Drive SnapShot - Restoring an OS image

@Brian

ok fine but i update the image anyway to fine tune ntfsdos. i have disabled my floppy in the bios and my dos is A , is not used so available. if you have a floppy enabled this will be why it chosen C for dos.

if you only going to be using 3 restore images A B C you can remove the lines D E F G in both files so they dont appear or just leave them in if you want to add more options like differentials etc.

it fine for bad command. you must leave the goto ends in place or if not will run the lines below. i inserted fake restore commands so these come up with bad file commands as they just there to pave the way and need to replace with your real restore commands. so check this.

first of all choose Dos Prompt option and from A: you can run snapshot or your batch files from there to test there working. you can also run batch files of course from the menu if you use 'call' in front of the batch file eg. call batch.bat. test your lines from the Dos Prompt first. if you are using batch it could be the batch letters inside are wrong as your drives on different letters now. remember to insert your batch files into the image.

 

Sounds like I'm close. Where do I enter a restore command line?

 

Just saw you last paragraph.

 

the A:\> is the power to enter all dos commands. you can just type it out on that line. select the Dos Prompt option no.9

this is just a test to see if your restore commands are good, then you can enter them in the menu.

This is random example of how it should look in the config.sys and autoexec.bat for 3 restore images

config.sys

MENUITEM=A, Restore Snapshot Image Differential of C
MENUITEM=B, Restore Snapshot Image Daily Full Backup of C
MENUITEM=C, Restore Snapshot Image Weekly Differential of C

autoexec.bat

:A
snapshot restore HD1 Auto c-tu-dif.sna
goto end

:B
snapshot restore HD1 Auto c-dai-sna
goto end

:C
snapshot restore HD1 Auto c-weekly.sna
goto end

 

Excellent. I'm just running the first restore now using your method. From a batch file.

You gave me some ideas with ntfsdos and I've been able to complete my project of a DS restore from a DOS partition, completely unattended. But I'll leave that for a few days until you fine tune your method.

 

great i like this way as no partition to create but having a dos partition has it uses. i like the hidden partition method. what can do is make the partition hidden so nobody can see your images in windows to delete them and then unhide them in dos and then take an image and then hide it again so its hidden in windows again. btw ntfsdos is freeware.

just use the Dos Prompt for testing commands and testing batch. insert the batch files into A B or C etc. in place of a command when they been tested and working good.

Theres also MBRWiz for dos in there. you can insert it before a goto end after a batch or command and it can reboot after the the image is restored.

with mbrwizd /shutdown=1

here is an example for running batch.

autoexec.bat

:A
call restore.bat
goto end

:B
call daily.bat
goto end

:C
call diff.bat
goto end

 

We're just about to watch a video and I'll test these tomorrow. Thanks.

 

recovery updated - ntfsdos always mounts to D and now has the /N option and more memory is now available.

 

Mark,

I'm just doing a restore from a batch file in the .ima image. Very nice. Easy.

 

great and it runs fast as its running in memory. i might make the image bigger and put more things in there at a later date. theres alot room for improvement. just out of interest whats your batch and are you following the 8 character filename limit for dos?

 

Here is my batch file..

F:
CD \
snapshot restore HD1:1 auto F:\XP1.sna -Y
pqboot /p:1


It didn't like mbrwizd /shutdown=1 at the end of the batch file. I should have put it in autoexec.bat. I'll try that tomorrow.

 

the reason it don't like is because mbrwizd is on D and in the batch you told it F so it can't find mbrwizd on D looking at that batch it seems you have another snapshot on F thats running not the one in the image.

you could of done in the batch file like this. miss off the F: CD\

f:\snapshot restore HD1:1 auto F:\XP1.sna -Y
f:\pqboot /p:1
mbrwizd /shutdown=1

anyway pqboot is fine they both work.

 

f:\snapshot restore HD1:1 auto F:\XP1.sna -Y
mbrwizd /shutdown=1

This works although I was presented with a list of mbrwizd switches and had to press "any key" before the computer restarted.

Mark, I think this is a winner. It's very easy to use and would be even easier for beginners if there was a default setting and they didn't have to edit autoexec.bat and config.sys. Editing could come later when they were comfortable that everything works.

Keep developing and I hope other Snapshot users start testing and provide feedback.

Excellent work!!!

 

This is my preference. Cleaned up by removing unnecessary second F:\.

F:
CD \
snapshot restore HD1:1 auto XP1.sna -Y
pqboot /p:1


I meant to ask for your batch file. I assume you use Snapshot.exe in the image.

 

I cannot agree more. Tom and his crew wrote the most underrated drive image tool that's out there. It's the only one that has never failed me.

 

@Brian

Hi, try /confirm on the end of mbrwizd. i can't test this right now. it could be only for MBR functions but worth a shot. incidentally i thought you was saying -Y wasn't working a previous time and had to use echo |. but here you using it. whats the filesize of pqboot?


right thanks the trouble is everybody uses they own filenames which of course everybodys is different hence the editing. if somehow could present a list of images to select be good but not easy to do in dos due to its limitation.

its handy having on startup for quick access. also possible to run from cd so you covered if the partiitons goes kaput. you got the easy menu like now for days you want to images at quick notice, no cd to find etc. and then cd for those days partitions goes down. so covered both ways. easy and stress free.

you running the files on F the idea really is to keep all the necessary files in the image and not get lost they are together and better in more of a disaster but its upto you if you prefer. i'm not at home right now. i post more soon enough.

i keep at it.

 

pqboot.exe is 89 kb

You have provided an easy way to restore. Let's say your default setting was to restore WinXP.sna. Let's say someone has a backup called dfjkiytrervjkiyrcvjlklm.sna. To use that file with your app all he has to do is change the filename to WinXP.sna. That's what I do when I want to run my restore app. Change the filename to what is needed in the app.

Changing a filename is easier than editing autoexec.bat and config.sys.

 

yes fine point easier to change there filename but if there got several image names. you still have to know there filenames to begin with and the location. it's fine looking in a specified default location. how would you know that def.sna is the file they want to restore to be renamed. ideally a selection menu is better that having to type in the filename. user input at some stage is necessary.

abc.sna
def.sna
ghi.sna

so Pqboot is small then fine just not free as it comes with PM8.

Heres a Boot Manager i found called Plop and
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

few nice dos tools from Plop also
http://www.plop.at/en/dostools.html

 

While Mark is fine tuning his method I'd like to mention that I can now do an unattended SnapShot restore using a DOS partition. It's not as easy to setup as Mark's method and I don't expect it to be a popular method.

In addition I used Terabyte's TBOSDT to "copy" the DOS partition to a file and then booted from that file. The DOS partition can then be deleted. Now I can run unattended restores by booting to the file. Double clicking a batch file starts it off.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/tbosdt.htm

 

I done the automatic uninstall for the 'recover menu' for now. The file recover.exe is the install and now also the uninstaller. Just select Install to install the recovery menu. To totally remove it just select Remove. If you installed before any existing files will not be overwritten. This prevents writing over your recovery.ima. If you have a edited existing recovery.ima backup first. If you want to install again just select Remove and then wait 20 secs and then run again and select Install.

@Brian
We all interested to see your dos partiton automatic restore. I think i saw those tools become available for download when i bought IFW.