Need help with creating partition for backup drive D: ?

I have a new Dell Dimension E310, about two weeks old. Somehow a system file got corrupted or deleted, I was unable to use the Dell system restore & went forward with reinstall procedures. I was walked through the reinstall by phone with Dell staff. Install of windows XP was successful, but I would like to get it back to the state it was in when I recieved it, or near to it. The hard drive is not partitioned like it was when I recieved it. All I have now is just the C: drive with all data on it. I want to partition it and get the the (D: backup drive) back like it was when I recieved it. I want to do this so I can go to the next step of creating that precious backup that I now see the importance of. The system came with norton ghost 60 day trial on it, its gone now & thats OK with me. I plan on installing "Acronis Tue Image" soon after I purchase the install CD.Any advice on where to start on this matter.
I do need to partition C: drive don't I ?

 

One more ?,..... Am I in the right forum ?
Should this go to the software forum ?

 

You are probably inbetween software and hardware!

When it comes to partition, I've always been a fan of Partition Magic, easy to use program. It isn't free though, but there is an alternative, Partition Logic. It should do what you need it to do.

You are probably just as well off with True Image as you would have been with Symantec Ghost, True Image is an excellent and easy to use program. Do make a "secure partition" where you store your C-drive, simpler than having to mess about with boot cd's.

It is odd that the new install deleted your partitions, it shouldn't normally do that. I hope you didn't lose any important data! But... Imo, you are probably better off now that you've reinstalled from scratch, as those pre-installed comps tend to have a lot of unnessesary junk installed. This way you get a cleaner system!

Good luck, and ask again if you need any help about any of the programs!

 

Thanks for your reply, Now let me see if I got this right. I have downloaded the Partition Logic & opened the .zip file & extracted it. It is now an .iso file which needs to be burned onto a CD which in turn will be a bootable CD to start the partition process. Is that correct?
I have just downloaded & installed CD Burner XP Pro 3 from majorgeeks too. That is what I will use to create the bootable Partition Logic CD, Right?
Just making sure before I get started !

 

Before you go through all that effort........

If you hard drive dies you will loose all partitions on it. Has that been considered in your backup plan?

 

I am a beginner at this backup subject & could use any & all sound advice . I am just trying to create a complete backup in case fo future hard drive failure that you spoke of. If there are any threads with step by step advice on this I would be glad to read through them.
As it is right now everything is on my C: drive only & I am just trying to create some kind of backup, as I keep hearing "any backup is better than none".
I know that all to well now, I have just spent the last three days reinstalling software & settings. Don't want to go through it again.
I am here seeking info on how to approach this backup subject! I guess I dont have a backup plan "jconstan", where should I start?

 

Backup.....

What would you like to accomplish?
Backup the entire system? In the event of a system meltdown where you must replace the system hardware, your complete system backup will do you little good restoring it onto new hardware which is probably completely different. On the other hand if you want to protect yourself from a disk failure, the more likely case, then an external hard drive and a backup product like Acronis TrueImage will get it done. This will give you complete protection from hard disk failure. If your hard disk fails, replace it with another (can even be bigger), boot from the Acronis CD, point the program to your backup image and it will rebuild your entire disk.

If you have a good backup of your user type data, which I like to call variable data, and all your software CD's, static data, then you are in good shape and could recover from almost any outage. If you don't want to invest in something like TrueImage, you could simply copy your variable data to an external hard drive on a regular basis. In the event of a hard drive failure, you would simply replace the hard drive, load the OS, load all your software from CD's and copy back your variable data from your external hard drive. Of course you may have to configure all your applications as you had them before.....but this method isn't too too painful. But, for the extra $50 I would buy TrueImage.

So, there you have it....external drive and Acronis TrueImage a very good backup solution.

By the way. Make sure you can restore before you consider your backup good. I always say YOUR BACKUP IS ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST RESTORE!

