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OS/2 Imaging Software

Started by Dennis, 2007.12.26, 16:44:48

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Dennis

Hi!
I need to make a complete image of my system HDD before I convert my desktop to eCS. I have 2 HDDs in the box--System & Data. I don't know of any backup software that will give me a backup of the system drive while the OS is running. Is there such a thing? What OS/2 software do I need to get to image my system HDD.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dennis

kim

Suggestion would be to use for example DFSee to make an mirror backup of either the entire disk or just the partition that you want to backup; but you still need to boot from external source.

Pete

Hi Dennis


A very quick, cheap and easy way to backup your system:-

Press Alt-F1 while  booting

Select F2 to boot to a command line

Use XCOPY to copy your System drive to a directory on the Data drive (presuming there is enough space) eg:-

[D:\SYSTEM]XCOPY C:\* /S /E /V /H /T /R


An alternative to using the above command line boot is to create a BootableCD and then you can perform any type of backup you want from the comfort of a Desktop  :-)

Bootable is here http://www.xs4all.nl/~hrbaan/bootAble/index.html

Regards

Pete



Dennis

Thanks, guys!

I used the XCopy and it seemed to work fine. I then backed up the HDD--which I found out was failing--to tape. Now all I have to do is figure out how to restore the tape to a new HDD and have all my logical partitions--D;E;F;G;H;I--show up and actually work. Will the tape restore the logical partitions, too? The partitions MUST be working as dbExpert is on my G: partition and needs to be in the same partition to work properly. Any ideas, of will I be OK?  BTW, the tape backup wascreated by Backagain 2000.

Dennis

El Vato

Quote from: Dennis on 2008.01.01, 00:47:29
Thanks, guys!

[...] Will the tape restore the logical partitions, too? The partitions MUST be working as dbExpert is on my G: partition and needs to be in the same partition to work properly. Any ideas, of will I be OK?  BTW, the tape backup wascreated by Backagain 2000.

Dennis

Dennis,

You should look into the documentation of Backagain 2000 (and search online possibly using your relevant key words) for answers to your question(s).  Possibly you have the option of creating bootable diskettes from BackAgain with all configuration and tape drivers set up for an recovery operation; perform a trial run of the procedure.

On the other hand, I have had experience with PowerQuest Drive Image.  Given the fact that you have an older system, I assume that your hard drives are fairly small and the versions 2, 3, or 4 of the software will do what you want:  recover the primary and logical partitions into their appropriate indexes in your hard disk(s) in case of problems --as long as you select to image them all at once.

It would be best if you selected EACH hard disk's partitions for a unit back up and not combine the partitions from both hard disks into a single image.

I believe the version 2 needed a FAT partition to save the backed up image file(s) whereas the latter versions accepted an FAT32 partition.  Notwithstanding, you have the control of specifying image "chunks" of, say 600MB, which you could later burn into CD media for posterity.  Note that at the time of the actual recovery ALL of the CD media chunks should be copied over to an suitable hard disk partition for the program to use them.  The program is not very smart to accept being fed the recovery data from the CD media.

Additionally, selecting maximum compression of your data will decrease the size of the backup to slightly over half of its original size.

Something to note about recovering with this software is that your target hard disk or partitions must be the same size or larger than the original backed up unit(s).  If you try to recover to an smaller disk(s) and/or partition(s), the recover operation will fail.

Possibly you could even use subsequent versions of Drive Image (5 or 6).  Notwithstanding, the support for HPFS was dropped in newer versions (possibly after version 6 or higher).  Symmantec acquired PowerQuest when the latter had released (version 8, me thinks ).  Accordingly, eBay is but one place where you could still find the software; or you might be able to find a copy on a local store (with printed documentation) or online but possibly without printed documentation.

I hope I did not obfuscate the issue more than necessary...  :)

Dennis

#5
The failing HDD is already backed up to tape and a new HDD is installed. However, the tape backup backed up the entire physical HDD at once. Will restoring the tape to the new HDD restore my partitions?

The failing HDD was still working. Can I remove my system HDD, connect the old HDD in place of the system HDD, boot my system externally (ie bootable CD), and literally MOVE the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD?

I am using HPFS for now--will change when I install ECS. Will moving the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD also transfer the format or do I have to format the new HDD?

I never had to replace a HDD on an OS/2 system. That's why all the questions.

Thanks for the answers so far, and thanks in advance for your answers to this post.

Dennis

PS--I currently have all 3 HDDs connected--Primary Master, Primary Slave, 2ndary master. OS/2 Hardware Manager sees all 3 drives. However, from that point, I have NO clue of how to get the data from the old HDD(2ndary master) to the new HDD(Primary Slave). Can't access the new drive to do anything. Any ideas?????

El Vato

Quote from: Dennis on 2008.01.01, 23:29:05
The failing HDD is already backed up to tape and a new HDD is installed. However, the tape backup backed up the entire physical HDD at once. Will restoring the tape to the new HDD restore my partitions?

...depends on the back up software program that you used.  PoweQuest versions 2, 3, 4, and possibly 6 boot from two floppies and will restore primary and extended partitions in one swoop  --or you can select even a single partition to recover only.

