W2K backup and restore

[bs_texas]

I turned on my windows 2000 laptop and got an error message that no fixed disk was found. After I went "huh.... :confused: " I turned it off and, who knows why, I unplugged it and removed the battery. Maybe just a knee jerk reaction. Anyway, I plugged it back in and turned it back on and it started up, but it took about 10 times longer than normal. After that I rebooted it and it started up normally.

So, I decided to backup the entire system to my other windows 2000 machine over my network. Now I have a 7Gig file over there. It's a .bkf file. The backup is the entire laptop system, which includes 2 partitions, C: and D:

If I reformat the entire harddrive (or buy a new harddrive) and then want to restore it to the same state it was in... Does the repair diskette I created from within the Backup utility prepare the harddrive such that the restore function knows how to recreate the partitions in the restore process? Or, do I need to do a full reinstall of w2k, create both partitions, and then do the restore... and the restore works itself into that and somehow magically restores the system to the previous state?

Ok... more thought :eek: ... Something has to be on the laptop system after a reformat to get on the network to get to the backup file. Does the repair disk supply that?

Thanks if you can help out.

[hard candy]

To do this, you'll need the Slackware 9.1 2cd set and install Slackware. Once you have it installed, throw away the Win2000 disk since you will not need it anymore. There, problem solved! :D

[blackhawk714]

I think the best thing to do first off would be to save each partition's data in two sepreate files. Then I am pretty sure the recovery disk has that on it, but don't hold me to it. The other option would be to download a live cd of ... lets say ... Knoppix or something. Then you can put in the windows recovery disk, format the drive with the correct partitioning scheme, and then stop the install by taking out the disk. Then reboot with the Knoppix cd in the drive and copy over the files to the new disk. That might work.
Anybody else have any ideas??
I hope that works for ya :D ;)

[bs_texas]

I knew I was gonna get something like that. :p
(Edit: reference to hard candy's reply)

Unfortunately, some of the stuff on that harddrive is related to a job opportunity I may get soon. I did some gratis work for them late last year and if their situation improves I may be called back with an offer.

I bought another hard drive a little while back and I have slackware-current installed on that!! So there! :D

[bs_texas]

blackhawk714, since I'm using window's backup utility, I was hoping to just use that to restore the system, if possible. Basically, and probably unrealistically, I just want to take a blank hardrive and 're-constitute' it with the previous data.

I don't want to work too hard at it! ;)

Edit: Oh, but I will look into the possibilities with a separate backup file for each partition.

Also, it's not a simple matter of backing up data. I have 3 vmware machines on it, checkpoint smartdashboard for 3 different versions of checkpoint, secureCRT, etc... a lot of stuff I don't want to reinstall.

[hard candy]

first thing is to go to then hard disk manufacturer's site and get a disk check utility, WD, Maxtor, Seagate, IBM, Fujitsu all have them. Run a thorough test on the disk, probably even a low level format.
You'll have to reinstall Win2000. Then I would mine the data you need from the backup files and restore it to the laptop.
Also, update the chipset drivers once you get the Win2000 installed. And keep a copy of the work on a cd just in case.
And I know you're a longtime linux user, I just had to give in to my kneejerk reaction.

[bs_texas]

Originally posted by hard candy
I just had to give in to my kneejerk reaction.
And I appreciate that. I do my share, especially when it comes to "duel booting" and the "there, their, they're" issue. :)