Recovery CD

Hi I have been looking around the net and all the information on creating a recovery windows cd is really complex. Is there a more simple way to create an iso image of my windows files basically and then just burn it to a dvd or cd? I just want a back up of my system because I know I'm going to download some application and it'll have a virus and my hard drive will be dead. So I just want a recovery cd to restore it back to my current settings. Like the restore cds you get when you purchase a computer from a big brand name company but with more applications added such as my firewall antivirus and stuff. Thanks. Francois

You could use the System Restore utility.. or Ghost an image to your drive then burn it to a cd/dvd. Ghost is a Norton product. Theres all kinds of imaging software you can use. Acronis, PowerQuest (partition magic), Norton Ghost, just to name a few.

Oh yeah I had ghost installed just didn't know how to use it lol

As far as overclocking goes, This is the best article I have found on it.

Oh yeah I figured out everything except how to change my ram divider. >.< Also howcome whenever I upload my photo it doesn't show in the forums. and is there a good online tutorial you know of for creating an iso image using ghost. Thanks for your help Francois Sorry I did not know that the avatar is the picture their.

Divider…? you mean multiplier? This could be found as a jumper on the board itself however I doubt thats the case.. anymore, most all boards clock settings are in BIOS. Your image… are you registered here at the forums? (I only ask because I have yet to your name "viewing" this page. Also could be the format of the image.

Well I figure out the overclocking I've gotten .2ghz more so far lol afraid to go higher. Yeah I am registered and I figured out it was the avatar. Just gotta find out how to use ghost >.<

Ghost (from what I remember of using it) is similar to using a command line interface. Its fairly simple really, and its got a great "help" section with it. I am really NOT a fan of anything symantec but Ghost is a good app

Do you know of an app that can create a iso image using a gui? Francois

Winrar…UltraISO…

Hi Barqers,

Just to add to Crow's excellent advice on taking a disc image, a lot of folks find the "Radified Guides to using Ghost" quite helpful.

http://ghost.radified.com/

I use Acronis myself but its similar to Ghost, the advantage of disc imaging, is if you hit real trouble its possible to reformat your system partition, reinstall your "image" of it and be up and running again in very short time, (takes me under an hour) and that includes downloading and installing recent "updates" from Windows, anti-virus etc.

The radified Guides are of good repute and in my view authoritative.
Regards
paws

You know you can also play around with that some after you get the feel for it. install Alcohol120 or Daemon tools… you can then setup a virtual drive. Honestly, I have about 47gb of nothing but ISO's… and I use my virtual drive to use these images. Its all point and click from there… no looking for cd's or dvd's or the like. Once you get the hang of imaging… you'll want to get some virtual drive software. From there.. VMWare is the bomb… but you'll learn about that once you figure out the whole imaging deal.

Yeah I have heard about vmware what is it? And What is a virtual drive? Heh I don't know that much just the basics so please explain a little. Thank you . Also thank you for the radified guide paws, checking it out as I'm writing this. What are Daemon tools o.O? and What is alcohol120? I heard of a program alcohol that copies cd's to your hard drive and makes a 'new harddrive' so that you don't have to always insert the cd. Is that it? Francois

Okay guys I understand it is possible to create an iso of your xp install cd but I would like to create an iso of my current setup. is that possible? Thanks Francois

Hi francois, If you use Ghost, Acronis, Drive Image, Paragon or similar disc imaging programmes, you are creating an exact "image" of your partition or hard disc so it's very different from a standard manufacturer's Restore disc, but you can use the programmes to replicate the effects of one if you wish! Let me explain please, if you have at the moment one partition on your computer, the c: drive and it includes your operating system, programmes/Applications, Data, including files with letters, spreadsheets, photographs, your university lectures, and your dissertation or thesis and all the other stuff: taking a disc image using for example Acronis or one of the other programmes is like taking an electronic photograph of everything on your computer. In the event of serious trouble that cannot be fixed by the usual methods, you can just reformat your C: drive and replace everything with the disc image you took using say Acronis. This will mean that your hard drive will be restored to exactly the same as it was when you took the disc image or electronic photograph. Beware however that you will have been wise to copy amendments made since the last disc image was taken I.E. if you wrote up an important research document yesterday but your disc image was taken last week your research document would be lost unless you do as I do and copy it to removable media. I could go on at length but will not do so unless you ask me to! To sum up 1 A manufacturer's Restore disc will put your computer back to the exact state it was in ,when it left the factory. 2 The disc image (Ghost, Acronis etc) will put your computer back to the exact state it was in, when you took the disc image (so if you have installed lots of extra programmes, your email settings, address book, browser favourites, Internet access passwords, and also created lots of documents and other data, all these will be restored to the state they were in when you took the disc image. Hope this explanation helps Regards paws