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November 15th, 2015 21:00
a million questions - "Factory Recovery Media" vs. Windows USB/DVD Download Tool vs. boot disk vs. install disk vs. ___?
Warning, 1 million questions below. I'm a bit novice, but I've seen far stupider users. I'll try to be concise and accurate, and I know this is going to be real long, but I'll make it easy to read fast. I did dutifully spent hours on youtubes and articles but am now dazed and confused; thanks for helping. For brevity, using abbreviations FRM and WDT here even if not mainstream abbreviations. I can't expect any human to cover everything I wonder or ask about here. Pick a piece of this and instruct and contextualize away, even where there's no question. New Dell XPS 8900 with i7, Win 7 SP1 **
FRM is the first step of Dell Backup and Recovery (preinstalled, presumably free version). Upon an automated nag I ran it. I chose "best" option external (USB 2.0) instead of "better" option flash drive. It seemed to take between 30 and 90 minutes, I stopped watching.
FRM said to have 9G free on the drive; the drive had 13G free. It contains an Acronis 2016 full backup (3 files) of my precious XP machine and a tree of a zillion individual (XP) files made by the seriously flawed but still somewhat useful Memeo Instant Backup (came with the external drive, an 320G Seagate GoFlex).
When it was done there was the new 500 Meg partition DBR_BOOT, drive I: (the first available) but oddly still 13G free on the rest of the external (drive L:). Yay, nothing lost on the external. BTW the 500M has about 500 of 500 free space per "Computer." (2 days later, now, it has 5G free ... maybe I misread...)
Quick side note. Forever (years) I have never had "safely remove" the external drive bal,, but now get "generic volume cannot be stopped" after I ran FRM, and then it said it every time. (I finally just shut down and then unplugged it and restarted.)
WDT is what several youtubes tell me to get to make a bootable flash drive. Many questions. If it wears you out, at least pick one below!
1. What is recovery disk vs. restore disk vs. ________? Are these distinct from a simple "boot disk" - which I could at least start up a machine, and at least retrieve files off it even if I can't boot it yet?
2. Does WDT do the same as FRM? Do both return the drive to factory condition? And newer files (e.g. recent .DOC) and Windows updates are lost?
3. FRM suggests to use external; WDT suggests flash drive, because destination will be formatted. Why would you WANT to format? So why would you use WDT?
4. For either FRM, WDT, can you boot and recover from it just for the heck of it because you think something's fishy with your system, or is there a cost? E.g. you might lose a windows update made since the disk? Or does recovering with either of these wipe the drive?
5. Does having an Acronis boot CD and DVD have any purpose if I have FRM or WDT or both?
6. If I buy a 1T drive (the Dell has a 1T) and make an Acronis clone of a nearly new/bare machine, would that negate the value of everything above? That is, I could then not only restore the O.S., but I'd have a perfect snapshot of the whole 1T drive, a superset of the above? (Which I could just insert into the machine, replacing the primary drive, or maybe clone it back in)?
7. Is there an official difference between the terms System Repair and System Recovery?
8. Should I have any interest in System Restore?
Regarding simply making a boot disk, as I assume this is different than FRM and WDT:
9. Some videos say I need an installation DVD. But none was shipped. Win 7.1 is preinstalled, and they provided a disk for Win 10 upgrading (which I possibly may never do). Will Dell send 7.1 to me?
9A. Is it better to use an .ISO file which many places say "google to find them"
9AA. Should I use the ____river site for this?
9B Do any of those choices cost $?
There are so many things to keep straight - besides all the things in 8 and FRM and WDT and boot disk and maybe others from above, and I could add more, "don't forget my admit password" .ISO, and the install disks themselves, and I don't know what else! Sorry for this verbal explosion; I really did spend many hours trying on my own.
** I will resist 10 as long as possible; in fact I *heavily* wish I could have installed XP, despite the evil and powerful forces discouraging that, so I gave up ... maybe will clunk my way with VirtualBox :(
ieee488
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11.1K Posts
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November 16th, 2015 10:00
My eyes are too old to read the small print in your long post.
Use Dell Backup and Recovery to create backup of Windows 7 SP1. Create a DVD and a USB.
Then if you have access to Acronis, clone the entire hard drive.
On 9/22, I created a backup image of my entire hard drive 500GB using Clonezilla to an 2TB external hard drive. 11/13 I had malware on my PC. I used that backup img file to restore my PC to the state it was on 9/22. Worked beautifully.
Philip_Yip
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16.1K Posts
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November 16th, 2015 13:00
1. To use Dell Backup and Recovery (free version) see here. Ensure you have the latest version as its user interface is better, less confusing terminology and also fixes and enhancements in the Recovery Media:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/dell-backup-and-recovery-1-8-1-71/
9a. You are far too late to download Digital River .isos they were removed in February by Microsoft.
9b. You can buy a Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation DVD from eBay and then make a Reinstallation USB from it. All over downloads are unofficial and should be treated with caution.
