I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled with it and I see
that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I can do
to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP on a
separate partition if that would help because right now two clone programs I
have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is because I have
everything on one partition.

I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of an
option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.

What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install in
the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything else,
so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is actually
a 75gig drive.

Xu Wrote:
> I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled with it and I
> see
> that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I
> can do
> to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP on
> a
> separate partition if that would help because right now two clone
> programs I
> have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is because I
> have
> everything on one partition.
>
> I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of
> an
> option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.
>
> What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install
> in
> the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything
> else,
> so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is
> actually
> a 75gig drive.

You can try using the Backup Utility provided in Windows XP
Professional.
http://tinyurl.com/3lvzn


--
Evolution54

Yes, I have. There is something in there called "System State" but I was not
sure if that was the same thing as a clone technique in the other programs
like Ghost that just refers to it as "system." I have also had several times
in which the backup would not be restored or failed to open when using XP's
back up.


"Evolution54" <Evolution54.213kjh@pcbanter.net> wrote in message
news:Evolution54.213kjh@pcbanter.net...
>
>>
> You can try using the Backup Utility provided in Windows XP
> Professional.
> http://tinyurl.com/3lvzn
>
>
> --
> Evolution54

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 21:57:30 -0600, "Xu" <xuxuxuxu@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled with it and I see
>that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I can do
>to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP on a
>separate partition if that would help because right now two clone programs I
>have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is because I have
>everything on one partition.
>
>I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of an
>option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.
>
>What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install in
>the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything else,
>so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is actually
>a 75gig drive.
>

Simply put the things you don't want in the partition image
"clone" onto another partition first. When such things
require identification of their location (applications) you
may need to reinstall them. There is no need for even 1/4th
of a 32GB partition for windows alone, and you probably do
not need continual backups of the program files folder
because most of those will not be subject to failure. You
might consider making one backup of all of this, THEN with
further backups only the things most subject to problems.

You start out taking clone and even indicated that in the subject line.
Then, you start talking about imaging which is another process.

You never indicated where you're saving your image or the partition size and
available space on that partition for saving the image file.

--
Jonny
"Xu" <xuxuxuxu@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dGHuf.38686$Lb1.8053@bignews3.bellsouth.net.. .
> I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled with it and I
see
> that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I can
do
> to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP on a
> separate partition if that would help because right now two clone programs
I
> have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is because I have
> everything on one partition.
>
> I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of an
> option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.
>
> What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install in
> the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything else,
> so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is
actually
> a 75gig drive.
>
>

"Xu" <xuxuxuxu@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dGHuf.38686$Lb1.8053@bignews3.bellsouth.net.. .
>I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled with it and I
>see that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I
>can do to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP
>on a separate partition if that would help because right now two clone
>programs I have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is
>because I have everything on one partition.
>
> I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of an
> option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.
>
> What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install in
> the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything else,
> so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is
> actually a 75gig drive.

Try Norton Ghost. It will copy all the data in a partition, nothing more.
Therefore the destination partition will only need to be large enough to
accommodate your 32 gigs of data, plus provision for needed expansion.

Most emergency restore programs I'm familiar with require a floppy drive. I
certainly wouldn't be without one.

I keep my Windows XP system, programs, mail and data in separate partitions.
It sure simplifies restoring partitions without losing data.

Andy

Thank you. I would rather be able to go to cd or even a SD card. As far as I
backing up, I have always just dragged and dropped all my documents and
programs to an external 200gig usb 2 drive. XP sure makes that quick and
easy. My problem is all these activations I am getting now. I would like to
stop that and I was thinking imaging my programs, and especially XP, would
be a work around.

The programs I own now are Nero's BackItUp and a little program I got from
Download.com called R-drive image.


"Andy/Bandi" <kanadaiy@telus.net> wrote in message
news:5d%uf.30268$AP5.7125@edtnps84...
>
> "Xu" <xuxuxuxu@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:dGHuf.38686$Lb1.8053@bignews3.bellsouth.net.. .
>>I am trying to learn how to image my drive. I have dabbled with it and I
>>see that the actual image would be 32gig in size. I am wondering what I
>>can do to make this process smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP
>>on a separate partition if that would help because right now two copy
>>programs I have tried both want to copy the hole HDD. I assume that is
>>because I have everything on one partition.
>>
>> I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is not much of
>> an option for me unless I can use one of my sd disks in the card reader.
>>
>> What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files that install
>> in the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't care about anything
>> else, so it does not seem necessary that I copy the whole drive, which is
>> actually a 75gig drive.
>
> Try Norton Ghost. It will copy all the data in a partition, nothing more.
> Therefore the destination partition will only need to be large enough to
> accommodate your 32 gigs of data, plus provision for needed expansion.
>
> Most emergency restore programs I'm familiar with require a floppy drive.
> I certainly wouldn't be without one.
>
> I keep my Windows XP system, programs, mail and data in separate
> partitions. It sure simplifies restoring partitions without losing data.
>
> Andy
>

Hi,

Back to your original question.

.......Will cloned HDD avoid activation?

The answer is no. If you're trying to fool programs into thinking they
were just installed instead of when you really did, your computers date
will also have to be kept in the past too.

There are registry entries made when you install software that keep
track of when the software was installed, these entries are usually
referred to as turds.

Cloning, imaging, or even reimporting a registry hive will rollback
things to the way there were at the time you backed things up, but they
are still keeping the dates intact of when you originally installed the
software. When your computer date hits the magic termination date of
your trial software it'll still do its process even though you're
running a clone/image etc. Your trial period will end as designed.

Sure, you could keep your computers date running in the past, but then
you're probably going to be finding newer files-n-things being over
written with older versions every now and then too. You're certainly not
the first, or only person here, to want to keep an unregistered program
running forever without paying the freight.


---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor

"Xu" wrote:
>I am trying to learn how to clone my drive. I have dabbled
> with it and I see that the actual image would be 32gig in
> size. I am wondering what I can do to make this process
> smaller? I wonder if I reformatted and put XP on a separate
> partition if that would help because right now two clone
> programs I have tried both want to copy the hole HDD.
> I assume that is because I have everything on one partition.
>
> I have no floppy, so trying to use the disks for boot up is
> not much of an option for me unless I can use one of my
> sd disks in the card reader.
>
> What I want is a full copy of my system, and all the files
> that install in the Programs folder. That is all I want. I don't
> care about anything else, so it does not seem necessary
> that I copy the whole drive, which is actually a 75gig drive.


If you want to copy a single partition, not the whole drive,
Casper XP by Future Systems Solutions can do that. It can
even put that single partition among other partitions on the
destination drive. But it works hard drive to hard drive, not
hard drive to CD. It does not need Microsoft .NET Framework
installed like Ghost, and it stays in Windows while copying.
If you're interested, you can get a free 30-day trial copy at
www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp .

The clone will be bootable, not an "image file" that has to
be "restored", i.e. copied back , in order to boot. As with all
clones, start it up for its 1st time with the original HD
disconnected. Thereafter, the clone can be booted with the
original OS visible without harm to the clone's files.

For shrinking an existing partition without disturbing the
data that is within it, use Partition Magic.

*TimDaniels*