How do you make an image of your operating system?

[The_Dude]

Ok, say I do a system recovery, and after installing all my programs, updates, etc. I want to be able to make an image or boot disk of everything in working order, so that in the case of another virus hitting my system, I can just perform the system recovery and have an image/boot disk so that it will restore all my programs, etc. from the disk without having to reinstall everything all over. Is this possible? If so, I'd apprieciate any info. on how or what tools are needed?

Thanks :thumbsup:

[primesuspect]

We use Acronis Trueimage (http://www.acronis.com) at our office to create master images. It works great, and is only $99.

[The_Dude]

Thanks for info, someone just posted this, do you have any idea if this will do the same thing? This one is free :)

Thanks

[primesuspect]

posted what?

[The_Dude]

Oops, here's the link
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12217

[GHoosdum]

The item that FormFactor posted is for making a CD that you can run your operating system from - basically you don't use the hard drive for Windows in that case. It's of temporary use, at best.

Is your goal to make a complete drive image? Backing up your data? Or do you need a LiveCD to run from the CD ROM?

[The_Dude]

My goal is basically to make an image of my entire system, including: (installed programs, files, codecs, etc.) So if I need to reformat my hard drive I won't have to reinstall everything or lose any of my files, I can just load that image and everything would be back to normal.

Thanks.

[primesuspect]

Yeah, Acronis is what you need.

[Leonardo]

You might also want to check out Norton Ghost. I don't know if it's available as a standalone program, but it's good. I've been using it for years. From what I've read though, the Acronis software may be better.

EDIT: Here's the Norton Ghost download page (http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat1/ec_MAIN.Entry17c?CID=0&PN=5&SP=10007&SID=49997&PID=754931&ClickID=bzzn6enyeemzgz1yg1nlf6gl1ymgv1sdzg&CUR=840&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0). It may very well be that Acronis $99 price is worth the $30 premium over Ghost's. I would try to get the opinion of someone who has used both programs.

[mirage]

How about booting with a Linux CD, mounting your disk as an NTFS volume and using "tar" command. Since no files are protected anymore because Windows is not running, you should be able to backup everything in a tar file. Just restore it when you need to, luckily NTFS file system has write capability in the latest kernel. Actually, I suggest having a dual boot Windows/Linux system. Linux comes really handy when Windows can not boot anymore. You can access and restore anything on Windows partition after booting into Linux.

[GHoosdum]

Woud compressing everything in a tar file properly preserve the boot record and registry, as disc imaging does?

[mirage]

You have to backup boot record separately, because 'tar' do not read it, it is not a file in the file system. But registry is a file, actually multiple files, and compressing the tar file will preserve the files, no problems with that.