 

I just happened to be reading this thread and not 2 minutes earlier, I saw this 250Gb external hard drive for $20 + shipping/handling.

http://www.slickdeals.net/#p7733

 

OK, I was'nt sure what an external hard drive was. But I now know what it is, thanks for the link you provided Wyat Earp. I went to the website & found it, now I'm wondering. Is that for real, I know it's $27.00 after shipping & I never want to miss a deal. I went to newegg and did a search for comparable 250GB Ext. Hard Drives, even the same brand "Iomega". They start at $130.00, I'm wondering what's going on here. I understand that we get what we pay for in this world, I'm wandering if that is the situation here. Heres the newegg link-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1090&SubCategory=414

But, the idea of an external hard drive sounds great !! I know more about this backup subject than I knew yesterday. Now it looks like I need one that has a good reputation at an economical price. Don't get me wrong $27.00 sounds great, but is to good to be true. Any thoughts on a popular External Hard Drive?

 

I'm pretty sure it was a mistake, I don't want to drag their post into my thread but here are the comments on the $20.00 Ext. Hd.Drv.

Its a item error.

Item is really Star Wars Battlefront II for the PS2

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=278959

OK, l think I'll stay away from that one after reading through the comments posted.

But I am still in favor of finding a good external hard drive.

 

Hi rayzur,
I just read up on your system.
If I were you I would get on Dell about setting up as new.
Apparently you have a hidden mirrored hard drive in your system.
Data Safe over and above the D: partition.

Hope this helps and saves you grief and money.
Bad out.

 

The biggest advantage with partitioning your drive is that you can store all your "own" stuff on a separate partition, things like photos, music etc. Then if you ever need to reinstall your operating system, your data will be safe. I agree with what is said, that the best backup is external drives of some sort, if an external harddrive is too much now, cd's or dvd's work fairly well. Make sure they are kept where they can't be damaged though, and take new backups regularly, as your own data changes over time.

One other advantage with partitions is that you can store a mirror image, a backup, created in TrueImage (or Ghost). That way, if you lose important sys files again, or anything else gets corrupt on your system, reinstalling will be dealt with in a few minutes, instead of the long process you've just gone through with Dell. TrueImage will create its own partition to save the image on though, so for that you don't need to partition.

But Bad_Frogger's advice is good, you should have Dell do something more for you than support on the phone. You might still want to consider TrueImage for the future though, as it doesn't take the computer back to the state when you bought it, it takes it back to the state it was in when you took your backup image. So your settings, other programs, drivers for printers and all that extra fluff you eventually accumulate, will be stored and can easily get rolled back in case of an emergency.

Either way, I think you should make sure you end up with a separate partition for the system, and another partition for all your personal stuff. From personal experience, it saves you a lot of time and effort if something goes wrong with the system and you need to reinstall. It doesn't of course keep you safe, as pointed out, if you have a harddrive faliour though, so backup on other drives is necessary.

 

I have not seen any real good reason to do this. The only benefit of doing something like this is protecting your data in case you need to format the root partition. You should be able to fix a broken OS with a "repair", but the choice is yours. If you go this route be careful of making the partition that contains the OS too small or you'll run into trouble.

Acronis TrueImage has been mentioned several times here so I believe it is a good reliable product. I use an IOGEAR 250 GB ION usb/firewire drive. The TrueImage software recognizes the USB device when booting off of the CD----VERY IMPORTANT--. I believe the ION drive cost me around $180 some time ago. Look for a device that has a good reputation because when you find yourself depending on your backup, you don't need to be worrying about reliability.

 

It might be helpful for you to look at the recovery issues in the thread called "Legal or Illegal? Dangerous or Safe?" where that quote above comes from.

http://forum.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=95891&goto=newpost

What Dell helped you put back on your computer was not what it started with and since it's still under warranty, you might just ask them to put it back in its original state, since their instructions didn't get it there.

abri

 

ABRI....

The links you are looking for are here without the quotes

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
"http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=E8FE6868-6E4F-471C-B455-BD5AFEE126D8"

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
"http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F"

The WINXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE file which you refer to will build six XP setup floppies. These are legal as they come directly from Microsoft. Now, perhaps you can get around the "recovery" issue with OEM recovery CD's but I have not tried myself. If you do, please report back your results. In theory it seems like it should work.

