| Author |
Topic: Install from USB Drive |
winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 12 Jul 2008 7:21 am |
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| What I am trying to do is restore a copy of windows from a USB drive. I copied the OS to the external hard drive a month ago. I was experimenting and now want to go back to the original OS which is XP Pro. I used MaxBlast 4 to copy with. If I use Maxblast to install from USB to C: it will add what is on the external but will not erase what is already there. So now I have a mixed up OS. BTW both OS are XP Pro. I know I can replace the original hard drive with the hard drive out of the external drive but I am looking for an easier way. thanks Winston |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 12 Jul 2008 9:37 am
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I don't know if you can really do that. If you "copy" the OS from another drive and replace what is on the drive now, the registry is going to be different and programs that were "installed" on the OS will not be "installed" when you replace the OS with the one on the USB drive.
But then I'm not familiar with what all MaxBlast can do. I use Acronis True Image (V11) and when I do a backup, I backup the entire hard drive. If I need to restore or replace then I just restore the entire hard drive from the backup - no problems with registry, installation of programs, etc. |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 12 Jul 2008 3:33 pm
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Don't think it will work, Never been able to copy a program from one drive to another, and make it work.
BF
_________________
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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Tobie Schalkwyk
From:
South Africa
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Posted 13 Jul 2008 9:45 pm
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| Jack Stoner wrote: |
| If you "copy" the OS from another drive and replace what is on the drive now, the registry is going to be different and programs that were "installed" on the OS will not be "installed" when you replace the OS with the one on the USB drive. |
Agreed. Or your programs might be there but their OS registry entries are out of date, causing them to malfunction. |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 14 Jul 2008 3:32 am
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| Bill Ford wrote: |
Don't think it will work, Never been able to copy a program from one drive to another, and make it work.
BF |
Edited to say, Total agreement with Tobie's registry statement.
_________________
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 14 Jul 2008 6:12 am
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MaxBlast or any program you get with a new hard drive will copy the entire contents of a hard drive onto a new one. Then all you have to do is turn off the machine and install the new drive. Works like a champ.
At no time did I ever want to copy just a program from one drive to another. Thanks for the input. Winston |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 14 Jul 2008 9:23 am
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Something to add, I just installed my slave hard drive from my old computer in a new computer.None of the programs will work, registry will not recognize any of the programs on it.I was however able to keep all non program info, pictures, etc.
Bill
_________________
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 14 Jul 2008 1:29 pm
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| Bill Ford wrote: |
Something to add, I just installed my slave hard drive from my old computer in a new computer.None of the programs will work, registry will not recognize any of the programs on it.I was however able to keep all non program info, pictures, etc.
Bill |
That is how Windows works, since Windows 95 was released. Back in the days of Windows 3.1 almost all programs kept all support files inside their own program directories, including the .ini files that told the system how to interact with them. If you copied an entire program directory from one Win 3.1 computer to another one, those programs would usually open without any further installation (but not always). The main reason this failed was if a required .dll was not in the System directory on the second machine (like the old VB runtime .dlls - e.g: vbrun100.dll, vbrun200.dll, etc), or an entry had to be made in system.ini or win.ini, during setup. The Windows Registry has replaced Win.ini and System.ini of days of yore.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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John Cipriano
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 17 Jul 2008 1:39 pm
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Are you sure MaxBlast won't let you restore the image (as opposed to just copying files)? If you have MaxBlast on a CD, try booting from the CD if you haven't already...you might get more options to restore the old drive.
Have good backups of anything you can't afford to lose, and go in assuming something will go wrong 
Again I haven't used MaxBlast to backup drives but I am pretty sure it will backup & restore entire drives...the only reason I can think of why it wouldn't let you do that is because you're trying to do it while Windows is running.
Also, maybe try using MaxBlast 5 which claims to have "improved USB support".
This site should have a boot CD verison of MB5:
http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/maxblast.html |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 17 Jul 2008 3:56 pm
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John
MaxBlast 5 only works with Maxtor drives. Winston |
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Steve Norman
From:
Seattle Washington, USA
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Posted 17 Jul 2008 5:43 pm
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cant you just set BIOS to boot from USB and reinstall from there? I know this works with Linux,,but MS being what it is probably has anti-pirate software that will thwart you.
