Drive Image....

[L_S]

Okay, I finally want to conquer Windows and be the master of my machine. I got this software called "drive image" or some such (I believe it is made by the same people that do partition magic) for free. My understanding is that this software will allow me to copy my hardrive and then restore it back to exactly the way it was when I copied it, including the registry and everything. Is this correct? Am I understanding this right? From now on before I install any new hardware or software I want to do the drive image thing in case the new software/hardware corrupts something, then I can just restore my hd back to the exact same state it was in before. Am I talking gooblygook or does this software actually work the way I just described it?

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"Set it, and forget it." Ron Popeil, genius inventor

[hal]

I haven't used that brand before. I have/do use Norton's Utilities drive imager. What you described is basicaly what it does. There is another product that mimics W2k's ability to revert to a previous state. I believe it is called "Go Back".

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[L_S]

hal, you are a gentleman and a scholar. Are you satisfied with what it can do? How often do you use it and for what purposes?

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[hal]

I use it to back up my current drive state whenever I add/delete or generally screw around with Winblows. It does work very well and I can heartily reccomend the entire Utlity Suite. It does all of the nasty work like cleaning my Registry, fixing problems, repairing broken links and corrupted files...it even handles the drive defragging and optimization.

I can honestly say that between what it does and what it gives me the freedom to do (relying on that restore disk) my comp hasn't run this well since I bought it.

We all know the evil that can only be called "Windows" and the major agravations it (and sloppy third party programming) can cause.

Luckily, for someone like me who is too damn busy to remember stuff, the Utility can be set to run it's own (or other programs). All I need to do to back it up is pop in the disks when it says I can.



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[Mclarenlover]

Hehehe.. yes Liquid, that is what it does... except your missing a portion of it... You HAVE to keep that drive image on a seperate medium then your hard-drive, such as a cd-r or zip-disk... otherwise it will do you no good when you really screw up windows... I recommend using a cd-r if you have a CD-RW or CD-R drive, as the entire image SHOULD fit onto one disc. And make sure that your bios supports booting from your cd-rom drive, otherwise having it on cd will do you no good, because you will have to re-install windows before you can restore your hard-drive, and that can take a while.

Now as for Norton things... I hate them and find no use for them. If you have to use them, I feel sorry for you... they are just bad, especially the virus protection programs... They are becoming useless.. there are hundreds of new virus' programmed each week, and if you get one of them, it's like you didn't even have virus protection software if you haven't gotten the update to protect against it. It is just too much of a hassle to keep it current, and it sucks up about 80% of your system resources because it is constantly scannig your hd's for viruses. And now, the virus' have gotten so complex that they will delete the protecton program, therefore, for the program to protect your computer, it will not allow itself to be deleted, making you unable to get rid of it if you don't want it. Need I say more? Oh yah... if you ever doing anything to your computer that does make it mess up, you shouldn't be using computers without qualified supervision till you learn how... hehehe j/k

[L_S]

Yeah I was planning on slapping it on a CDR. btw my mommy supervises me when I'm on my computer does that count?

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[hal]

Well apparently I was wrong! All of the l33t, advanced users don't use Antivirus Software. They battle them by hand, with Notepad and a bottle of Aspirin.

I never thought of that before.

I guess firewalls are a thing of the past too. All of the pro's guard their ports and check all incoming and outgoing packets on the fly.

Sorry dude, most of us don't want to do all that crap. That is why they write software for it.

As for sucking up all the resources...I'm afraid you're mistaken there too. I'm running it on my home PC quite nicely. Yes, I turn off some of the software when I want to maximize my RAM and minimize/eliminate swapping... that is perfectly acceptable to me.

You can set it up to run completely automatically or you can tweak it to your liking and control as much as you like.

As far as the Antivirus Software being useless, wrongo. They update the Virus Definitions constantly and the downloading is all integrated. It's seamless. For problems that don't get caught (and nothing possibly could catch them all) you can boot to your rescue floppies and run virus software before starting Windows. If that doesn't work, then neither will your "do nothing" approach.

All of the new Norton Utilities are the highest rated in all of the best magazines and web sites. I guess you know a better way? Please share.

Maybe you're too cool to use software, but a fellow long-time forumer asked an opinion and I gave it to him. You're entitled to yours but you don't need to talk down to everyone else as though you are the end all-be all of technology. I use the stuff, I like it, it works for me. I'm not computer illiterate and neither are the millions of people that use it and design it. Maybe Norton's needs to hire you as a consultant.



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hal{PuF}

[[PuF]BadAss]

Hey Liquid, I have been using DriveImage (by PowerQuest) for about 6 mths now, and it works GREAT! You don't necessarily have to save it on a separate medium. I simply partitioned my harddrive into c: and d: and save my image on d: I also backup my data onto d: (eg. Web favorites, ICQ database, Outlook folders, Address book, etc.)

In fact, I have serveral images:

1) clean install of Win98 before installing any software, drivers for 3D accelarator, 3D sounds, etc. (image is ~210mb)

2) clean install of Win98 with all drivers installed, UT installed, and all the normal programs I usually use. (image is ~900mb)

It takes ~10 mins to restore image 1) and ~20 mins to restore image 2)

Like you said, with DriveImage, I now recklessly installs tons of downloaded demos, betas software, etc. without fear of it messing up my system.

