by malware Can be stored in a safe location or off-site |
Slow. Slow. Slow. |
The notes in Appendix 3 explain some aspects of the table.
If you have backed up selected stuff, or created a backup of the master drive as a compressed image or clone, then you may be able to reinstate appropriate content. However prior to reinstatement of stuff, it is worthwhile giving some thought to what caused the loss in the first place. If the loss was simply due to inadvertent deletion on your part then reinstate the deleted stuff (if you have a backup) and that's the end of the story. However, if the loss was due to such things as malware, faults in your PC's file system, missing or corrupt system files, and so on, then you will need to undertake remedial action to fix such underlying problems. Such remedial action may need to be undertaken prior to reinstatement of lost information from a backup.
Therefore, give consideration to undertaking the following remedial actions either before reinstatement or after reinstatement:
How such (and possibly other) checking and remediation may be undertaken is described in detail in this article on PC maintenance: http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/maintenance/maintenance.htm
After undertaking any appropriate remedial actions as a precursor to recovery, then you can proceed to the recovery operation/s.
5.2.1 Recovery of deleted files
It may be possible to recover a deleted file if it is still visible in your Recycle bin. Even if the Recycle bin has been emptied, then it may still be possible to recover the file by using an application such as PC Inspector File Recovery This is a freeware application which can be used to identify any files that are still recoverable even after they were deleted and erased from the recovery bin. The operation of the PC Inspector File Recovery application relies on the fact that when a file is deleted it remains on the hard drive and a flag is set indicating it has been deleted. When other files are saved to the hard drive, they may or may not over-write the space that had been occupied by the deleted file. Whether or not such a deleted file can be recovered depends on the extent to which the space it occupied has been over-written by files saved subsequent to its deletion.
5.2.2 Reinstatement of files from a backup
If deleted files are not recoverable through such means but you have created a backup in which the desired file or files are located, then recovery simply involves copying the file/s from your backup to the master drive. Hopefully, all that is involved is extraction of that file from wherever and in whatever form it was backed up.
If the backup in which the desired file/s were saved is a compressed image created using Acronis Drive Image, Seagate Diskwizard or Maxblast then this can be done very easily by 'Mounting" the image. This Acronis process creates a virtual hard drive from the image and files and folders in that image can be copied to the master drive or to any other storage device.
If the backup in which the desired file/s were saved is a clone on another drive, the reinstatement of files is simply done through connecting the backup drive, then copying the required files from that drive
If you are able to boot into Windows normal mode then it may be possible to reinstate an earlier saved version of the registry:
If you have a suitable operating system see if you can use System Restore or a similar type of application to reinstate to an earlier created Restore Point and that will include reinstatement of the Registry as it existed at the time the Restore Point was created. However, note that reinstating a Restore Point may revert things other than the Registry, and that may not be what you want to have happen.
If you have saved backups of your registry using ERU or ERUNT, then you can restore a saved version of the registry very easily by using ERD or ERDNT. Details are provided in this article about ERUNT and ERDNT and in this article about ERU and ERD. Unlike reversion to a Restore Point, only the registry itself will be reinstated.
The recovery steps above will only be feasible if you are able to boot into Windows normal mode. If your PC your PC will not boot into Windows normal mode and your operating system is XP, you may be able to reinstate the 'Last known good configuration' for part of the Registry. To do that hit <F8> soon after you boot and just before the normal Windows splash screen would appear. This can lead to a 'Boot Selection Popup Menu' being displayed. One of the entries in that menu is 'Last good known configuration'. Select that entry and hit Enter. Then reboot. If this works it will lead to the information in the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet being restored. It does not change other registry entries and does not solve problems caused by missing or corrupt drivers or files. However it may be sufficient to enable you to boot into normal Windows mode so that you can then undertake other recovery actions if they are required.
The 'Boot Selection Popup Menu' also provides access to the option of booting into Windows Safe mode. Once in safe mode, if you have saved backups of your registry using ERU or ERUNT, then you could restore a saved version of the registry very easily by using ERD or ERDNT. Details are provided in this article about ERUNT and ERDNT and in this article about ERU and ERD.
If you are unable to boot your PC into Windows normal mode or safe mode or cannot get access to the 'Boot Selection Popup Menu' then you may be able to reinstate an earlier version of the Registry that has been saved using ERU or ERUNT through these means:
In some circumstances you may decide that the best course of action is to recreate the whole of the master drive from a compressed image backup or a backup that is in the form of a clone, or to simply swap over the clone drive for the troublesome master drive.
