Making an image of C to make reinstalling easyier..?

[cosmicB]

I don't know how to do this..?
I've asked about it in various forums... It sounds complicated, and the softwares that they recommend never work, and the R/W CD drive fails to recognize the DVD CD.. even with DVD softwares... And the DVD drive fails to recognize anything, even with DVD softwares...

In a NewYork minute I'd go out a buy a new tower if I could afford it.. but right now all I've got to work with is clunker old W98se antique...

I would like to be able to make a complete copy of what's on C in this PC, including all the preferred softwares I've downloaded, and somehow just install the whole works from one CD, after the PC catches a bug, after formating-C... All the downloads are in a desktop-file labeled "Downloads"... All my valued files are backed up daily, to CD and/or floppy, depending on what sizes they are......

Would the experts kindly detail how it's done in Windows 98se..?

What softwares do you use that work..?

What are you not suppose to do..?

What precautions to you take..?

How do you do this using a DVD CD..?

Can you install a slave hd, and use that to reload a freshly formated hd..?
Or when the PC gets hit, does it infect the slave hd too..?
If the hit makes the PC inoperative, then you can't do anything with the PC but format it... So is there a way to switch from an infected hd, to the slave, and format the infected hd, and reload it from the slave..?

How do you copy a bootable hd's contents to a zip-drive, and how do you install an operating system on a freshly formated hd, using a zip-drive..?

[boingo]

I don't know how to do this..?
I've asked about it in various forums... It sounds complicated, and the softwares that they recommend never work, and the R/W CD drive fails to recognize the DVD CD.. even with DVD softwares... And the DVD drive fails to recognize anything, even with DVD softwares...

In a NewYork minute I'd go out a buy a new tower if I could afford it.. but right now all I've got to work with is clunker old W98se antique...

I would like to be able to make a complete copy of what's on C in this PC, including all the preferred softwares I've downloaded, and somehow just install the whole works from one CD, after the PC catches a bug, after formating-C... All the downloads are in a desktop-file labeled "Downloads"... All my valued files are backed up daily, to CD and/or floppy, depending on what sizes they are......

Would the experts kindly detail how it's done in Windows 98se..?

What softwares do you use that work..?

What are you not suppose to do..?

What precautions to you take..?

How do you do this using a DVD CD..?

Can you install a slave hd, and use that to reload a freshly formated hd..?
Or when the PC gets hit, does it infect the slave hd too..?
If the hit makes the PC inoperative, then you can't do anything with the PC but format it... So is there a way to switch from an infected hd, to the slave, and format the infected hd, and reload it from the slave..?

How do you copy a bootable hd's contents to a zip-drive, and how do you install an operating system on a freshly formated hd, using a zip-drive..?

In my experience, only the BIOS of computers released in the past year or so recognise DVD drives, so they rely on Windows seeing them. This is likely the reason you can't boot from a DVD drive. You may be able to boot from a CD though, but that also depends on the boot sequence set up in your computer's BIOS. I've got mine set to boot from Floppy drive then CD/DVD and then my hard drive containing Windows.

I recently did exactly what you are trying to do, but with Windows XP when I upgraded to a larger primary hard drive.
I used a program called "Acronis True Image". Click here to go to the site
I've just checked and unfortunately the latest release is only compatible with 2000, XP and Vista.

It's what's known as an "Imaging" program. I didn't make a CD backup to move it across though. I installed my new hard drive as a slave device and got Acronis to do a direct copy from the old HD to the new one. Then I shut down the PC and swapped the new HD for the old one, booted up, and it's been running perfectly ever since.

There are some other imaging programs out there. As you already know, it's very hard to find one that'll work with Windows 98 though.

A search on Google using the search term "free windows 98 disk imaging" or "free windows 98 disk cloner" comes up with a lot of hits.
This one's free, and claims to do an exact image of Windows 98 from one hard drive to another: click here

I hope that helps.

[cosmicB]

Thanks!..

It seems that W98se is very much obsolete, and as you wrote, doesn't do DVD's.. so I really need to upgrade the 98se hd's to W2k to do anything successful in this cloning area... I did have W2k in a 10-gig hd, and a 20-gig hd, but those two W2k hd's, out of the blue, just ceased functioning, they stopped booting up, and there are some treasures on them that I just don't want to lose... I get pop-ups about mismatched bios, and that they no longer see the hard drive..? And the worst of it is that the W2k install CD is seriously scratched, and useless now... I really hate to have to pay a couple $hundred more for a replacement W2k CD, but it seems I've got no other option...

