Expert ideas for backup restore of C drive

[TheForce]

After two years I am beginning to see some odd trouble with my Dell XPS M1210 laptop. I mention this model only because I have consulted Dell's XPS tech support and got the advice it is time to force a complete rebuild of the default Windows XP OS from the factory disks and restore all my apps. They claim that over time many things invade the OS and corrupt it making debugging difficult and often breaking other stuff while fixing some things. MY experience tells me they are correct.

However, My laptop now has the most variety of applications installed and will be quite a chore to reinstall all the applications, especially all the time required to re- authorize it all and perform the latest updates.

I believe the best way to achieve the restore is to perform a windows backup to a scratch drive now. Then, reinstall the OS to a new hard drive ( I want to upgrade from a 120Gb 5400 RPM drive now to a 320Gb 7200RPM drive as well. ) Next restore the applications from the backup on the scratch drive. My concern is that I will need to not restore the Windows folder lest I end up with all the same problems over again. But if I don't restore the Windows folder will the applications work? What about the registry?

I guess the basic question is, how do I fix the issues in Windows while streamlining the restore of everything? The Dell tech said I would have to reinstall each application and perform all the updates manually and individually. Ugh!


Open to any and all suggestions.

BTW- The specific trouble with the system is that when I boot now I get weird error messages upon startup that I have to click on to make them go away. The other problem is no DVD will play audio in WMP, CinePlayer or Media center player. Video is fine. It will play audio CD's fine. However, if I launch the Media Direct application from off condition the DVD plays sound just fine so we know the hardware is OK.
When I shut down I get a series of errors that state Java. exe can't write to memory and a few other error pop ups too that I have to click through to shut down.

If I can get the errors all fixed, I will do a simple image of the C Drive to make the hard drive upgrade but I don't want to do the Image backup process if I will be transferring all the problems too.

I will be trying a registry cleaner, and a couple of spyware cleaners tomorrow as one last ditch effort, so if that was your suggestion, I already have this on my agenda.

 

[snathanb]

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I guess the basic question is, how do I fix the issues in Windows while streamlining the restore of everything? The Dell tech said I would have to reinstall each application and perform all the updates manually and individually. Ugh!

I'm afraid the Dell Tech is giving you the best advice (surprise!). It is highly unlikely that what you are wanting to do would even work.

I'll let a few other chime in, but I think the best thing to do would be to install a fresh drive and reinstall windows and all your applications.

 

[StevenD]

Unfortunately, there isnt anything you can do at this point to make your life easier. You will need to install a fresh OS, install your apps, then run all your updates.

Once that is complete, ghost it or capture an image and keep it for when you want to restore your computer again. For each one of my machines, I follow this process. I usually end up with three images for each box....1 for the Original software, 1 for my OS reload (with patches) and 1 for a complete install.

I like using Acronis. You boot off a CD or thumb drive and can back everything up over the network or to a USB drive.

Im looking at moving my images all to Windows Deployment Services, but thats probably a little more than you want to manage.

 

[snathanb]

Once that is complete, ghost it or capture an image and keep it for when you want to restore your computer again. For each one of my machines, I follow this process. I usually end up with three images for each box....1 for the Original software, 1 for my OS reload (with patches) and 1 for a complete install.

I like using Acronis. You boot off a CD or thumb drive and can back everything up over the network or to a USB drive.

Great minds think alike. This is exactly what I do.

 

[TheForce]

Thanks. I figured if the experts here don't have a simple way to do it then, I'll need to do as everyone suggests.

I plan to do this on a new hard drive and then continue to work with the old until the new one is complete. I will also do as you suggested and do an image backup as soon as the system is complete. I can see this is a project that could take a couple of weeks to complete.


FYI- I'm also updating some of the hardware too.

Replacing the older EVDO Verizon 5700 card with a new Verizon 5720 EVDO Rev A card.

Upgrading the ram to 4 Gb to get ready for a new hard drive with Vista 64 bit OS. The Dell Laptop is Vista certified so it should work fine with the Vista disk set from Dell.

I wish there was a BluRay drive for it from Dell but I will probably be looking at one from a third party.


Oh, I completed the registry cleaning process and now it does boot without the little error popups.

 

[Van]

You could try copying some of the baser programs over to a temp drive such as the ones that only live in one folder. I have my old hard drive hooked up to my new comp and have migrated a few programs over with little trouble and have left others on the drive and still use them. There are adapters and case enclosures that you can get for laptop drives as backups and what have you so you will get a second life out of that drive.

 

[mike123abc]

It is one of the most annoying problems that has not been solved yet... There is no simple way to snap in or snap out an application. They tend to sprawl around everywhere and get tangled up just like the cords behind your computer instantly seem to do.

 

[Foxbat]

I haven't tried it yet, but VMware and Microsoft's Hyper V are supposed to allow Virtualized Applications. Instead of installing the app on your PC, you install it on a virtual PC instead, then start up the virtual PC and its app.

And count me in as another fan of Acronis...

 

[jeffturner]

thanks for the tips buddy

 

[TheForce]

While the Acronis and similar programs will work for most computer setups. those with custom features like the Dell laptop I describbed that uses Media Direct with 3 flavors of that in use today have special problems. First of all the main hard drive has a special partition that is invisible to Windows XP for the Media direct. Then it has a tools boot section, and also a restore boot section. Now if you were keeping count that's 4 partitions, to include your main C drive for the XP OS and the invisible Media Direct Partition. This makes it absolutely impossible to use these traditional tools to make a clone of the hard drive. Fortunately, Dell will supply you with a special ordered DVD that has the Bedeia Direct and partitioning tools on it for free along with instructions.
As I understand the process you have to create the 4 partitions using the OS CD that comes with the computer and then apply the Media Direct CD and finally restore the C drive as a bootable drive from an image of the backup.
I'm now awaiting Dell to send me the Media Direct reinstallation DVD.
The backup process is long and complex. No known cloning software or backup software will work for a Dell Laptop. I've tried it and the tree structure looks right but most of the software fails to run with issues like file not found errors.

More detail on this. -- You see, ordinarily a 4 partition system would not be an issue for a cloning program if all the partitions were done alike and all had the same file structure. The Dell laptops are using some special drive formatting and custom LBA to allow each section to be bootable as a special OS.

 

[snathanb]

More detail on this. -- You see, ordinarily a 4 partition system would not be an issue for a cloning program if all the partitions were done alike and all had the same file structure. The Dell laptops are using some special drive formatting and custom LBA to allow each section to be bootable as a special OS.

If you make an Acronis Boot CD and boot from it, it should see all the partitions and be able to back them up. I've backed up and restored plenty of Dells with this mess.