Recovery Backups

[Nicolas Forwood]

Cheers Barry

On my Vista Home Premium I have 3 sets of backups for my DELL Inspiron 6400 Laptop:
1. A 3 DVD+R set of the C:\ drive (disaster recovery of data and Vista),
2. A 2 DVD+RW set which I call it Revolving Backup and I use it once per week for all my important programs / data,
3. A CD+RW to backup my registry once a month.

I have used the #2 and #3 sets often to recover items and works beautifully but I have never used the #1 set and my question concerns this set; If my system crashes, would I be able to use this set alone to restore my system or I will have to re install Vista first?

As you know. in Canada now days they don’t provide anymore a Vista CD / DVD when you buy a new computer but you must make (or ask the store to make one for you at $70.00 extra cost) a recovery set of your system (factory settings) with the software the computer has and you can only make ONE copy. Therefore if I ever have to use this backup, all my current settings will be gone.

Can you please let me know your recommendation on a bootable reliable disaster recovery set with AISBackup?
Thank you

[Nicolas Forwood]

Sorry Bary, I just noticed the post from JonJ on Mar-09-2007 "System Recovery Methods" and I think this answers my question. I will try to use Bart PE to backup Vista only (hope it will fit into 1 DVD). Then if all goes fine, I can re install AISBackup and use another set of backup DVD's to restore the rest of my C:/ drive. Does this sound as a good solution?

[Nicolas Forwood]

I used Bart PE before on Windows XP and worked fine along with the AISBackup. I just downloaded the latest version 3.1.10a but I did not see anything mentioned about Windows Vista. Do you know if Bart PE is compatible with Windows Vista?
Thank you

[Barry]

The bottom line is you either need to format a disk using PC running Windows Vista or you need a any copy of the Windows Vista installation DVD (including the beta versions) to get hold of a file called bootsect.exe. Bootsect.exe will run from a XP bartpe CD and will make a disk containing a Vista restore bootable.

I have restored Windows Vista using a PC running Windows 2000 to a disk using a USB cable, it would not boot because the boot sector needed updating with bootsect.exe. It would probably infringe MS copyright if bootsect.exe was distributed with AISBackup - I'll ask.

I think it is silly that bootsect.exe was not installed with Vista along with the other several GB of the operating system.

There is a plan to make a XP / Vista disaster recovery tutorial along the lines of this one:

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/externaldrives.php

Barry

[Nicolas Forwood]

Very interesting. I will keep an eye for the new tutorial
Thank you

[Nicolas Forwood]

I tried to make a bootable DVD with BartPE and my Vista Home Premium but it does not work (BartPE does not recognize the Vista system files).

Assuming that I can get a copy of the bootsect.exe, can you let me know where I should copy this file on a Windows XP system and after I make the bootable DVD, how to use it?

I agree with you that MS should have copy this file to the HD of any Vista computer. We are only trying to protect ourselves from an inconvenience

Thank you,