I have a W-XP hd, but this old desktop doesn't have enough RAM to run it properly... And I find XP too gaudy and cluttered... I just don't like XP.. using XP makes me feel like I'm in a church... I don't like that feeling...

I'm starting to see it that I need to just get out and buy me a new tower... Their prices are dropping, and a loaded tower is cheaper than a OS disk, but all the new towers these days come with XP or Vista, and I really do prefer W2k... It's a small program.. It's easy to work with.. and it isn't so gaudy and cluttered, and so full of holes, like XP and Vista are... XP and Vista seem to be just a 2k OS with a Lot of frills and silly useless junk...

I don't run RAM sucking firewalls, nor an AVS.. I'm just very careful on the Net, and use an old iMac to open all suspect emails.. but sometimes this PC does get hit with a bully's bug, given that my Internet project, in me trying to convince the world that we just gotta stop killing the planet so there will be some world left for future humanity.. attracts a lot of crazies who feel the need to sting me by damaging my PC's OS.. is why I need and quick and easy way of reloading formated hd's...

It's strange that those who are hellbent on damaging this planet can get funded at the drop of a hat.. and folks like me who are pushing as hard as we can for a better environment and better over all human intellect can't get funded in the slightest... It's as if this human race wants to kill the planet ASAP..?

Any tips on where to get the cheapest W2k install CD?..

[boingo]

No problemmo.

I’ve had a hard drive stop on me before too. One sector was damaged on the C partition. Luckily I was able to recover all the data from the other two partitions by connecting it up as a slave drive to another primary hard drive running Windows. I was able to get the hard drive prepared under warranty though, which was good.

If your CD only has very fine scratches, then sticking it in the freezer for a few hours sometimes works. I know it seems silly, and I was sceptical when someone else told me about it, but it’s worked for me before. I can only presume the disc must shrink just enough to force some of the molecules back together.
Failing that, there are CD/DVD scratch removers around the place. Some work and some are a waste of money. I suppose the best thing is to see what’s available then look for product reviews on the net. That’s what I normally do.

If you were to switch to XP, it is possible to change it from the default pretty and impractical set-up to looking just like Windows 2000. You just have to choose “Classic” view.
Start menu / Settings / Control Panel / Display Properties (The icon just says “Display”)
Then choose the tab on the left “Themes” & choose “Windows Classic”. It gets rid of all the bubbly roundedness of everything and changes some other things to make it just like using Windows 2000. I was using XP with its default settings for a couple of days, but it wasn’t anywhere nearly as user friendly in the way it was laid out.

I found Windows 2000 was very prone to crashes. XP rarely crashes for me and it doesn’t need to be rebooted after most program installations.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t have a clue where to get a cheap Windows 2000 CD nowdays, because they’re actually licensed to a particular machine, so unless someone is selling an unopened new copy, they aren’t legally allowed to sell it without the same computer on which it was installed on. (Due to the Microsoft licensing agreement.)

[femaleadmin]

No problemmo.

I’ve had a hard drive stop on me before too. One sector was damaged on the C partition. Luckily I was able to recover all the data from the other two partitions by connecting it up as a slave drive to another primary hard drive running Windows. I was able to get the hard drive prepared under warranty though, which was good.

If your CD only has very fine scratches, then sticking it in the freezer for a few hours sometimes works. I know it seems silly, and I was sceptical when someone else told me about it, but it’s worked for me before. I can only presume the disc must shrink just enough to force some of the molecules back together.
Failing that, there are CD/DVD scratch removers around the place. Some work and some are a waste of money. I suppose the best thing is to see what’s available then look for product reviews on the net. That’s what I normally do.

If you were to switch to XP, it is possible to change it from the default pretty and impractical set-up to looking just like Windows 2000. You just have to choose “Classic” view.
Start menu / Settings / Control Panel / Display Properties (The icon just says “Display”)
Then choose the tab on the left “Themes” & choose “Windows Classic”. It gets rid of all the bubbly roundedness of everything and changes some other things to make it just like using Windows 2000. I was using XP with its default settings for a couple of days, but it wasn’t anywhere nearly as user friendly in the way it was laid out.

I found Windows 2000 was very prone to crashes. XP rarely crashes for me and it doesn’t need to be rebooted after most program installations.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t have a clue where to get a cheap Windows 2000 CD nowdays, because they’re actually licensed to a particular machine, so unless someone is selling an unopened new copy, they aren’t legally allowed to sell it without the same computer on which it was installed on. (Due to the Microsoft licensing agreement.)