Swapping drives needs no explanation. However, if the master drive is left in situ, its contents can be completely replaced by using the compressed image or by cloning the backup drive back onto the master drive. A brief overview of how this might be done is given in Appendix 6.
All my internal and external and removable drives are Parallel ATA (PATA) drives so the terminology used here applies to that type of drive - however, the same procedures can be applied using Serial ATA (SATA or e-SATA) drives.
Here are two straightforward, easy to implement approaches to backing up that involves making whole-drive copies of the master drive. Both approaches require that you have a backup application such as Acronis True Image. As a no-cost alternative, if at least one of your internal or externally connected drives is a Seagate or a Maxtor brand, there are two free versions of Acronis that you could use: Seagate DiscWizard and Seagate's MaxBlast 5. These are rebadged full-feature free versions of Acronis (albeit not the most recent version; last time I checked, they are Acronis True Image version 11). If you install one of these applications, the first thing to do is to create a 'bootable rescue CD'. That CD will be required if you are ever unable to boot your master drive and therefore unable to run Acronis from the master drive. If you ever update Acronis True Image then make sure to create a new version of the CD using the updated Acronis.
Both of the two simple approaches require that you have a backup drive that is additional to your master drive. Such a drive can be connected in one of these ways:
In spite of the disadvantages, the caddy approach is my own preferred option currently. In fact I have two backup drives in caddies and clone to them in rotation. However, when I get a new PC I may well be switching to the e-SATA enclosure approach. Of the e-SATA enclosures that are currently available, the ANTEC MX-1 looks very nice - it is fan-ventilated and has both e-SATA and USB2 connectivity.
- Most cradles (into which the caddy is inserted) have a very small ventilation fan that is on all the time, even when the caddy is not inserted. These fans can be noisy and some types can deteriorate relatively quickly. It is important that they be monitored to make sure that they have not ceased to function. Replacing such fans requires intermediate hardware skills. Information about this is provided in my detailed article on hard drive caddies.
- The caddy should not be inserted or extracted while the PC is running, whereas a drive in a USB enclosure does not have that constraint and can be connected while the PC is running. However, I have found that if the caddy is inserted into my PC when I have put the PC into Standby mode, then the backup drive is visible and useable when the PC comes out of Standby mode.
When you buy or acquire a backup drive, it is advisable that it have at least the same capacity as you master drive. In any event it must be at least as large as the total size of all the files that are on your master drive, plus enough capacity for future growth of those files.
6.1.1 First approach: backing up as a 'compressed backup archive' onto a backup drive
This approach is one whereby you create a compressed backup archive of your master hard drive. Acronis True Image (and its rebadged versions) can create such a compressed archive and saves it as either a single file that has a '.tib' extension, or - depending on the version of Acronis and whether or not the backup drive is in an external enclosure or not - as a series of linked .tib files. When I refer to 'Acronis' below I am referring to Acronis True Image or one of its rebadged versions - Seagate Diskwizard or Maxtor Maxblast 5).
As a once-only task, ensure that there is a formatted partition on the backup drive, into which partition the backup archive/s will be written.
Every week or so, do this:
(a) Connect the backup drive to the PC.
(b) Through your Windows Explorer (or a better substitute for that poor application - I recommend the freeware xplorer2) check to see that your backup drive has enough space for the backup archive. If you already have a backup archive on the backup drive and do not have enough space for an additional new backup archive, then delete the oldest of the previously made backup archives.
(c) While you are creating the backup archive it is inadvisable to use the PC for ANY other activity at all. Prior to running Acronis, close any connection to the internet, close any any open applications, and do it at a time at which the PC will not start a 'scheduled activity'. Better still, if you have intermediate software skills, do all that and in addition, close down all applications using the freeware applications EndItAll2 or FS Autostart.
(d) Run Acronis and create a full new backup archive that will be saved onto the backup drive. While Acronis has functionality to create an 'incremental' backup, I would not do it that way because there is not a big time saving doing it that way. I would simply make a whole new full backup. While you could create a backup archive of selected partitions on the master drive, for beginners, it would be simplest to backup the whole drive, including all partitions.