I don't even bother with defragmenting my drive anymore, as it is faster and cleaner to restore a clean image because the registry is restored to its "clean" state, which defragmenation can't do.

In fact, every 2-3 months, even if my computer is running fine, I have the urge to restore my clean image, and lo-and-behold, Windows runs/boots like a fresh install.

Also, as new patches, drivers comes out, I like to restore my "clean" image and upgrade directly to the newer patches/drivers.

Trust me, DriveImage works as advertised.

BTW, I have deleted my ICQ.



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[L_S]

"They battle them by hand, with Notepad and a bottle of Aspirin." The funniest thing I've heard in a long time hal hahaha.

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[L_S]

Thanks for the tips BA. That's exactly what I want it to do for me. Just a note, if you have deleted your ICQ you may want to take your ICQ number out of your sig to avoid confusion ;)

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[hal]

Hey, L_S, check out this month's Maximum PC. It tells how to do just what Bad_Ass is saying. Burn a cd of a brand spankin' new installation using drive image and reboot to it whenever the hell you feel like it. That is the way to go for sure.

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[Mclarenlover]

Gosh, such hostility... that last comment I made was merely a little joke... hence the j/k(just kidding) afterwards. And as for the Notron utilities, that subject is merely a matter of opinion and whether or not you can find use for it. I was wrong in using some of my points, as they were inaccurate, and I was basing my arguement on older anti-virus software. However, I have found no use for such programs as I rarely ever download demo's or other programs that have not been thouroughly tested to run with a minimal or no amount of errors, unless there is a planned update to be released soon, which I go ahead and download the program, but wait to use it until the patch is released. I have found this to work quite well as my computer never crashes or freezes, and programs run almost seemlessly. Liquid, however, may be able to use norton utilities, and I encourage him to try it if he wishes to. I just provided him with an opposite opinion.

[hal]

Even if you never install any programs on your hard drive, you are exposed to viruses just by browsing the internet or using e-mail. The worst offenders are malicious macros or ActiveX programs.

We welcome all kinds of opinions here...but expect to be challenged if your assertions are unfounded.

BTW, virus programs don't run wild in the background. They run when you download or run programs, by default.

Besides, if you're running CorelDraw at the same time you're trying to run UT, a virus program is the least of your worries...and actually, you are supposed to turn them off when you do run UT or most any other game.

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[Mclarenlover]

Hehehe... different programs do different things... I installed a virus program on a computer at my school last year... can't remember which one... but it did constantly run in the background... ran before you started up... and it slowed down the computer very badly, and I mean they were Pentium2 200's, pretty nice computers for back then...

If you are so worried about getting viruses through activeX controls, just disable them in your internet options menu or if your worried about having things uploaded to your computer, just tell the computer to warn you about anything automatically being uploaded to your computer, they have to be in some kind of file sent to your computer. If your so worried about e-mail, just never open attachments unless you know what it is. Thats what I do. If you use computers right, you don't really need virus software...

As for running Corel Draw or photoshop and UT... you aren't really supposed to... but then again, you aren't supposed to run ANY 2 programs simultaneously... so it doesn't really matter, UT and all my other multi-tasking sprees work fine.

[hal]

Do what you like....but for 99.99 percent of the people using computers out there, Anti-Virus Software is essential. To say otherwise is contrary to your own assertions and just downright foolish. Disable whatever you like but just let one Trojan Horse or BackOrifice App get running on your comp and you'll be very, very sorry.

The best protection I can get is better than no protection.

To say that running your computer right is = to using no AntiVirus software is very naive. If you have an "always on" connection like T1 or better, cable, DSL, etc. and you don't use a firewall and virus protection...you are a complete and total fool.

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[This message has been edited by hal (edited 06-09-2000).]

[Swedix]

I use Norton Ghost. It takes a 100 % copy of the partition with the partition information.
It's a dos program so you only need a bootdiskette to restore the partition. If You are connected to a network, You can write the ghost-file to the server.

And about antivirus program: If everybody use an antivirusprogram, the spreading of viruses would be limited.
That's cai:s idea why they give free antivirussoftware. http://antivirus.cai.com/


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[Rooster]

I typically HATE all anti-virus software - so I was agreeing with McLaren...

But.. Norton Anti-Virus 2000 seems to be very good at catching things with a very minimal amount of overhead. It updates at least once a week as of late - so I'm not worried.

I'm the Net admin at our office with 100+ people - It's tricky trying to get a lot of computer illiterate people to NOT open attachments. Luckily, not all have outside email addresses.

Prior to NAV2000, I was a huge fan of Dr. Solomon's. I never noticed ANY slowdown with it, but they're very slow to update definitions.

As for Drive Image, yes.. excellent program, as is anything by PowerQuest (they're my favorite "tool" company).

There's also an older one out there called Disk Clone put out by QuarterDeck. It seems to work well, and you can break up portions of your drive image into whatever size you want. Then you can copy those files (of the image) onto what ever medium you want, CD, DVD-RAM, Tape, another HDD, Floppy (god forbid).

Anyway... time for me to get busy around here. Talk to yall later.

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