_________________
GFI D10, Fender Steel King, Hilton Vpedal,BoBro, National D dobro, Marrs RGS |
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Tobie Schalkwyk
From:
South Africa
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Posted 17 Jul 2008 10:12 pm
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| Steve Norman wrote: |
| cant you just set BIOS to boot from USB and reinstall from there? |
As long as you're overwriting one OS installation with another (copy / re-install), it will be messy. Just about every time you use a Windows program, it udates some registry entries. Every time you install/un-install a program, .dll's, ocx's and other shared OS files might be affected. When you overwrite the OS with another version, you're literally placing 'am image' of the one on top of the other - the problem is that the new 'image' is way out of sync with the latest status of all the programs sharing files within it. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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John Cipriano
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 19 Jul 2008 3:31 pm
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I have read that Seagate and Maxtor's imaging software are just branded versions of Acronis. Maybe Acronis True Image will allow you to restore the MaxBlast image without forcing you to be on a Maxtor drive? The only thing is I think True Image is designed to be installed onto the drive before you use it, and act as a boot loader. Wiz would know about that one.
A post here is claiming that you don't have to be restoring to a Maxtor drive, just have one present in your system.
You can always just start with a clean Windows install...at this point it sounds easier but I don't know if you can afford to lose that imaged copy or not. Don't forget about the built-in System Restore. If you had it running this whole time you might be able to just roll back to what you had before the first failed restore attempt.
[Just so everyone else is clear, Winston is not talking about trying to copy an old installation over his current one, which does absolutely create problems. But his situation (I think) is that he has a full hard drive image that he wants to restore. This is a low-level operation that does not affect the registry (since the old one gets nuked anyway). But his MaxBlast software is giving him problems.]
Once I had to *install* Windows from a USB drive...that was interesting.
Check this out too:
http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/workaround-to-perform-disk-cloning-with-bartpe-in-acronis-true-image-80/
Again, this is only useful if the regular True Image software can read the MaxBlast images, but it looks like it does.
Another thing I came across:
| Quote: |
| It also looks like it will work with any disk once it's installed -- not just Seagate/Maxtor drives. I just performed an operation on my laptop (with non-Maxtor drives) and it worked fine. It just wants to "see" a Seagate/Maxtor drive upon installation (and apparently one attached via USB is adequate). Once it's installed, it appears to work with any manufacturer's drive (at least, the current version does, anyway). |
http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/09/backing-up-hard.html |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 19 Jul 2008 9:07 pm
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If you already have a licensed version of Acronis True Image do not install MaxBlast! It will install a light version of Acronis and overwrite all of your settings and schedules, and any updated components you might have added on. I learned this the hard way. After installing MaxBlast to check it out I ended up with a corrupted installation of Acronis that would not run as scheduled. I had to uninstall MaxBlast, reboot, then reinstall Acronis True Image 11, current build.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 7:39 am
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WIZ
I think you are on to something. I did install MaxBlast before Acronis. Another thing now is after messing this thing up I just tried to re-install WinXP, no luck. Everytime it comes up with a message like, your computer does not have enough memory to perform this action, which is after re-partioning the drive the computer checks the hard drive. I cleared the CMOS hoping that had something to do with it, not so. The way I got the machine back running was I had another one just like it and did the Acronis image thing on an external drive and installed from the Acronis startup disk. I have the machine running again but did not accomplish my original goal. I hate to give up but it is beginning to seem that would be the best thing to do. I am worried about not being able to install a fresh copy of WinXP on the machine. thanks to everyone for the advice. Winston |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 7:40 am
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oops, double post 
Last edited by winston on 20 Jul 2008 7:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 7:55 am
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 9:42 am
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Winston;
If all attempts to restore a saved image fail, go to plan B. Reinstall Windows XP from a licensed CD. You should still have the hologram sticker on your computer, containing your official product key code. But first, let's run some diagnostics.
If your PC has a 3.5" floppy drive and you have access to another computer with a working 3.5" floppy drive, go to http://www.memtest.org/ and download Memtest86. Read all the instructions on the website before using the application. You will need a good working 3.5" floppy diskette to install Memtest onto. It will be formatted as a bootable floppy and your computer's BIOS will need to look for it before the hard drive.
If your computer doesn't possess a floppy disk drive you can download a CD ISO image to burn to a CD, using Nero, or any other application capable of burning bootable CDs from ISO images.
Using whichever method you need, set the BIOS so it boots in this sequence:
- CD Drive (From bootable CDs)
- Floppy A (From bootable floppy diskettes)
- Hard Drive C
When you have Memtest installed onto bootable media you should reboot your computer with that media in it's drive and follow the instructions to let Memtest run. My copy starts up automatically and runs until I halt it or exit the program. It will test your RAM for errors and if any are displayed in the errors field, you can assume you have bad RAM. Let the tests run for at least two hours, if not longer, under normal ambient conditions. Do not remove the side cover of the case to improve cooling; you want it hot in there to see if your RAM fails when it gets hot.