[boingo]

No problemmo.

I’ve had a hard drive stop on me before too. One sector was damaged on the C partition. Luckily I was able to recover all the data from the other two partitions by connecting it up as a slave drive to another primary hard drive running Windows. I was able to get the hard drive prepared under warranty though, which was good.

If your CD only has very fine scratches, then sticking it in the freezer for a few hours sometimes works. I know it seems silly, and I was sceptical when someone else told me about it, but it’s worked for me before. I can only presume the disc must shrink just enough to force some of the molecules back together.
Failing that, there are CD/DVD scratch removers around the place. Some work and some are a waste of money. I suppose the best thing is to see what’s available then look for product reviews on the net. That’s what I normally do.

If you were to switch to XP, it is possible to change it from the default pretty and impractical set-up to looking just like Windows 2000. You just have to choose “Classic” view.
Start menu / Settings / Control Panel / Display Properties (The icon just says “Display”)
Then choose the tab on the left “Themes” & choose “Windows Classic”. It gets rid of all the bubbly roundedness of everything and changes some other things to make it just like using Windows 2000. I was using XP with its default settings for a couple of days, but it wasn’t anywhere nearly as user friendly in the way it was laid out.

I found Windows 2000 was very prone to crashes. XP rarely crashes for me and it doesn’t need to be rebooted after most program installations.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t have a clue where to get a cheap Windows 2000 CD nowdays, because they’re actually licensed to a particular machine, so unless someone is selling an unopened new copy, they aren’t legally allowed to sell it without the same computer on which it was installed on. (Due to the Microsoft licensing agreement.)

What cha quoting me for? Did y' forget to add a reply?

[cosmicB]

"No problemmo."

"I’ve had a hard drive stop on me before too. One sector was damaged on the C partition."


So a partition rescue program might help, if that the case.. but how to install-it on a hd that's fritzed is the big-prob..?




That license part of the stuff is all new stuff to me...

The CD is seriously.. she's history...
I got it at a garage sale in the original computer... Never heard about that "one CD/one PC" Microsoft law... I figured if you bought it, you could load the dern thing on any of your computers, as you replaced the older failing towers... Are you saying Microsoft has the right to demand that every time a mother board fails, you must purchase a new Windows OS CD?.. Zowie!.. No-wonder the world's so crazy these days.. BigMoney commands Life, Realty, Basic Instincts, Logistics, Respect, Dignity, Common Sense, Originality, and the all other keys I've omitted... as $'s archetypes drag everything into hell with them... It's like we have only one choice of only two options: feed the devil your soul, or feed it your life...

I must try this slave drive recover method...

And this freeze a CD trick just might make it so I can get a good copy of an horribly scratched antique music CD that's skipping on one of my favorite cuts... Can't buy the album anywhere now...

I had a few crashes with 2000, but no more after I dumped all the macromedia and shockwave stuff... Same in 98se...

Do you find that XP garbages up real fast, and slows down too fast.. and is forever on the Net somehow, somewhere, that you don't know..? And all those dern games and garbages to get rid of.. Oyie!.. I never saw so much garbage come with an OS... Heck!.. I never saw so much garbage come with anything, but the garbage truck... I'll give the XP Classic theme a try in my neighbor's HP notebook... We've been wondering how to simplify XP out of the clouds and space, and down from its gaudy gold-leafed throne, into just a fast friendly computer operating system... Seems it can't be done with XP... I'll try that Classic mode... And if that don't work, I'm gonna try that like-windows, open-source "windows" system, or win half of this weeks $20-mil lotto and forget all this groveling and scraping-by...

First thing's first.. slave the 2 crashed 2k-hd's, and pray the hell I can get my stuff off them before the magnetic-poles melt and short-out all the world's AC...


Thanks, this---------------big...

[boingo]

The only way to test if you can recover any data from a hard drive that won't boot, is to set it up as a slave to a hard drive that does work. You could just install Windows on a new hard drive, and nothing else. Then there's a very slim chance that you may be able to recover some (maybe most) data from the slave hard drive.

To my knowledge, the licensing issue only came about with the introduction of Windows 2000. Prior to that we were allowed to put Windows 98 and back onto any computer we wanted. (So long as it was only on one computer at a time)
When XP came in, we became forced to have internet access in order to register our copy. If we don't after a certain time, then I presume it won't work. (There's some sort of expiry date, but I don't know what the implications are if we go past that time)
I had installed XP on my old computer, then I built a new one from components. Only my TV card and hard drives were from my old computer, but XP allowed me to register it again. I think there's something like three times it lets us do this until it won't register again. Without being registered, we can't get updates.
The registration issue has been the subject of many complaints. One thing that can help if it won't register, after replacing a component, is to phone Microsoft. Then they can manually change the settings on their servers to allow registration again.

