[MPeg3]

My daughter's Acer Aspire M3100 computer with a SATA HD, crashed. I have a DriveImage XML image that was created when it was new and set up as she wanted it. From what I am now learning, I need to set the HD to 'slave' and install it in my SATA computer so I can restore her image to her C: drive. I have never worked with a SATA drive before and was surprised to see that it doesn't have the little clip on the end for switching it to 'slave'. Can anyone tell me how to make it a slave drive?

OR

My other alternative seems to be to create a boot CD, but I don't have a clue as to how to do that. Everything I find says to use your VISTA boot CD to create it and I don't have one. What I have access to is a Vista 64 bit and a Vista 32 bit computer with the disks burned from the restoration drives from each. I don't know if these can be used or not.

OR

I have the disks created from the restoration drive on her computer, but since the first one doesn't boot, I don't know how to use them and don't know how to access the restoration drive since I can't boot the computer.

I used a Ubuntu boot CD to copy the image from her HD to an external drive if that would be of any help, as I'm not sure what info is useful to you. I was hoping to be able to boot with the Ubuntu CD and restore the drive from there, but can't get DriveImage XML portable to work from my thumb drive.

Would appreciate any input.

Thanks
Peg

[rainforest123]

What do you mean by "crashed". Do you mean Windows blew up? Do you mean the HDD failed?

Which drive image program? Please provide product information pages for the lappy and the imaging product.

I have never made a SATA drive a slave. Please provide a reference for your statement, Peg.

This one?
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

If the latter, put the new HDD into the computer. Set the lappy to boot to the optical drive. Put disk #1 into optical drive tray. Reboot.

If you mean the former, does the lappy have a system recovery partition? If so, run that utility, then insert disk 1 of the image.

RF123

[MPeg3]

What I mean by "crashed" is that it won't boot at all. We tried to fix the boot files by using a Vista Recovery disk found here:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

But it wasn't able to fix it. I then tried to use the Vista installation from the same disk, but for some reason, it wouldn't accept the Vista product key that is on the side of the computer.

I used DriveImage XML to create the image of her C drive.

I got the info about setting the HD to slave, here:

http://lifehacker.com/326086/hot-ima...driveimage-xml

It should have a recovery partition, but booting with the Ubuntu doesn't show it for some reason.

[rainforest123]

Peg:
Per the neosmart link you provided.

It cannot be used to install or reinstall Windows Vista, and just serves as a Windows PE interface to recovering your PC.

If you will provide a product page, as I had previously requested, I'll try to find more information, Peg, about the recovery partition.

I am not an Ubutnu expert.

I know a little about UBCD, www.ubcd4win.com

Can you connect the HDD to another computer running Vista [ or XP ]?

I have never used DriveImageXML. HOWEVER, I have booted a computer with 2 SATA drives.
In the following example:
Computer A is your daughter's computer.

Computer B is a different computer.

Connect HDD A to Computer B. Computer B will boot into Windows. This might work with Ubuntu, but I have no experience with U.

Then, follow the directions, per the life hacker page you provided.

Perform a Complete System Restore
If your computer's hard drive crashed entirely, you can restore it to its past state using the DiX image you created. Restoring an image to a target disk will delete everything on the disk and copy the contents of the image to it. That means you cannot restore an image to a drive you're already using (because you can't delete the contents of a disk already in use). So if you booted up your computer on your C: drive, you can't restore an image to your C: drive. You need access to the target drive as a secondary disk. There are a few ways to do this. You can install the target drive as a slave in another PC in addition to its primary boot drive, or you can buy a hard drive enclosure and connect the target as an external drive.

Either way, to restore a disk image to a drive you intend to boot from, you'll need:

1. A PC running DriveImage XML
2. The saved disk image files, whether they're on CD, DVD, on the host PC or on an external drive
3. A target drive with a partition at least the size of the drive image files. (You can use Windows built-in Disk Management console or your partition manager of choice to create a new partition to restore to.)

To start the restore process, in DriveImage XML, click on the Restore button, then click the Next button, which will launch the drive restore wizard. From there, select the .XML file associated with the image, and then select the target drive. (Remember, the target drive must be an existing partition that's the same size or larger than the image, and it must not be the active system drive.) All files will be deleted from the target drive on restore, so be double sure there's nothing there you need to save. Like the image creation process, Dix will display a progress bar and estimated time as it restores the image to the drive.

Once the image has been copied and restored onto the target drive, you'll have to make that drive the active, boot partition for your PC to start using it. Either install the disk back into your PC, or use the Disk Management Console to set the target partition as "Active" and reboot your PC. Alternately, you can create a bootable Windows CD with DriveImage XML on it. Here's more on DriveImage XML on a BartPE bootable CD.

Per the above DriveImageXML needs to be installed on Computer B.

Then,

select the .XML file associated with the image

will be on the optical disk[s]. The target drive is the HDD for computer A, which you have connected to Computer B.

Essentially, you need a connector [ interface ] into which you can connect the HDD from computer A. The drive will also need power. Depending upon Computer B's capabilities, you would connect said interface to USB or 1394 / Firewire or SATA port.

RF123

[rainforest123]

Peg:
After restoring the image to Computer A's HDD, keep the drive connected to Computer B.

Shut down Computer B in the normal fashion.

Disconnect the HDD from Computer A, following the instructions that accompanied the interface. On some interfaces, you need to disconnect the power firstly. On some interfaces, you need to disconnect the data firstly.

Then, connect the HDD from Computer A into the port / bay of Computer A.

Turn on Computer A.

RF123

[MPeg3]

Originally Posted by rainforest123

Peg:
Per the neosmart link you provided.

If you will provide a product page, as I had previously requested, I'll try to find more information, Peg, about the recovery partition.

RF123

Sorry, I'm not sure what product page you are asking for. If you mean her computer, it can be found here:

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/de...M3100sp2.shtml

[rainforest123]

Yes, the Acer.

Thanks.

Go here http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/ma...G-OLM_0425.pdf

Read about eRecovery Management, if the information I provided about DriveImageXML didn't solve your problem.

RF123

[Hughv]

This is all explained in the Help File under "Restore".
SATA drives do not use the "Master/Slave" designation, so just install the drive and be sure you properly identify it when restoring.

[rainforest123]

unsubscribed