4 replies to this topic

[PeggyB]

Son got laptop with Vista and didn't make the CD that it tells you to do at the beginning. Is there a way for him to make it now and can he put it on a flash drive?

[Berton]

There is a small program on the computer used for making the disc. With Vista and Win7 it will burn DVDs, just be sure to used DVD-R or DVD+R, not the RW discs. Most times it will make only one set. Usually the program can be found in Start, All Programs and the brand name Folder.

[PeggyB]

Can you put it on a fashdrive if you choose to?

[Berton]

If that's a choice in the program. Two things to keep in mind, one is the Thumb/Flash drive is somewhat less reliable in the long term than a DVD and the other is that the computer has to have the ability in the BIOS to boot to that Thumb/Flash drive [USB Device] to get the restore/recovery started.

[rokytnji]

I'll tell you how to make a backup zipped image on flash drive using Linux but it would just be gobbleygook to you. One screwup and you could trash Vista.

1. Boot up your Live Ubuntu CD/DVD.
2. Open a terminal window on the GUI desktop.
3. Switch to the root account with the command sudo su -
4. Plug in the external drive. If it is recognized a disc icon will appear on the desktop. If it isn't then you will need to mount it manually. We'll assume it is auto-mounted. It should be mounted as /media/something where something may be "disk" or some other label. You will need that path to backup the system disc. Whatever you do, DO NOT mount or try to access the system disc at this time.
5. Assuming that the external drive was mounted as /media/disk, execute the following command in the command-line window:

dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -c >/media/disk/system-image.gz

That will copy and compress the system disc image, including the partition table, boot loader, and all of the partitions. Later if you need to restore it, then bootup the Live Ubuntu CD/DVD again, mount the external drive, open the terminal window, switch to root as shown above, and execute this command:

gunzip -c /media/disk/system-image.gz | dd of=/dev/sda

As Jackie Chan says in his movies, "Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?"

If you don't know what the heck I just said. DO NOT TRY THIS. dd is a very powerful linux tool for imaging drives and the wrong command will kill a OS/Partition if misunderstood.


Pay for a GUI Windows cloning tool or if you think you are computer savvy a little. You can also try using a free cloning tool like Clonezilla

Which would probably be easier to understand for a Linux novice. Uses GUI interface instead of command line.

http://clonezilla.or...09_ocs-sr-x.png

Edit: I know posting this can be confusing as all hell to a Linux novice or Full time Windows User or Full Time Mac user. Just posting this for info. Do not try this as I can not warranty if you make a typo or don't understand Linux drive labeling. This works for me but I am a full time Linux user who understands Linux terms and drive labeling. Poke and Hope won't work with these commands as well as " I think I know" what I am doing. I can't stress on how dangerous my above commands can be to a unexperienced Linux computer user. You have been warned.