> From: Mark Thornton <[log in to unmask]>
> >Does anyone have an easy and fool proof disaster recovery mechanism for
> >recovery of a failed hard disk on a Win95 system which brings back
> >everything in one go and which does not require the loading on Win95
> >first?
>
>
> Use the latest version of Norton Utilities, which creates a Zip or Jaz
> Rescue disk (obviously, you have to have one of these or
> something similar),
> together with the full system backup from whatever backup system
> you use. I
> back up to Jaz disks, which are very fast, but not cheap. But you
> could use
> the newer SparQ disks which are much cheaper, or a tape streamer (SCSI are
> much faster, but more expensive). The Norton Utilities Rescue disk will
> reinstall a basic working version of Windows very fast (in a few minutes),
> including recognising the Jaz/Zip drive. You then restore your
> full backup.
>
> Laurie Miles
>
I'd be *very* wary about relying on the Norton Utilities Emergency Zip disk
option unless you've tested it for real - and on the same machine. I made up
an Emergency Zip & floppy set. I then found that when the Zip disk had
loaded its emergency "mini-Win95" it decided the CMOS had changed, and
refused to do anything further until it had "restored" the CMOS - and then
insisted on a re-boot before doing anything more.
Unfortunately the CMOS has auto-changed itself for some very good reason. As
a result as soon as the re-boot commenced, the BIOS noted a CMOS checksum
error and opened the CMOS editor to allow it to be corrected. Closing the
CMOS editor (without changing anything) reset the checksum, and the
emergency Zip load recommenced. UNTIL - Norton Utilities noticed the CMOS
had changed again (the checksum had been reset) & so I was stuck in a
circle.
In *theory* this circular failure might not have occurred if I could have
been 100% certain that not the slightest thing in the CMOS had changed since
the last "rescue disk" set was made. I wouldn't care to trust this.
There is no way I'd risk the Norton Utilities Emergency Zip disk set as a
reliable method for any system recovery.
The problem of restoring an OS to use a backup recovery program is
notorious. I still think the only safe and reliable option is to use a
backup system which can restore from a DOS prompt (or else over a network
using a simple DOS client, such as a Novell redirector).
Otherwise - it is indeed a question of reloading the OS before recovering
the data.
Simon Whiting
Trevithick Surgery
Camborne Cornwall
TR11 3LT
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