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Sabrewolf3

17 Posts

13745

July 28th, 2005 03:00

loading new Ctrl + F11 image

Hello all,
 
As you can see from this post and this post, I've had a hard time upgrading my niece's brand new Inspiron 6000 from WinXP Home to WinXP Pro without wiping out everything else.  I have finally managed to get everything I wanted done.  I've performed the OS upgrade, installed Office XP Pro, gotten updated on all service packs and security patches and installed anti-virus, firewall and spyware utilities.  I've even gotten her remote access software and wireless network connections set up for her to use on campus, so she is all set to go! 
 
Now comes the hard part.  To avoid having to do this all over again, especially since I will be 300 miles from her when she heads away this fall, I want to replace the current Dell PC restore image on her hard drive with a new image of her current configuration.  I'm not really sure how to do this, and am hoping some of you can help walk me through it. 
 
Here are my questons:
  1. How can I retrieve and copy the current image that's on the drive?  I want to store this for safe keeping, just in case the new image I create is corrupted or something.  I don't want her to be left with no valid image to restore with.  So, what are the steps, and what utility do I need to make a copy of the current image?  Also, what's the approximate size of the Dell image?  How do I find out?
  2. What software do I need to create the new image, and have it be compatible with Dell's Ctrl+F11 utility to restore the hard drive?  I think I read somewhere that Dell's image is Norton Ghost 2003-compatible.  Is Norton Ghost 2003 the same thing as Norton Ghost 9.0?
  3. How do I actually go about creating the new image, and insuring that it mirrors everything on the drive?  Then, how do I go about getting this new image into the special partition so that Ctrl + F11 can access it?
  4. Any words of wisdom, caution, etc in doing this? 

I'm doing this to make things easier in case she has some sort of disaster she needs to recover from.  I certainly don't want to end up creating the disaster myself.  I am humbling myself before you all and begging for your assistance! 

Thanks much in advance,  -- Richard

Message Edited by Sabrewolf3 on 07-27-2005 11:11 PM

Sabrewolf3

17 Posts

August 19th, 2005 02:00

Hi Dan,
 
Ok, here is where I'm at.  (Thanks again, by the way, for helping me restore all of my data.  I will never be able to thank you enough.)
 
I have finished working on my niece's laptop, and I'm ready to give it to her before she goes away.  Because of the amount of data I had on her drive, the as-shipped DellRestore partition wasn't big enough to hold the Ghost image, so I had to resize partitions 2 & 3 on the drive. 
 
I created partition # 2 as 50.0GB and partition # 3 is now 7.1 GB.  I ran DSRFIX to reinstall the Dell MBR code, and it refreshed my backup partition table.  Then, using CD-R's, I restored the Windows XP image I had created of the 2nd partition.
 
Before I deleted and resized partition 3 in the step above, I copied all of its files onto an external hard drive.  After I rebooted and manually recovered the Ghost image to partition 2, I have now moved the original partition 3 files back onto the partition.  Then, I went into the IMG directory and deleted the FI.GHO and FI000001.GHS files.  I rebooted into DOS, created a new image of the 2nd partition and saved it into the IMG folder on the 3rd partition as FI.GHO.  I ran an integrity check on the image, just to make sure it was accessible.  Now, instead of the single .GHO file and a single span file, it's a single .GHO file and 3 span files.  I rebooted into DOS once more, and ran DSRFIX.  It alerted me about the PBR for partition 3, and I let it fix that. 
 
Now, at this point, should I be able to use the Ctrl + F11 procedure to do an automated recovery?  I must be missing something, because it won't let me.  When the blue bar appears during bootup with www.dell.com across the top of the LCD screen, I press Ctrl + F11, and it immediately tells me "Cannot Restore"
 
Since the Utility and Restore partitions have the original files that were shipped with this laptop, with the exception of the new image files I created, where do I need to start troubleshooting?  I thought DSRFIX and refreshing my backup partition table would make it work.
 
Any ideas?  I tried reading the pages you've created on this subject, but I didn't see anything that matches my specific scenario.
 
Thanks,Richard

Message Edited by Sabrewolf3 on 08-18-2005 11:00 PM

Sabrewolf3

17 Posts

August 19th, 2005 15:00

Ok, clarification.  When I created the new DellRestore partition, I forgot to make it bootable.  The Ctrl + F11 process was actually giving me two errors:  First it would say "invalid system disk" and then it would change the screen to say "Cannot Restore".  As I had attempted the Ctrl + F11 restore process, the Restore partition was now seen by the laptop as C:.  I rebooted into DOS and ran sys c:
 
Other than that, the partition has all the original files that were shipped on it, with the exception that I replaced FI.GHO and FI000001.GHS with my new image files, FI.GHO and FI000001.GHS thru FI000003.GHS.
 
I ran DSRFIX, and rebooted the laptop.  This time, when the www.dell.com blue bar appeared, I pressed Ctrl + F11 and it said "reading PBR # 2" or something to that effect, and then said OK.  Then it stopped at a C:> prompt and does nothing else.  I must be missing something here.
 
Thanks,
Richard 

Message Edited by Sabrewolf3 on 08-19-2005 11:42 AM

dg1261

623 Posts

August 19th, 2005 18:00

"I ran DSRFIX, and rebooted the laptop.  This time, when the www.dell.com blue bar appeared, I pressed Ctrl + F11 and it said "reading PBR # 2" or something to that effect, and then said OK.  Then it stopped at a C:> prompt and does nothing else.  I must be missing something here."
 
Just to clarify, is dsrfix showing "good" across the board before you try this?  If so, Ctrl+F11 should display "Loading PBR for descriptor 3".  (PBR 3 should be the restore partition.  PBR 2 would be the XP partition.)
 
Where is this C: when it leaves you there?  Are you in the restore partition at that point?  Do a "dir" and see if you can tell which partition you're in by the files that are there.
 
Offhand, it sounds like you're in the restore partition but autoexec.bat isn't running for some reason.
 
 
One other thought: when you did the "sys c:", what version of DOS were you booted to?  It needs to be a FAT32-aware version, such as from a Win98 boot disk.
 

Message Edited by dg1261 on 08-19-2005 02:23 PM

Sabrewolf3

17 Posts

August 19th, 2005 20:00

Yes, prior to trying Ctrl + F11, DSRFix was showing "good" across the board.  You were right, it was showing Loading PBR for descriptor3, not descriptor2.
 
When it stops the process, I am at a C: prompt on the Restore partition.  There is no autoexec.bat file!  I guess this is the problem.  I looked back on my external hard drive at the original files for this partition, and no autoexec.bat or config.sys files can be found. 
 
What I have are 8 folders (BAT, BIN, IMG, SRC1, SRC2, SRC3, SRC4, SRC5),  a bootlog.txt file, a bootlog.prv file and msinput.ini. 
 
I couldn't find a copy of autoexec.bat for the Restore partition easily available on your website anywhere... but I got sneaky and started poking around and found it.  I copied the contents of that file and put it on my Restore partition, rebooted to DOS, ran DSRFIX, rebooted and hit Ctrl + F11 and it WORKED!
 
Dan, you are the man AGAIN!  Thanks again for your help, especially for all the information you have available to us.  People like you make the computer user community a great one to belong to! 
 
Thanks,Richard

dg1261

623 Posts

August 21st, 2005 23:00

"I couldn't find a copy of autoexec.bat for the Restore partition easily available on your website anywhere"
 
Yeah, that's something that's still on my To-Do List--adding a section about recreating the restore partition, which would involve a reference to autoexec.bat.  I just haven't gotten around to it.
 
Glad to hear you got it working.
 
 

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