If Memtest tells you you have bad RAM and you have more than one module in the sockets, shut off the power to the computer. Remove the right side of the case and pull out one RAM module. Put the case side back on without the screws and reboot, running Memtest again. If this test shows no errors, shut down, open her up, pull the Ram module out and replace it with the first one you removed. Rerun the tests. If this RAM module still shows errors you know it is bad and needs to be replaced, ASAP. If both are bad replace them with one new module of the same type, but the same capacity of the two you removed (1 Gb RAM replaces 2 x 512 Mb modules). Buy good quality RAM to replace your failed RAM. I use and recommend Crucial RAM.
With the RAM either proved good or replaced, proceed to step two. Pull out any network cables going to your modem or router. Insert a legitimate Windows XP CD (borrow one if necessary), with the same service pack your licensed copy had (your original if you have it). If your computer came with a special recovery CD use it. You will also need the floppies or CDs with the drivers for your installed hardware and motherboard devices.
With the BIOS set to boot from the CD drive first, start the computer. Setup should begin automatically, or you may have to press "any key" to boot from the CD. If your computer requires a special SATA or RAID driver you must install it during initial installation. Watch for a notice to press F6 in the status bar and press F6 immediately, if you have such a driver disk.
Once setup begins follow the prompts to delete the existing partitions on the "C" disk and start afresh, preferably installing onto allocated space (deleted partitions, unformatted space). If you have other hard drives as slaves you should unplug them for file safety, until setup has finished (you don't want to delete the partitions on your backup drive!).
If all goes well you will have to type in your licensed product key and have it re-authenticated. This will require a phone call to Microsoft, using the 1-800 number on the Authentication screen. Tell the responding helpdesk person you are reinstalling your licensed copy of XP after a total system crash. You will be read a new set of numbers and letters to type into the appropriate input fields. Make sure you get this right, or your installation will fail.
Note, that if you reinstall Windows XP from a major brand name manufacturer, the registration might be coded into the XP CD and if it is you won't need to re-authenticate Windows.
With a fresh installation of XP accomplished and the network cable still unplugged, open Control Panel, Security Center and make sure the Windows Firewall is turned on. Then, and only then, reconnect the network cable to your broadband modem or router. If you do have a router with a built-in hardware firewall that stealths the LAN computer ports you can plug it in anytime. Go immediately to Windows Updates manually and download and install all available updates, including SP3, rebooting and rechecking for more updates until there are no more available. Set Automatic Windows Updates to either fully automatic, or to download and notify.
Now you should install your security programs. If you lost the downloads get fresh ones. Most companies will resend you license codes if you can prove you are the previously registered purchaser.
Only after your security programs have been installed and tested should you install personal applications. You want a rock stable OS before cluttering it up again. You <strike>may</strike> will also need to download some new device drivers that are compatible with XP SP3.
Let me know how this works out for you.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 1:33 pm
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WIZ
I appreciate the info. I do know the proper procedure for installing windows, what I am saying is with this computer I cannot. The message comes up after deleting partition, creating new partition, formatting drive, then after formatting drive it says checking drive before copying files. The message says your computer does not have enough memory to perform this action. This is not true. The computer runs just fine now after doing the image thing with Acronis. I am just a little concerned about this problem. Something is keeping windows from installing. It is not the memory as I have changed it a couple of times. BTW I have a legal Winxp pro disk. thanks again Winston |
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Tobie Schalkwyk
From:
South Africa
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Posted 20 Jul 2008 9:52 pm
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| winston wrote: |
| The message says your computer does not have enough memory to perform this action |
Winston, how much memory have you got available on your C drive? IME Microsoft programs insist on using the C drive for stacks of things regardless of your drive selected to install to - and without telling you about it. |
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winston
From:
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
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Posted 21 Jul 2008 7:25 am
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Tobie
The machine is a P4 2.8 with 512 memory. This message comes up only when I try to install windows from the cdrom. Winston |
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John Roche
From:
England
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Gary Richardi
From:
SoCal, USA
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Posted 22 Jul 2008 4:28 pm
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If I understand correctly, you are trying to boot up with access to your USB drive and run MAXBLAST to reimage your HD from an image on your USB device. You can't boot from the internal HD because you want to overlay the OS. The perfect solution for this is BartPE. It is a live Windows environment you can boot from a CD. It will access your USB devive (tho' I've found you need to have it plugged when you boot).
The BartPE build procedure looks daunting at first but it's really pretty easy. |
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