(e) To check the integrity of the backup archive, use Acronis functionality to 'validate' the backup. You can have that done automatically if you configure Acronis to do it:
tools
options
default backup options
additional settings
validate on completion(f) As a further check on the integrity of the backup archive, through your Windows Explorer (or much better through xplorer2) right-click the name of the backup archive and select 'Mount'. That will lead to the contents of the backup archive being visible as a 'virtual' drive. You should be able to read files that are in the archive, and (if you were to want to do it) copy them to your master drive. If everything looks OK, right-click the name of the virtual drive and select 'Unmount'. That closes the backup archive.
If you are paranoid and have enough space on the backup drive you could create more than one backup archive so that you always have more that one archive - something like this:
week 1: create archive A
week 2: create archive B
week 3: delete archive A and create archive C
week 4: delete archive B and create archive Detc etc
In the event that your whole master drive becomes corrupt or inaccessible, you could do this:
(i) Format the master drive, or if it is mechanically sick, replace it with a new drive.
(ii) Boot the PC using the 'bootable rescue CD' (see above).
(iii) Using Acronis functionality that is accessed through that CD, recreate the whole master drive from the backup image that you had created previously on the backup drive.
One caveat: while a successful 'validate' and a successful 'mount' operation should ensure that the recreation will succeed, stuff sometimes happens. For that reason I would never be really 100% confident that a recreation will succeed until it succeeds. If you are really paranoid, you could undertake a fire drill.
6.1.2 Second approach: creating a 'clone' of the master drive as a bit for bit copy onto a backup drive
This approach is one whereby you create a bit for bit copy of the master drive onto a backup drive. The backup made this way is NOT a compressed archive. Being a bit for bit copy, it would be possible to simply replace the master drive with the backup drive and the PC should boot from that drive.
The total formatted capacity backup drive needs to be large enough to hold all the files that are on the master drive. If that requirement is satisfied, the formatted capacity of the backup drive can be smaller or larger than the total formatted capacity of the master drive.
In this approach it is not possible to select what partitions are to be cloned - all partitions that are on the master drive will be copied to the backup drive.
Every week or so, do this:
(a) Connect the backup drive to the PC.
(b) Run Acronis and create a 'Clone' of the master drive onto the backup drive. Accept the 'delete all partitions on the backup drive' option.
(c) Acronis will propose that it needs to reboot to start the cloning process. Accept that.
(d) Connect the backup drive. Through your Windows Explorer (or a better substitute such as explorer2) inspect the contents of the backup drive. The contents should be IDENTICAL to the contents of the master drive. You should be able to access all the files that are on the backup drive using your Explorer.
In the event that your master drive becomes corrupt or inaccessible, you could do this:
(i) Format the master drive, or if it is mechanically sick, replace it with a new drive, connect the backup drive, boot using the Acronis 'bootable recovery CD', and then clone the BACKUP drive back onto the old master drive, OR
(ii) Replace the old master drive with the backup drive and just do a normal boot using that drive.
One advantage of having the backup drive in a removable caddy is that it would be possible to do a very simple and effective fire drill by simply booting the PC from that drive. That can be done by booting with the backup drive caddy inserted, getting into the BIOS and configuring the BIOS so that the drive in the caddy was given priority as the boot drive. Such a fire drill cannot be undertaken if the clone drive is in a device that does not allow the clone drive to be selected as the boot drive. USB and Firewire enclosures are such devices; eSATA enclosures might possibly enable booting from the clone drive. If you had sufficient technical expertise, you might remove the cloned drive from its enclosure and swap out the master drive with the cloned drive. However, that is not something that I would recommend to beginners.
I implement the clone and caddy approach to making backups. I have two backup drives in caddies and simply rotate them, making a new clone about every 10 days.
6.1.3 Additional optional step: keeping files and folders up to date and synchronised
An additional option that can be implemented for both the backup archive approach and the clone approach is to also store uncompressed copies of very recently created files on the backup drive - that is, files created after the most recent backup archive or clone was created. Once connected to the PC the backup drive is just like any other drive. So it is possible to to use any otherwise unused space on the backup drive just as you would with any internal drive, simply using your . This means that if you are concerned about the possible loss of files that have been created or that were modified after the creation of a full backup, it is possible to copy selected files or folders onto the backup drive.
