EZ backup of Win95 - solved

[Ulrich Babiak]

Hi there, 

a while ago I asked for your comments about my
Idea for a simple Win95 backup. Well, after some experiments,
here are some solutions to consider.

I have chosen local backup methods (backup on the same machine),
because
- it is faster
- you need no network or tape devices- the disks supplied in 
  PCs nowadays are so large that most of the space is left
  blank on public PCs and can be used for this purpose.
- Windows95 keeps track of the installed hardware, so if you
  want to do a complete restore very quickly without the necessity
  to reinstall all kinds of drivers, you need a
  backup of every single machine anyway

To back up a well-configured system, I write a disk image
file of the system partition to the backup partition. This
way, I can restore the complete system effortlessly and all
file attributes, hardware information, long filenames etc.
are kept. 
(For those who don't know "image files": it's like a 
snapshot of the hard disk, not file by file but just the
"raw" data)

Both alternatives require either a second hard disk or a
second partition on the PC. The backup partion has to be a
little larger than the original system partition. With utilities
like FIPS (a freebie, see http://www.student.informatik.
th-darmstadt.de/%7Eschaefer/fips.html) or partition magic ($$)
you can split existing partitions without loss of data.

Here we go: 
(Do I have to add a disclaimer? Use at your own risk ...
everything described here worked with my test environment)

---- Backup with HDCOPY (really easy!) ----
There is a very cool utility called HDCOPY
( http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/
dcf_hdcp/hdcp.htm - Shareware, worth every cent!) 
Make yourself a boot
Disk and put HDCOPY on the disk. Now boot from the
floppy, choose the "system" disk (usually c:) as the
source and a file on the backup partition as the target.
You can even include the boot sector. To restore, just
reverse the process. Takes less than 5 Minutes for about
1 Gig. To automate the restore, you can make a boot disk
with some batch commands that run hdcp from the command line.
Hand this disk over to library staff and anybody can
restore a workstation simply by entering the disk and 
restarting the computer.
The only drawback is that the backup file on the second
partition (usually d:) is visible to the users and can be
deleted (if someone finds it, they will think "hey, what
a useless BIG file ..."). With Microsoft's Power Toys, you
can at least "hide" the drive in the "My Computer" window.

---- Backup using Linux: -------
This is very secure, because you can have a Linux
disk or partition on your system which is "invisible"
to DOS or Win95. Just grab a copy of my "Webserver on a disk"
(http://www.dom.de/FreiRaum/uli/wad.htm) or use any other
Linux boot floppy. Then, boot from the floppy and use
dd to back up the raw device
(command:  
 dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/some/file/on/a/mounted/filesystem
The restore process works the other way round:
  dd if=/the/backup/file of=/dev/hda1)
Remember, the DOS/Windows device must NOT be mounted
during backup or restore
For some reason, this is quite slow ... it took about 15 Minutes
to back up a 1 Gig disk. However, it works. You may want to
try different block sizes.

Ooof, that's it. Actually, writing it down took longer
than doing it. For me, it is a really useful timesaver not
only for backup purposes but also for "cloning" workstations
and for maintaining clean CD-ROM-tryout-PCs

Have fun,
Ulrich


PS: Roy T. - I herewith apply for an entry in the "Web4Lib
Reference Center" :-)


Ulrich Babiak                         StadtBibliothek Koeln
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