Locate the SYSINSTX.COM command file in your bootable CD

Quote from: Dennis on 2008.01.01, 23:29:05
The failing HDD was still working. Can I remove my system HDD, connect the old HDD in place of the system HDD, boot my system externally (ie bootable CD), and literally MOVE the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD?
You could do that.  Notwithstanding, if the drivers for the back up software that you used to make your initial backup data sets are not loaded by the bootable CD, you will probably not be able to access the (tape) device.  You could, however, access the data that you backed up with XCOPY onto an currently connected and properly jumpered (i.e., recognized) hard disk.

Further, if booting from the bootable CD you might even have to partition (and format) manually your hard disk and make sure to specify the same primary and logical partitions --manually-- that correspond to the old drive.

With PowerQuest drive image, the software takes care of that for you.

Locate the SYSINSTX.COM command file in your bootable CD

Quote from: Dennis on 2008.01.01, 23:29:05
I am using HPFS for now--will change when I install ECS. Will moving the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD also transfer the format or do I have to format the new HDD?
It depends on the back up software that you used...(see very first comment).

Locate the SYSINSTX.COM command file in your bootable CD

[...]

Quote from: Dennis on 2008.01.01, 23:29:05
PS--I currently have all 3 HDDs connected--Primary Master, Primary Slave, 2ndary master. OS/2 Hardware Manager sees all 3 drives. However, from that point, I have NO clue of how to get the data from the old HDD(2ndary master) to the new HDD(Primary Slave). Can't access the new drive to do anything. Any ideas?????

Suggestion: manually partition and assign primary/logical partitions in your new (OS/2 system) hard drive. Proceed by restoring your OS/2 system partition (and possibly your boot manager).  Once you have that OS/2 system partition "coolly purring" use it to restore all of the remaining data on your other partitions.

As a specific example, assuming that your Primary Master will host your new OS/2 system partition (and Boot Manager) jumper appropriately (in the back of your hard drives) and place the old hard disk (formerly your Primary Master) into the 2ndary slave end connector.  Boot with your bootable OS/2 CD and PARTITION your new Primary Master.  Follow that by selecting the OS/2 system partition and format it appropriately.  XCOPY your OS/2 system from the old (2ndary slave discussed priorly) into your new Primary Master hard disk appropriate partition. 

[ If you had PowerQuest Drive Image or Drive Copy, you could use it to copy your system data and apply the proper partiton type to your system partition; that is, the possible issues associated with SYSINSTX would be taken care for you. ]

After the XCOPY operation is finished, locate the SYSINSTX.COM command file in your bootable CD and change your location to that directory (where SYSINSTX.COM resides).  Assuming that your OS/2 system drive letter is, say F:, proceed to enter the following directive:

SYSINSTX F:

You should see no errors --the command should complete successfully.

Reboot your machine and boot subsequently into your newly migrated OS/2.  Now you are ready for the second phase of the migration of your backed up data.  After you are done, you may simply disconnect your old failing hard drive from its 2ndary slave connector --or you may use it for swap or temporary file(s)-- if you do not experience drive letter issues, of course.

kim

Since You mention that the old drive still works you could actually clone the old drive to the new drive with for example Symantec Ghost. There is a trial version of Ghost that you can download and install on a Windows based system and on that you then can create the ghost recovery media to use to clone the drive.

Dennis

Kim--
Am I seeing right? An OS/2 HDD can be cloned by a windoze app on a windoze system? How?????

kim

Well, most disk cloning software don't care about what file system used or what OS that has been installed and since they the cloning are done on a sector based level this isn't an issue. I've used and use either Ghost v8.0 or Acronics Disk Manager to clone partition and whole disks. Also, usually when cloning a disk you usually have to boot on either diskette or cd with DOS as OS. A great CD to keep in your collection is the Hiren's BootCD that has loads of utilities included and has as well support for external USB drives and other to clone or copy files, partition to.

Dennis

What are the mechanics of a cloning operation? If I open my XP system, what do I have to do to clone my OS/2 HDD? Or can I install Ghost on my GOOD (OS/2) system?

kim

Usually You're not able to clone an active system and this has to be down from external source, ie CD or diskette. With Ghost for example you can make a clone of the entire disk or partition and compress it. I usually do this to keep newly installed systems and burn out the images to either CD or DVD's depending on size. Also great way to keep test system and other so when I crash the system I can quickly recover back a fresh test system to play around with.

With Ghost or Acronics you can either clone the entire disk or partition on the fly, but you still have to do this from external source. Even if you downloaded Symantec Ghost you would need to create the recovery diskettes to boot from and perform the process.

What great with the Hiren BootCD is that it included drivers to support externa USB drives, CD-ROM, etc. So there is usually no problem at all to boot up on this CD and clone what ever system that there is need for.

Dennis

Can I install Ghost on my OS/2 system or do I have to figure out how to connect the old & new drives to my windoze system?

kim

No there is no need to install Ghost onto your system (and Ghost can't be installed on an OS2 system either); but what you do is create the two Rescue Recovery diskettes. Next what you need to do is to install the old faulty drive together with the new drive; make sure that the drives are set to Master vs Slave. Boot on the the rescue diskettes and follow the instructions to make an mirror of the old drive to the new drive.

What ever tool you choose you will need to boot from diskettes, so it's the same if you choose Symantec Ghost, Acronics Drive Management, DFSee, etc.