Rather than using Windows Explorer (or xplorer2), the easiest way to do that is to use an application such as SyncBack Freeware. That can be configured to copy selected files and folders from the master drive (or any other drive) onto the backup drive, on command or automatically in accordance with a specified schedule, and to keep the copies of the files and folders that are on both drives synchronised. With the sychronisation functionality you can configure Syncback so that it only copies newer versions of files. The payware version SyncBack SE will also copy locked or open files but the free version would meet most needs.
I use Syncback to do such copying every few days for critically important folders (and all the sub-folders and files therein). These folders include a lot of those the My Documents folder. Keeping such files and folders up to date and synchronised can be done very easily and takes very little time after the initial run.
My own approach may be unsuitable in terms of your needs and circumstances. However, whatever your situation, give consideration to these recommendations :
The final suggestion about making backups: as they say about voting 'do it early and often'.
There are some other articles about PC stuff on my site here: http://www.pcug.org.au/boesen/index.htm
Mike Boesen
Note: the contents of this appendix have been rewritten as a separate article here.
There are four options for using ERDNT to reinstate a backed up registry that was created by ERUNT:
These four options are explained in Lars Hederer's README.TXT file that is installed on your PC when you install ERUNT. In this article I also explain the options and describe how to limit the number of automatically created Registry backups to a number of your choice.
The use of ERUNT has saved my bacon on quite a number of occasions. On some of those occasions, I have been unable to get into Windows normally or in Safe mode, and the UBCD4Win CD has been of tremendous value on those occasions.
Backing up stuff from the master drive onto the master drive is not the best strategy because in the event that the master drive is unbootable, you may not be able to get access to the backup image. In addition, the backup could possible be accessible by malware. A better option is to backup to another drive installed in the PC, or on a drive in another PC that is networked. However, backups on such other drives that are permanently running in a PC or on a network might possibly be also accessible by malware. While this may have a very low probability, an alternative approach that guarantees isolation from malware is to backup to a device that can be unattached from the PC after the backup is made. Such devices are thumb drives, drives in USB and Firewire enclosures, drives in removable caddies, and CDs or DVDs.
2. Cost of an additional drive
The cost of hard drives continues to fall. Currently (October 2005) a good quality 160 Gb 7,200 rpm parallel Ultra ATA/133 drive would be about $110 (AUS).
3. Cost for a drive in a removable caddy
In addition to the cost for a drive to put in a removable caddy, a caddy and the cradle (aka 'rack') into which the caddy is inserted would cost about $25 (AUS). The cradle needs to be mounted in a bay of the same type as the bay that holds your CD or DVD drive. This is as easy as installing a CD or DVD drive. These caddy and cradle setups are referred to by different names, such as 'mobile rack'. The mobile component is the caddy that contains the hard drive. The caddy can be slid in and out of the cradle or rack which is permanently mounted in the PC.
4. Fan in caddy's cradle could be noisy
To ensure that there is a cooling airflow over a drive inside a caddy, the caddy or the cradle (aka 'rack')should have at least one fan. This is particularly important for modern, fast (7,200 rpm) drives because they get very warm in enclosed spaces. In some caddy setups, because the fan/s have to be small, it/they may be a tad noisy, especially if the PC is on the desk close to your ear.
Some caddy setups have three small fans - two in the cradle and one in the caddy. I don't like those at all because of the noise. In any case, I think that one fan in the cradle is quite sufficient, providing that:
- The PC case has an adequate hot air exhaust system. Ideally this should be accomplished through a good exhaust case fan as a supplement to the fan in the power supply unit. PCs that have a lot of heat producing components may also require a good intake case fan which sucks air into the PC's innards.
- The structure of the cradle and caddy is such that air is forced to flow from the outside the front of the PC case, into the front of the caddy, across the drive and out the back of the cradle into the PCs case's innards. Some caddy units are not designed properly to ensure that happens. 'Laser' brand caddies are very well designed in terms of maximising the effectiveness of airflow.
The cradle fan will be on all the time even if the caddy is not inserted. In my cradles I have added a micro switch so that the cradle fan only comes on when the caddy is fully inserted. Hence, there is no fan noise at all when the caddy is not inserted. This article provides details.
