Skip to main content
Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

C

coachclive

1 Message

2968

October 3rd, 2006 22:00

Preparing for disaster

I was concerned about possible disk failure on my 4 year old Dimension 4500S, I decided to protect myself.
 
I bought from DELL a WD external drive with Back-up software from Dantz called Retrospect Express.
 
I have successfully made a back-up image on the external drive (way easier than trying to do it to multiple CDs) and wanted to go one stage further - to full disaster recovery preparation.
 
This involves creating a Disaster Recovery CD image from which the computer can boot.
 
Only trouble is - the file is too large to fit on a CD. I look at the WD support site and they mention the likely cause - that the i386 directory is too large if it is an OEM installed version of Windows XP (like DELL uses). They do not offer any way round this.
 
My question. Did DELL sell me something that cannot be used with one of their computers, or is there something I could do to make this work?
 
Hoping,
 
Clive
 
 
 

Denny Denham

2 Intern

 • 

18.8K Posts

October 4th, 2006 00:00

coachclive,

Only trouble is - the file is too large to fit on a CD. I look at the WD support site and they mention the likely cause - that the i386 directory is too large if it is an OEM installed version of Windows XP (like DELL uses).

Many seem to be under the impression that Dell's OEM XP CD differs from a retail version. That is simply not the case. The I386 directory is exactly the same as on the retail version. There must be a different cause of your difficulty.

tgsmith

2.9K Posts

October 4th, 2006 07:00

Coachclive,
Another way to solve the problem.  Use Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools to create a bootable clone of your hard drive on the Western Digital Hard Drive.  This will require that your USB ports conform to USB 2.0 specs.  You can still use the hard drive to store the recovery image.  If your drive did not come with the Data Lifeguard CD, you can download it from Western Digital.   http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools  This is the method I use.  Please note that this method creates a bootable clone that can be cloned back to the original hard drive or a replacement hard drive with the Data Lifeguard CD.  XP does not currently support booting from a USB hard drive per se.  See this: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/usb-boot.mspx
Tony

Message Edited by tgsmith on 10-04-2006 04:47 AM

View More

View All

No Events found!

Top