Large disaster recover CD, once again

[paleolith]

Recently bought a new HP desktop and am moving Retrospect to run there instead of on my old Mac. (All systems still being backed up.) Today I went to make a disaster recovery CD. I've read the threads I could find about this issue and learned some things, but didn't find answers to my questions.

 

HP puts a recovery partition on the HD, and I've made the HP DR DVD from that partition. So I already have two levels, but I've been around computers long enough to know that you can never have too many backups.

 

On my first attempt to make a Retrospect DR CD, I used the i386 folder from the HP recovery partition, figuring this was exactly what was intended as a recovery starting point. However, the .iso file was over a GB.

 

I tried again using the i386 folder on the normal boot partition. This created a .iso file that will fit on a CD.

 

Note that I do not have separate Windows CDs, just the original HD, the recovery partition on the HD, and the DVD that I burned from the recovery partition using HD's software provided for that purpose.

 

HP has done something to block Exploder from looking at the i386 partition -- a reasonable precaution to prevent users from removing anything from it, but without some trick that I don't know, I cannot compare directly the contents. Not that they would mean anything. (BTW, relevant to other threads I read, HP does allow you to delete this partition, though they very strongly urge you to create recovery CDs or DVD first. Personally, I'll keep both, since I don't need the disk space.)

 

So my questions: first, what am I missing by creating the DR CD from the normal partition instead of from the recovery partition? Or am I actually better off?

 

Second, will the Retrospect DR volume work if I burn it to a DVD instead of to a CD? Is that a good idea?

 

Edward

[paleolith]

bump.

[natew]

Hi

 

On systems where you have a set of propretary recovery disks you are not missing too much without a DR CD. The Retrospect DR CD is decidedly faster than the manufacturer install but with all of the hidden patitions and folders on a proprietary system, you may have mixed results. If it were me I would stick with what HP provided.

 

I doubt this would work on a DVD. Is it even possible to make a bootable DVD?

 

Nate

[paleolith]

Quote:

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natew said:

On systems where you have a set of propretary recovery disks you are not missing too much without a DR CD.

 

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What I want to miss is all the garbage that HP preinstalls on retail systems, and which I've gone to quite a bit of trouble to prune. I did a system recovery once (from the recovery partition), and it was agony going through tossing all that garbage again. They do not give you any options on the recovery -- it's all or nothing.

 

Quote:

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I doubt this would work on a DVD. Is it even possible to make a bootable DVD?

 

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Yes. The DVD which the HP software makes from the recovery partition is bootable. I've tested it.

 

Edward

[natew]

Hi

 

Ahhh I get it. The good news is you will not have to throw that stuff away manually even if you use the HP disks.

 

The disaster recovery CD sets up a temporary windows environment on your system so you can launch Retrospect and restore all of your files. The DR CD itself contains none of your personal data.

 

Once you have installed your system with the HP disks, install Retrospect and to a replace entire disk restore. Doing so will put the disk back exactly the way it was when you backed up - deleting all of that extra junk automagically.

 

Thanks for the note about DVD boots - All my equipment and software is pretty old.

Nate