How to make a recovery CD?

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

How could I make a recorvery CD that would automatically re-install windows and all drivers for my hardware after the c: drive has been formatted?

This would be very useful because I ahve a pen tablet instead of a mouse (much easier and natural to use and more precise than an optical mouse) that requires drivers, but I have to install my video card drivers before anything else so it's kind of hard to browse the web each time using the keyboard to download the video card drivers!

Thanks

[Geek #1]

My personal favourite is to create a 1 -> 2 Gig secondary partition then install Windows and configure all the drivers you need on the primary partition (ie. The C: drive). Install any additional software that requires certain setups as well.

Obtain a copy of PowerQuest Drive Image and create an image of the C: drive onto the secondary partition. This can then be burned onto cdrom for future use, you could even make the cdrom bootable or use the boot disk creater supplied with Drive Image.

[mahdi]

Try using Ghost. Save it to another HD or partition and then burn it onto a CD. And use compression...

I've done this with mine once I got all the drivers installed,so if I ever have to format C:\ on it it will take me 15 minutes to re-install

BTW---what does this have to do with AMD?

[henne]

because he's using an amd system.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Do i really need a 2nd hard drive or partition? I don't want to have a 2nd partition on my driver permanently that's sure. How can I do this with no 2nd hd/partition?

Also, how would i recopy the drive image from a startup disk?

Thanks

[techs]

I do it by ghosting to a second hard drive and then buring the .gho to a cd-r. I have made a recovery floppy that does everything(except fdisk and format). In the ghost documentation they give you a sample ghost command with the switches for unattended operation. I am not sure if you can create the ghost file directly to a cd-r. Since you need to run ghost from dos, I have never seen dos cd-r drivers. I myself am curious if you can do disk spanning. Using ghost with max compression I can get about a 1.2 gb partition onto a 650 mb cd-r.

[orange]

Techs, yes you can. You need to use the -split command line switch to split the image into chunks. I've done this for my own system and i have two backup CD's. Ghost just asks for the next part of the image when it needs it. This is what i've used:

Ghostpe.exe -split=650

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orange
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[ThunderVamp9]

I use Ghost 7. After installing my OS and configuring everything, I install Ghost 7 and make a boot disk. Restart with the boot disk in the drive, and put a blank CD in the burner. When Ghost starts up, just have it make the image on the CD. If more than one CD is required, it will eject the first CD when full and ask you for another, then continue. When it's done, store the bootdisk and the CD(s) together until you need them. If you have multiple CD's, it'll ask you for successive ones as needed.

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We are MicroSoft. You will be assimilated. We will add your technology to our own...

[This message has been edited by ThunderVamp9 (edited September 11, 2001).]

[techs]

Thanks Orange. I did not see that switch. Also thanks to you ThunderVamp9.