Formatting a bootable Hard Disk

Hello! Friends:

My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk) to
my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back up to
it.

The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS with
the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?

If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as a
system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.


sengke

Malke
Wed Jun 25 07:19:17 PDT 2008

sengke wrote:

> Hello! Friends:
>
> My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk)
> to my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back
> up to it.
>
> The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
> Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS
> with
> the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?
>
> If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as
> a
> system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.

You don't do this from within Windows. You get an imaging program like
Acronis True Image (my preference), BootIT NG, or Symantec Ghost and you
clone your drive from outside of Windows. Then you put the cloned drive on
the shelf in an anti-static bag for safekeeping.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

eckrichco
Wed Jun 25 19:32:00 PDT 2008

If youve played with it then,back in diskmgmt.msc,format the hd,once thru,go
to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,once
its thru,C: is now on D: & is bootable.Also,D: being the new hd,also,the new
drive must be set as slave to C: on the same IDE cable...

"sengke" wrote:

> Hello! Friends:
>
> My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk) to
> my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back up to
> it.
>
> The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
> Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS with
> the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?
>
> If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as a
> system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.
>
>
> sengke

sengke
Fri Jun 27 18:26:01 PDT 2008

Hello! Malke

Thanks for the advice.

Two more questions:

1. If I partition the new hard disk into two parts, can I clone two
different PCs on each of these partitions with bootable systems?

2. If one of the partition crashes, can I still use the other partition, or
does it mean the whole hard disk is gone?

sengke


"Malke" wrote:

> sengke wrote:
>
> > Hello! Friends:
> >
> > My OS is WinXP-Pro. I wish to create an identical disk (a new hard disk)
> > to my C drive (bootable) so that when drive C crashes, I would have a back
> > up to it.
> >
> > The drive letter to the new hard disk is D. I can format it with Disk
> > Management, but was unable to make it a bootbale drive. Had tried in DOS
> > with
> > the command: FORMAT D: /s, but failed. Any helps?
> >
> > If it is impossible to do it this way as Windows prohibits to format D as
> > a
> > system drive, then what other ways to achieve this? Thanks.
>
> You don't do this from within Windows. You get an imaging program like
> Acronis True Image (my preference), BootIT NG, or Symantec Ghost and you
> clone your drive from outside of Windows. Then you put the cloned drive on
> the shelf in an anti-static bag for safekeeping.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>
>

Malke
Sat Jun 28 05:11:34 PDT 2008

sengke wrote:

> Hello! Malke
>
> Thanks for the advice.
>
> Two more questions:
>
> 1. If I partition the new hard disk into two parts, can I clone two
> different PCs on each of these partitions with bootable systems?

No. Use imaging instead of cloning. You can image a system and store as many
images as you have room for on an external hard drive. After you install
Acronis True Image (for example), you create a bootable CD. If you need to
restore the system onto the current hard drive or onto a new hard drive,
you boot with the CD you made which has the imaging program on it and
restore from there, pointing the restoration process to the desired image
stored on the external hard drive.

For further information about cloning, imaging, etc. go to www.acronis.com
(or to the website of the imaging program of your choice) and read all
about it.

> 2. If one of the partition crashes, can I still use the other partition,
> or does it mean the whole hard disk is gone?

If the hard drive physically fails, the whole hard drive fails!

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

sengke
Sun Jun 29 07:33:01 PDT 2008

Hi! Malke

If one of the partition fails, then the whole hard disk fails, so what other
reasons to partition a hard disk, other than having a shorter time during
searching?

Thanks.

sengke

"Malke" wrote:

> sengke wrote:
>
> > Hello! Malke
> >
> > Thanks for the advice.
> >
> > Two more questions:
> >
> > 1. If I partition the new hard disk into two parts, can I clone two
> > different PCs on each of these partitions with bootable systems?
>
> No. Use imaging instead of cloning. You can image a system and store as many
> images as you have room for on an external hard drive. After you install
> Acronis True Image (for example), you create a bootable CD. If you need to
> restore the system onto the current hard drive or onto a new hard drive,
> you boot with the CD you made which has the imaging program on it and
> restore from there, pointing the restoration process to the desired image
> stored on the external hard drive.
>
> For further information about cloning, imaging, etc. go to www.acronis.com
> (or to the website of the imaging program of your choice) and read all
> about it.
>
> > 2. If one of the partition crashes, can I still use the other partition,
> > or does it mean the whole hard disk is gone?
>
> If the hard drive physically fails, the whole hard drive fails!
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>
>

Malke
Sun Jun 29 07:53:41 PDT 2008

sengke wrote:

> Hi! Malke
>
> If one of the partition fails, then the whole hard disk fails, so what
> other reasons to partition a hard disk, other than having a shorter time
> during searching?

I usually don't partition hard drives (unless it is for a server). The only
advantage to keeping the operating system and programs on one partition and
the data on a separate partition is that this makes it very easy to quickly
replace just the operating system. Most of my desktop computers have at
least two hard drives. I don't bother partitioning the laptops at all. But
I back up my data separately and image all my machines regularly.

So it's your choice based on how you use your machines. If you continually
mess up Windows, then put your data on a separate partition or, even
better, a separate internal hard drive if you've got a desktop machine. If
you use Linux, it is always better to put /home on a separate partition or
hard drive because of frequent distro updates. But since you're posting in
an XP basics newsgroup, I assume that you're using XP. ;-)

So YMMV. Pick something and try it to see what you like best.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