Guest moon Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 I've just won a PC for my local Conservation group through BT Community Connections scheme. ( Very useful, if you're connected in any way to any non-profit community group) Anyway, it's got XP preloaded ( :o ) and a recovery disc. I haven't switched it on yet but I'm looking up the road and wondering what I'm going to do when the OS needs a reinstall. Can I copy the entire, pristine, drive to an external hard drive and use that copy to reinstall in future ? What other alternatives are there ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 the recovery cd should have all the operating system files in case you need to do a reinstall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Cheers, prince. What if my drive goes down ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Think you're stuffed Moonie. You can't do a clean install with a recovery disc. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Ah but you have the XP OEM product keyIf the Drive fails, you could fit a new drive, borrow someones XP disc and then install XP on that drive as long as the old drive is NOT used again in another system.You will have to re-activate XP again although as there are no changes to the system then that will be okmadboy33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 the only experience i've had with recovery disk is with a HP i had 2 years ago... and it had all the necessary files and i was able to do a clean install etc. no problemsbut some times the o/s files are located on a hidden partition on the hard disk and the recovery cd installs or copies the files from there to your c drive in which case if your drive goes down you have a problem!but madboys solution could get you around that one :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 unfortunately with most recovery discs the operating system files are locked in the cabinet and cannot be removed unless you re-format the HDDmy way goes a long way.............LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snec Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 If I were you I'd buy Drive Image. Every serious computer user should have it anyway. You can save the image to 3 or 4 CDRs and you'll have it forever. Never again will you need to format/reinstall etc. Then take a new image about every six weeks or when you make further changes to you setup. Regards, S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 it depends on what the recovery discs are,like prince I have hp recovery discs if the h/drive goes I can (or could I now have a xp disc)still reinstall using the discs,with hp if the mobo goes then your stuck as the hp discs need info from the bios to work not the h/drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 but some times the o/s files are located on a hidden partition on the hard disk and the recovery cd installs or copies the files from there to your c drive in which case if your drive goes down you have a problem!That's exactly what I've got here. Prince, a 2 Gig 'hidden' partition. There is no CD-RW and no space for one either. That's why I asked if I could copy the entire new h/drive to an external h/drive and simply use the external for future reinstalls. Would that work ? Or an external CD-RW for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snec Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 No moon, that won't work. Copying (in the straight forward accepted sense of the word) will not achieve what you are seeking.As I said above, you need to take a Drive IMAGE. Yes, you can image to an external HDD or to CDs. Doesn't matter which really but if you don't mind purchasing an external hard drive that would be my bet rather than an extenal CD-RW but the choice is yours. BTW, you can get a good internal CD-RW drive now for about £40ish.But to do what you want there is no other way than create an image of your drive. Forget "copying". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted May 16, 2003 Report Share Posted May 16, 2003 Cheers, Snec. It's a small NEC desktop and there's no room for an internal CD-RW anyway. Looks like an external hard-drive will be favourite. Long overdue. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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