New OS in Empty Image???

I see that I can create an empty image, and it says I can install a new OS. Does this mean ONLY a copy of my currently installed XP Home version or can I install a copy of XP Pro? Thanks for any help.

Ed

 

Thank You angus49

Thats another feature which completely escapes me and am anxious myself to learn the process for making one.

 

An addition to my last post. If I am able to create this XP Pro image will I then be able to make images of it?

 

Specialists with more experience in it then myself can discount or confirm this, but my understanding is that once you add an install into the Empty Image you also need to reinstall FD-ISR again but only in that particular new snapshot once completed. Then you're quite free to also archive it just like any others.

This FD-ISR is a Tremendous work of intelligent ingenuity in the way they fashioned it to be so user friendly and forgiving of mistakes.

 

Yes of course, fine, any edition then as Easter says install FD-ISR.

 

Yes, for most of you that very well might come into question. I have close associates with a local university so i been fortunate that i was able to buy my license as a Volume Package where i am within limits to install multiple copies to local machines. I know this doesn't apply to most users.

 

FDISR allows only these OS's : Win2000pro, WinXPhome, WinXPpro and winVISTA (= 4 snapshots with each another OS).
So you can create a multiple boot system and use an empty snapshot to install these OS's.
There is also another way to do this without an empty snapshot and I prefer that one.

 

I've had windows 2000, xp home, xp pro and 2003 all installed in seperate snapshots. With fd-isr its a breeze to install and switch between them.

 

How dependable and safe is it to create a new snapshot with FD-ISR. I assume follow the guidelines as pointed out and everything will proceed just fine right?

 

Well if by 'new' you mean 'empty' snapshot i've done it many times and never had any problems with it. The 2 basic rules are to first allow it to do a normal boot after restarting so it ends up showing an 'ntldr is missing' error. Second, reboot and install windows as usual making sure you do not format the system drive.

If anything goes wrong you should be able to able to enter the fd-isr boot menu and switch back to a working snapshot, unless of course you chose to format the system drive in which case you're out of luck.

You can of course try Erik's alternate method, i've never tried it so i can't comment on how safe/effective it is.

 

This is the method, I use without needing an "Empty Snapshot". This has been said already a few times in this forum, months ago, so this is old news.
You must trust your Image Backup/Restore of course, but that is normal.

1. Backup your actual system.
2. Install a new OS or your actual OS (+ other softwares) over your actual system.
3. Once everything is installed, install FDISR without second snapshot (not needed)
4. Copy/update from snapshot to new archive on an external HDD or second HDD
5. Restore your actual system again.
6. Copy/update your new archive to a new snapshot.

That's it. My new installation of September is based on that method, so it works.
You can create any snapshot this way.

 

Couldn't you just archive your current system, install the new os + fd-isr then restore your archive?

 

farmerlee,

Yes that would work fine but EA, I think, wanted to maximize his recovery possibilities in his September system rebuild. An archive is different from an image. They can be used in much the same way but they are still different because they are produced by different types of programs. If I'm not mistaken, Eric puts much more faith in Imaging programs than ISR programs so imaging takes precedence.

I"ll venture to say that Eric is simply showing just the tip of the iceberg of his overall approach to a system setup in this example but is sharing yet another way to accomplish a way to install another operating system. There were many more steps that Eric documented somewhere in FD-ISR forum. He Imaged and Archived many times in different combinations and to different places. Eric will hopefully explain this better than I can.

As a lurker, the abundance of knowledge I gain by the many sharp sharing people who contribute their experiences is fantastic.

Thanks all!

 

Ahh i see, i'm just one who's alway trying to find the easy way which isn't always the safest or most reliable .

 

That's right, I trust Image Backup alot more, than Immediate System Recovery.

I make a clear distinction, between clean images, that have been hardly on-line and daily images, that have been on-line all the time.
If I want my healthy system back, I will never restore my daily images, I will always restore my clean images.
In other words I have two sets of images and archives : clean and daily.

Clean images create clean snapshots and clean snapshots create clean archives.
Daily (dirty) images create daily (dirty) snapshots and daily (dirty) archives and you can only depend on security softwares to keep them as clean as possible.

Lots of users don't even have clean images, just daily images or no images at all.

Most FDISR-users use copy/update from daily snapshots to daily archives to keep their daily archives up-to-date.
I don't do this. I use copy/update from clean archives to daily snapshots to keep my daily snapshots clean.

My clean archives don't only remove malware, they also keep :
- my registry clean, even when my softwares changed them, while they were doing a job AND
- my software folders clean, even when my softwares changed them, while they were doing a job.
Most of the time, I don't even know where and what all these softwares changed in my snapshots, but my clean archives know where to find these changes and what to clean without cleaning too much.

In my daily snapshots, I don't run registry cleaners, history cleaners or do manual cleanings, my clean archives do that job much better and they do it all in one single copy/update.
I run my registry cleaner, history cleaner and do manual cleanings only in my clean images.

I use my daily snapshots/archives for the dirty work and when I decide to keep something permanently, I upgrade my clean images, snapshots and archives.

ShadowProtect is always off-line : Recovery CD and an image on an external harddisk, nothing can go wrong in normal circumstances.
FDISR and its daily snapshots are constantly on-line and confronted with new trusted/untrusted softwares and malware. So alot of bad things can happen to FDISR, its daily snapshots and daily archives.

 

Thanks EricA for clarifying but most of all for repeating those steps again. Also farmerlee for bringing back to memory the 'ntldr is missing' error steps and caution against formatting and thus preventing making a mess of things.

Yeah i fall under the "Most FDISR users use copy/update" to archives category myself but instead choose to impliment your FREEZE storage approach for the "clean" snap approach.

I also still take plenty of confidence in FDISR as a secondary image backup solution of sorts by archiving to separated (internal HD) disk then either storing off the machine or unplugging it. Having successfully completed recovering an entire HD x 3 partitions that i deliberately unleashed a file infector on that jumped over to all partitions, it was as simple as wiping out the drive with a zero tool and reformat then reinstall BOTH xp & FDISR then rebuild from those saved archives. It consumed some additional time but very little effort IMO, and was neccessary since i didn't yet image the drive. Dangerous step not having a backup image at the time but FDISR came thru with flying colors. I since then imaged (twice) with 2 different apps (Paragon/DriveSnapshot) for good measure. I know FD-ISR was never intended to either replace or serve as an image recovery app, but that's just what it did courtesy it's archives feature.