5. Mating of caddy socket and cradle plug
In some caddy arrangements I have seen, the caddy seemed to slip into the cradle with very little insertion force being applied and that was of concern to me. The caddy has a 50-land Centronics style socket that mates with a 50-land Centronics style plug in the cradle. My preference is for the caddy's socket to mate with the cradle's plug only after a bit of pressure plus a nice 'thunk' indicating that the mating has been effected and the lands in the plug and socket are in firm contact. Therefore, for the sockets on all my (3) caddies, I raise the profile of the lands (flat bent springy metal strips) very slightly (about 0.3 mm). The high-tech instrument I use to do that is a number 9 darning needle carefully inserted under each land in turn. Takes about 5 minutes for this operation. This article provides details.
6. Speed of Firewire and USB 2 drives
Making backups or clones to a drive in a Firewire or USB enclosure will take considerably more time than it takes for the same drive mounted internally or in a caddy. In my experience, backing up to a drive in an external High Speed rated USB 2.0 enclosure takes about twice as long as a backup made to an internal drive or a drive in a caddy. The limited testing that I have undertaken indicates that if all the USB gear (cable, enclosure's firmware and the socket on the PC) meets USB 2.0 High Speed standards, and the PC's BIOS enables USB 2.0 High Speed data transfer, then data transfer via USB 2.0 is about 22 to 25 percent faster than Firewire. The USB 2.0 interface firmware chip in the two enclosures I have tested is the Genesys Logic GL811E. Of course, if your gear only supports USB 1.0 'Low Speed', or USB 1.1 'Full Speed', then Firewire would be considerably faster.
You can buy an enclosure that has both USB and Firewire interfaces. However, the cost is higher for this dual interface. It MAY be possible for your PC to boot from a drive attached via USB - check the BIOS options. However, I'm not aware of any motherboards that have a BIOS that facilitates booting using a Firewire-connected drive.
Modern fast full-size (3.5") drives get quite warm in enclosed spaces. Therefore if the drive is a 3.5" drive in a USB or Firewire enclosure then it is highly advisable that the enclosure be one that has an exhaust fan. The temperature of a drive in an external enclosure cannot be monitored via SMART, so it might be cooking without you ever knowing. Once you finish a backup operation, you can disconnect the external enclosure and turn it off - all the fan noise then miraculously disappears! If the enclosure does not have a fan and it has sufficient ventilation holes to enable hot air to escape through convection, it may be possible to use it for short periods of time (say, less than a half hour) providing that the ambient temperature is not high. However, my strong preference is to have a fan-ventilated enclosure.
Because 2.5" hard drives generate a lot less heat than 3.5" drives they probably do not require fan ventilation.
8. Speed problems with USB drives
A drive in an external USB enclosure will operate VERY slowly if any of the following conditions apply:
- the USB enclosure does not have USB 2.0 'high speed' firmware, or
- the USB cables and sockets used to connect with the PC are not to USB 2.0 'high speed' specifications, or
- the PC's BIOS is not configured for USB 2.0 'high speed' operation, or
- there is no 'high speed' or 'enhanced' USB device driver visible in Device Manager
More details about these matters can be found in this article which I wrote about USB sockets and cables.
The term 'hard drive caddy' refers to a hardware device that has two components: (a) a cradle (or 'rack') that is installed in one of the PC's CD or DVD drive bays, and (b) a caddy that can be inserted into and extracted from the cradle.
The cradle is connected inside the PC case to power and to either the parallel IDE/ATA (PATA) interface in the same way as a CD drive or DVD drive, or to the serial ATA (SATA) interface. Most caddy arrangements are of the parallel variety.
A hard drive is placed in the caddy. The caddy has a Centronics style socket at its rear that mates with a Centronics style plug at the rear of the cradle. This socket/plug connection provides power and the PATA or SATA interface lines to the hard drive. The PATA version is available with 80-pin Ultra DMA cabling.
10. Booting from a backup drive in a caddyIf the backup drive is in a removable caddy and contains a clone of the whole master drive or has an active primary bootable partition cloned from the master drive, then that drive can be used to boot the PC if it is inserted into the cradle before switching on the PC. However, you will need to ensure that the drive will be recognised as the boot drive.
This may require some fiddling with jumpers on the hard drive to ensure that either 'cable select' is selected (and the right drive is connected to the right cable connector) or the 'master' and 'slave' jumpers are set appropriately.
In some PCs (e.g. ones that have a mix of parallel ATA drives and serial ATA drives), the PC's BIOS configuration may need to be set set so that the drive in the caddy is given boot precedence over any other drive in the PC. Having a mix of parallel and serial ATA drives can be a pain. The speed gains for serial ATA drive is marginal at best and my advice is to stick with parallel ATA drives.