 

Yes, that is one of the first things I thought of. When I do get to the point where it prompts me as to how large the partition should be, I have no idea how large it should be.

I went into an online chat with a Dell Technician & it was wasted time. It seems that everyone I speak to is Indian or other which makes communication difficult as they speak broken English. His response was " I apologize, but we are unable to restore it to Factory condition" then he ask me if he had been helpful & if my issue had been resolved. I said " No, I am in the same place I was before our chat, seeking to restore my system!" It was an endless circle till I said goodbye. I will continue with Dell & take it to the next level.

Bad_Frogger , I am sorry to say that I did not get the "Data Safe" hard drive upgrade when I ordered the PC. I may try to pursue it as an upgrade device later. It sure would have been nice to have!

I will be back with more info after I speak with Dell again, thanks for everyones help.

 

Hi rayzur,
Sorry I didn't study enough to see it was an option.
As far as partitions go 5GB is normally plenty for XP's
primary C: partition.
You just get in the habit of saving your stuff on D:
or whatever letter you give your storage partition.
Then in the future you can reinstall windows on C:
without losing your stuff.
Bad out.

 

I tried this already and it seems to be out of date. (Refer to the thread I mentioned where this discussion has been ongoing.) I've been to the link you posted and I get this "The download you requested is unavailable."
When I put the WINXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE into Google directly, it took me to a website in Turkey in Turkish. That's how that thread got started. I'm working through several other suggestions from the other thread.
abri

 

I just tred the link again and it works perfectly. I downloaded the Home and Pro editions myself not more than 10 minutes ago.

 

Are you using home or pro? I've tried the link several times and always end up at the same page of microsoft. I went to their tips and tricks and tried to do those and they don't work on my computer. I'm wondering if it's my computer that's causing the problem or if it is because I'm using xp home.
I did copy and paste it exactly from your posting without the quotation marks. I'm starting to get a complex, because things don't work on my computer.
abri

 

OK, I see where I did not have a clear understanding of my factory set-up. It came with a 90-day trial of Norton Ghost & it had created its own partition too just like TrueImage does. It was called "D: back-up" & that was where the confusion began for me, I thought that Dell had partitioned the hard drive at the factory but it was actually Ghost that created it.

I just got off the phone with Dell & was informed that they don't recommend partitioning nor do they do it on any factory set-ups. In case of hard disk failure they say that you will loose your partitions that contain any back-ups so why consume your hard drive storage with repeated data. IT makes sense!
Like I said I'm new at this but I think "jconstan" may have nailed it with his reply ........

( QUOTE - "If you have a good backup of your user type data, which I like to call variable data, and all your software CD's, static data, then you are in good shape and could recover from almost any outage. If you don't want to invest in something like TrueImage, you could simply copy your variable data to an external hard drive on a regular basis. In the event of a hard drive failure, you would simply replace the hard drive, load the OS, load all your software from CD's and copy back your variable data from your external hard drive. Of course you may have to configure all your applications as you had them before.....but this method isn't too too painful. But, for the extra $50 I would buy TrueImage.

So, there you have it....external drive and Acronis TrueImage a very good backup solution." END QUOTE)

And yes Solange, You are right - I am better of now with a clean install & all of the factory Garb gone. The Dell System restore was just a restore of all that Garb anyway. I've noticed that they are partners with Symantec, which is who makes their System Restore utility. More bloated files from our friends at Symantec that I dont need eating up my storage space.

I can burn CD/DVD's for the things I want to preserve & move to another system if need be! And I will be in the market for an External Hard Drive as of now. Once again ''jconstan" I think you've got a good solution that fits my personal needs with your comment.......

("So, there you have it....external drive and Acronis TrueImage a very good backup solution.

By the way. Make sure you can restore before you consider your backup good. I always say YOUR BACKUP IS ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST RESTORE!")

By the way, I am pleased with my E310 & it is a sweet machine !
Thanks for everyones Help on this subject

 

I'm glad you are sorting it out! Good luck with your new machine, and have fun with it!

 

Sounds like you have it roped. Good luck.