XP does do a lot of updates from the net, but they are mostly small file sizes. I found the updates for 2000 were less frequent, but they were much larger.

I've never had any real problems with XP slowing down. It's usually 3rd party programs that do that for me. Switching off the screen saver can help. Otherwise it's always running in the background. It mostly comes down to having enough RAM.

Microsoft never recommends enough RAM to run Windows efficiently. I think XP is listed as needing 256MB of RAM, but it really needs 512MB. If you want to use anything else, such as a movie editing program, that also hogs a lot of RAM, then you'll need at least 1GB. I like to do a lot of multitasking, so I upgraded to 2GB of RAM.
Vista Home is supposed to need 512MB of RAM, but it really needs at least 1GB, or 2GB if using Vista Home Premium.
I don't know why Microsoft sell themselves short like that.

[cosmicB]

I'm gonna give your hd slave-repair method an all out good try... I've got a good feel about it that it's gonna work...

"Licensing changed" So that explains it!.. I took what I knew of the old licensing to apply to everything... I failed to read the new stuff... I didn't even know they changed it...

"XP's Internet Requirement"... Yeah!.. I bumped into that when I loaded the neighbor's new HP notebook... and again, when I found a hd loaded with XP in the recycler's junk boxes, and tried to get updates... I got bumped to a Microsoft link that I took was probably an OS killer link, and stopped there... I tried this XP hd in an old desktop, that has only 128 Ram, and it worked, but after a couple minutes everything runs super slow.. probably because of the security programs sucking up the Ram... I even managed to get onto the Net with it...

I really wanted to test out the data I got about XP from various sources, like "XP on works on the original computer it was loaded on".. and "XP needs a gig of Ram".. and "You can't update without a valid key"...
OK.. I accepted those restrictions, but I wanted to see for myself, so I pulled the battery in this old tower, then installed the "trashed and found" XP hd, and it worked... Rule-One, Busted!..

XP did work with 128 of Ram, but not well... Rule Two, Confirmed!..

I couldn't get any Microsoft updates, so I searched all over the Net, and found them all in other than Microsoft websites... I popped-in the working W2000 hd, and download all the XP updates to a CD.. and back to the XP hd, I installed the updates, and everything seemed to go OK, but I can't really be sure given that I'm running only 128 Ram... Rule Three, a strong Maybe!..

Microsoft and all the other giant corporations should back off a little in their knife edge pricing... They don't need more money to have good lives... They have enough now... They rode on our backs and blood long enough... Essentially all the hoarded money is just enough treasure to make every human's life luxurious-living.. so essentially the hoarder money is our lives in their banks... They should do things that super accent and nurture the human race.. more than just sponsoring a few isolated Mediaized health issues, and handful of silly sporting events for the high security elite...

The computer is now a necessity for the human.. Governments should have issued a computer per household by now... They can't.. the political parasites are sucking up all the free resources they can...
Me thinks that humanity will start to wake up to a little reality when the discomfort level becomes so great that it can no longer be ignored.. but then it will be too late... We will be deep into th extinction process then, with not even a prayer... The big guys seem to have lost all respect for humanity and Life... All they can understandnow is Money making more money... Seems Money has control of their souls, and ours... Seems Money is spending all Life to grow... The tool has taken the master's reigns... Money is devouring all life on the planet, including us... I am truly amazed that Microsoft actually had it within itself to even spend one little dollar on anything in helping humanity...

Microsoft should be giving away W98 and W2000 free to whom ever wants to download it... They have enough money now... It's just that Money wants more money.. it in itself demands that it grow at all costs to Life... The humans associated with Money are merely its slave workers and care-givers now, like in every corporation there are menial-task support crews... like in a computer there are peripheral operating and security programs, and cleaner softwares... People started out owning money.. now money owns us...

I can yap and bidge about it, but I can't do anything about it, because I have no money.. and if I did, Money wouldn't permit me to step out of the box... And if my noise started to degrade Money's self-growth, I'm sure it would try to silence me by eliminating my life from this planet... These days Money owns all the life on the planet.. and as you implied, "Microsoft still owns my computer's operating system", whether I've paid for it or not... There's a lot of seriously-wrong in all that mess...