Windows XP is dead avoid it at all costs unless you enjoy being infected by Malware. Windows 7 is falling into obsolescence and Windows 10 TH2 is a really nice OS - TH1 was not refined.
8900 Buyer
9 Posts
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November 16th, 2015 14:00
Thanks for responding, ieee. I'll user DB&R to make an OS backup and Acronis for full.
Thanks also for instructive discussion of using Clonezilla. As to Acronis, their user forums discourage using "clone" for normal user backups, in favor of Acronis "image" backup. (The main detriment of Acronis cloning is that the clone backup cannot exist with anything else; e.g. only 1T of a 4T drive is usable for Acronis clones. The main benefit for cloning, I gather, is for I.T. to have a standard new user drive then can use to build 100 generic new users with. For all I've read, both their clone and image will restore a blank disk to full operation.)
I have to respond to one thing, Philip: the XP malware argument is an old wive's tale popularized by self-serving I.T. professionals. Win7 is "more" secure; and it is also allegedly 60% to 80% as productive for business use, due to the "fixed/Ain't broken" insipid interface changes. It's the *interface* that causes the cultish resistance to post-XP (and post Office 2003) products; the rhetorical dismissal of them as cultists who fear change is self-serving and simply false.
And anyone who says "contact the manufacturer for a 64 bit version of your now 100% crippled 32 bit program" is on ***. The world truly does not work that way. Just 'splaining why people continue to scream about being extorted to ditch XP! (EDIT: the missing word, if you see asterisks in this paragraph, is the name of a *** commonly called smack. Seems it's a bad word!) (re-EDIT: or the past tense of "drag" !!)
I will use DB&R as you recommend. I have presumably the full/latest version on my new machine just shipped from Dell so thankfully I don't have to cobble that solution. (EDIT: Sorry; I probably only have the "free" version of DB&R included on new PC from Dell; I do also have Acronis 2016)
Still 900,000 more questions remain, many shown above :)
Philip_Yip
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16.1K Posts
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November 16th, 2015 16:00
Security is an issue on XP its been 1.5 years since its got any updates and XP had a continuous stream of security of updates for a reason. Also it is far less stable than newer Windows versions such as 7 and 10 TH2. Also lack of drivers, you will not get XP working properly on an XPS 8700 and using only 4 GB of RAM 32 Bit is a huge limitation on such a powerful machine. User interface in my opinion is far more productive in Windows 7 and in Windows 10 TH2 I am very productive on these OS and dislike using the crippled version of Windows Explorer in XP.
Regarding your XP 32 Bit programs if you have a Retail XP license to hand what you can do is setup and use VMWare player and install Windows XP (with the NIC disabled due to security issues) in a VMWare virtual machine. The VM creates virtual hardware which is compatible with Windows XP. The XPS 8900 has plenty of power to virtualise Windows XP. Probably it could run 50 Virtual XP VMs simultaneously with ease:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sxLPUyWl8E
8900 Buyer
9 Posts
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November 16th, 2015 18:00
A little context on my remarks. I am a fast user, very, very fast. Just for illustration (since it was a prior century!) I bought multiple copies of Superkey to pass around. I used QDOS, Elftree, Desqview and a thousand other superior non-MS products. I lived in Borland before MS destroyed them. I rolled on the floor laughing at people lauding Codeview as I used Turbo Debugger. If I bristle at admonitions from those who don't "get" that, that's why. Really, I'm just like you. I want to do things in as few keystrokes as possible, as little operator time as possible (My time!), with automated invocation, including .BAT files when they are superior (which you probably are unaware, is very, very often).
Thanks n..4, I will try the VM route. In my past experience it's still awfully awkward to work through the additional layer; to pick one example, when something is installed to C:\program files\, drive letters are (by necessity) rearranged. Can Excel or a Paint program (or Paint!) be installed directly to the VM? I never tried. That would make things a world easier to manage. I'm encouraged though at your optimism that processor power is not an issue - one less pain in being squeezed into this approach!
Then again, try to *get* to \program files\ in the crippled W7 DOS window. Or \documents and settings\. (I can hear the snickers now, from geniuses who hadn't even heard of dir *.doc *.txt. Do _that_ in the advanced uncrippled W7 Explorer. Or dir *.pdf /od. I'll *** every responder is unaware they even exist, while fanboying for Explorer, which is too massively weak to do what those primitive DOS commands do. (Or use Windows search? Yeah, right!) AAR as to Explorer, it is less functional in W7 than in XP. Because it's more secure, right? Heh.) (EDIT: "b e t" is a prohibited word? Tough grading forum software!)
I'm going to make the old college try with VM, awkwardness notwithstanding. Thanks for the point in that direction.
Back to the purpose of the thread, an answer to even #1 would be useful. If anyone wants to answer the numbered questions I asked I'm happy to stick to those issues. XP is gone - thank you, unnamed fanboys and bullies - so I'm looking for Win7 answers if any of my O.P. questions make sense. Sorry, I really am a novice regarding backups. I've always just backed up whole drive trees directly, and recognize that with uber numbers of files and folders, that's not going to fly now.