Drive Snapshot restore

[n8chavez]

Does anyone have any idea how to create a bootable Drive Snapshot restore disc with images on it? There are instructions how to build a floppy disc on the website but that seems outdated as many do not have a floppy drive, including me.

Thanks.

[Brian K]

n8chavez,

Half an answer. If you can borrow a USB floppy drive you can create a Snapshot boot floppy. Using WinImage you can then create an .ima file. Now you can give the USB floppy drive back.

From the .ima you can create a bootable CD. At least you are around the floppy issue.

Or you can simply put snapshot.exe on a DOS bootable USB flash drive.

[n8chavez]

Thanks as always BK. I knew that you were going to say that. I was just hoping there was another way.

To be honest I am torn between IFW and DS. I just found out that IFW does not allow for backing up of multiple drives when creating the images to optical disc, which is vital for me. Doing so allows for restore media on the disc along with the images, as you know. I use my flash drive as a hardware login key, so I need an exact copy.

DS will allow for that but creating the restore media is difficult. A PE disc takes a lot of time and is slow to boot.

Also, it seems TBIView has issue with copying files. I can attribute that to DS having a simplier approach.

What to do, what to do.....

[Brian K]

Nate, I think you could make a bootable DOS DVD with a boot file and separate data area. It would be messy but your images would be on the same boot disk. I'd imagine creating each disk would be too time consuming to make it worthwhile.

I know you don't like storing images on HDs. We differ there. Consider this and tell me you don't like it. That's OK.

I have a bootable USB external HD. Plug it in, restart your computer and it boots to DOS. You can have hundreds of GB of backup images on the HD if you like. From DOS you can choose your restore program. Drive Snapshot, IFD, Ghost. It's really quite easy. I got the idea from here...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=363

You don't have to use BING. Just edit a few of the included batch files or run your apps directly from the C:\ prompt.

No optical disks are required. Everything is on the external HD. Applications and images.

[Brian K]

Nate, perhaps more to your liking, you can put multiple IFW images from different HDs on a single IFD bootable DVD. I'll test it now just to make sure.

Edit: Yes, that works

[n8chavez]

Color me intregued. How do I do that, by using the cdboot.f35 boot image?

[Brian K]

Unfortunately, images must be created to the HD initially, but can be deleted after burning the DVD.

Use your registered cdboot.f35. The one that comes in IFD from the registered downloads page. Copy it to your desktop and rename it to cdboot.ima.

Open Nero and choose DVD-ROM (Boot). For the Image File, browse to cdboot.ima. Ignore the advanced options. Click New, drag your .tbi files to the second rectangle, click Burn. When booting from the DVD, press Spacebar to start the IFD GUI.

The disk is not multi-session. All .tbi files have to be added in the one session.