11. Booting from a drive in an external enclosureIf the backup drive is in an external enclosure (USB or Firewire or dual USB/Firewire) and contains a clone of the whole master drive or has an active primary bootable partition cloned from the master drive, it may be possible to boot your PC from that drive in its enclosure instead of booting using the master drive. Note that:
- If the backup drive is in an external Firewire-only enclosure, and the PC's BIOS does not support booting from a Firewire-connected device, the drive would need to be removed from the enclosure and connected to an internal power cable and drive cable in your PC. Most PCs will NOT support booting from a Firewire device.
- If the backup drive is in an external USB-only enclosure, or an external enclosure that has dual USB and Firewire interfaces, and the PC's BIOS can be configured to boot using a USB-connected device, then the PC could be booted from the drive as a USB device without removing it from the enclosure. If the PC's BIOS can NOT be so configured then the drive will need to be removed from the enclosure and connected to an internal power cable and drive cable in your PC. Many PCs will NOT support booting from a USB device.
12. Booting from a drive on the USB interface
The fact that a PC's BIOS indicates that it will boot from a bootable drive in a USB device may not be totally dependable. My ASUS PC's BIOS indicates that it can boot from a USB device. While my USB enclosure functions perfectly as a read/write USB device, I cannot get it to boot as a hard drive - it gets to the Windows splash screen then reboots. The same hard drive can be used to boot the PC when it is in a caddy or if it is connected directly to the ATA (aka IDE) cabling.
This failure as a boot drive when in the enclosure may be a problem with the particular USB chipset that is in my Shintaro enclosure: Genesys Logic GL811E. I have noted complaints about particular makes of USB chipsets on some forums (but not for the GL811E). However, the information about what are good and what are inadequate chipsets is sparse and scrappy, so knowing what USB chipset is used in an enclosure is not helpful. It's a matter of trying after buying. The fallback procedure is to remove the drive from the USB enclosure and connect it to the ATA cabling inside the PC or swap it for your master drive.
Sorry - I have shifted the contents of this appendix as a separate article here:
http://pcug.org.au/boesen/chkdsk/chkdsk.htm
If the backup was saved as a compressed image, then:
If the backup was created as a clone of the master drive:
An image or clone that has been reinstated in one of those ways may be a bit out of date. If you had saved up to date copies of say, recent documents or databases or data files onto the backup drive or onto CD or DVD, they could then be reinstated on your refreshed master drive.
The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN) is a bootable CD that can be used to boot your computer into a Windows type environment. It incorporates functionality of another boot CD - the Bart PE CD. However it has more open source applications available to the user.
Once made, the CD can be used to boot your computer into a Windows type environment. All the functionality of the environment and its utilities are contained on the CD - no functionality is drawn from the operating system or applications that are on the hard drive. While the CD has to be made on a PC that has a Windows XP operating system, once made it appears to be able to boot any Windows PC, irrespective of what operating system is installed on that PC.
This CD is created in much the same way as the Bart PE CD, but with the Bart PE applications ('plugins' - that is, utilities) being replaced by another larger set. There are utilities on the CD that would enable these and other processes to be undertaken:
UBCD4WIN will handle network drives. Unlike the Windows Recovery Console, the UBCD4WIN environment provides full access to all files and folders on all the hard drives in a PC or on a network.
After creating a UBCD4WIN CD this is how I would use that CD:
Start
Programs
File management
Explorers
Click on "A43 File management Utility" (this is an explorer)
Start one of the Explorer applications such as A43
Navigate to the folder than has the ERUNT-created copy of the registry that I want to restore
That folder should be under the c:\windows\ERDNT\ folder somewhere
Get into the folder
Double-click the ERDNT.EXE file name
Click Start
Click Turn off computer
Click OK
Under some circumstances, you may be able to use one of the freeware applications Seagate Diskwizard or Maxblast 5 to make compressed image backups or clone backups. These two applications are rebadged full-featured versions of Acronis True Image.
Both applications have the full functionality of Acronis Version 11. The only limitation is that when you install the application (and later when you use it), the application needs to be able to see at least one Seagate or Maxtor drive, either in the PC or connected to the PC via USB or eSATA or Firewire.
Seagate Diskwizard is available from here:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard
Maxblast 5 is available from here:
The full user manuals can also be downloaded from the pages accessed through the above links.