Installing WindowsXP/2000/Vista or Windows7
|
The following are some suggestions for installing
Windows as well as how to backup the OS, Data, and Programs |
Overview: When possible, I prefer to install the
Operating
system and Programs on one partition and keep all the data on another.
The main reason is this is a much easier
configuration to recover from when the operating system crashes.
|
Creating the Initial Partition
|
| 1. |
Create a relatively small partition of
20-40 gigs (depending on how many programs you expect to install) and
install Windows into that smaller partition. |
Creating An Additional Partition
|
| 1. |
From within XP or Windows2000, you can
run DiskManagement to create and format additional partitions. |
| 2. |
Keep your data on this second partition.
I also like to keep the source files for my major programs here such as
Office, Photoshop etc. |
| 3. |
TweakUI from Microsoft will allow you to
redirect your Favorites, My Documents and any other special folders to
the second partition. This way in case of a crash, you will not lose
anything. |
Backup
|
| 1. |
To backup the second partition, I simply
use a second hard drive. |
| 2. |
It is a simple process to use XCOPY to
copy the second partition to your backup drive. |
| 3. |
An example would be: xcopy d:\
h:\ /s /y /c /d /i /r /h
D: is the drive letter for the second partition
H: is the drive letter for the backup drive
/s - Copies subdirectories
/y - Does not prompt on overwrite
/c - Keeps going on an error
/d - Only copies new or changed files
/i - If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
/r - Copies Read Only Files
/h - Copies Hidden Files |
| 4. |
So the first time through it will backup
everything. Then due to the /d switch, the next time it will only copy
new or changed files. This makes backups very fast and easy to restore. |
| 5. |
If you are comfortable writing batch
files, you can write one with those same commands and switches. Often I
do this for customers, make one for each day of the week. e.g.
xcopy d:\
h:\monday /s /y /c /d /i /r /h
xcopy d:\
h:\tuesday /s /y /c /d /i /r /h
etc. |
| 6. |
There are also third party programs that
can do this for you as well. I've just never found anything quite as
configurable though. |
Disaster Recovery
|
| 1. |
This is the main area where the smaller
OS partition comes into play |
| 2. |
After installing the operating system,
get all the updates and install whatever common programs you will always
want to have. |
| 3. |
Using a program like Acronis Drive
Image, make an image of the OS partition and put it on the second
partition. |
| 4. |
The next time your backup runs, it will
copy this image as well. |
| 5. |
Now should Windows fails to start, you
can simply boot with the Acronis True Image CD that gets created and do
a restore of the operating system and base programs |
| 6. |
Restoring takes only about 10 minutes
and is the fastest way I know of to get my system back again after a
crash. |
| 7. |
I do the same basic procedure for all my
client's NT servers as well. I just keep the images on a separate hard
drive. It has enabled me to restore a completely failed hard drive,
operating system, data, and applications in under an hour. |
