If you don't want to read below then download,Power Quest Drive Image
(It will run in windows and restart in dos to back up a working partition)
This information is for Win9X/ME to make a system restore disk using a CDR/W drive.To make this easy I clean re-installed and only added my most used and needed programs and kept my C drive data to a maximum of 600 meg so that it would easily fit onto a standard CDr disk.If you have a very large install then you would need to use the,"Spanning"option in the partition copying software but depending on your system this could take 30 or mores disks which is silly IMHO.Backup any work and downloads to CDR and the use the Control Panel/Add Remove Programs and un-install all large programs and only install what you need to keep the system drive under 650 meg used.
With all my Drivers correctly installed and the Device Manager cleaned and the Registry cleaned and all my most used and needed small programs installed and my C drive Partition I was ready.
1:You will need to make 2 floppy disks.One normal windows boot disk and one Ghost disk
2:
You will need a copy of Norton's Ghost 2002 or a similar program.
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It's best to make your own boot disk with Cdrom support and with a few extra files on it as the one win98 makes is too big and slow for my liking.If you want you can go and get a ready made good one from here Kramer Re-install
**************1st disk****************
1:Insert a new or known good floppy disk in your A drive/FULL format it and then from the same format list choose to Copy system files.
2:Copy the Mscdex.exe file from your Windows/Command folder to it.
3:Download and extract These generic Cdrom and boot files and extract them to the floppy.
You should now test this boot disk by making sure that in your BIOS the boot order is the floppy 1st and make sure you can access your Cdrom drive/s.Whilst you are at it add format.com to the disk as well from the Windows/Command folder.This floppy has generic CD drive support and PS2/Serial mouse support.The reason I have done this is so that when I make the CD and choose to make it bootable I can use the mouse instead of the keyboard in GhostPE :)
****************2nd Disk***************
1:Insert a new or known good floppy disk in your A drive/FULL format it.
2:Copy the files
GhostPE.exe
ghost.env
gdisk.exe
to it.
*************Burning The Image*************
Please note that I have my 20 gig hard drive partitioned 2 gig 9 gig and 9 gig so I am only burning my 2 gig image e.g the C partition.You will have to work out what is best for you.
1:Boot to floppy 1.
2:Swap to floppy 2.
3:type ghostpe.
4:Enter Reg code.
5:Use mouse and choose to copy a Partition to Image or Drive to image depending on your setup.
6:Pick the correct partition/drive.
7:Follow though and choose to make the CD bootable.
8:Supply floppy disks when prompted.
9:Follow through.
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Note:I used the HIGH compression in Ghost for speed.
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You now have a bootable image of your full system drive on a CD.You can change the boot order in the BIOS to boot from a Cdrom or you can use the 1st boot floppy to access the CDrom drive if you BIOS does not support CDrom drive booting.To use it you would just use Floppy 1 and change to the Cd drive and type GohstPE and follow through.
If your system allows you to boot from the Cdrom drive then you can just boot to the Backup CD and type ghostpe and follow through.You do NOT need to reformat the hard drive partition before re-installing
**************Warnings!****************
1:If your boot floppy gives you the Windows Dos startup menu just use the cursor key and choose command prompt only.
2:If you make an image of a partition like I do and then choose to use the Cd to install to a drive bigger than that then I suspect you will lose the rest of the drive's size and you would have to use a program like Partition Magic or the Zeleps Partition resizer(freeware) to expand the partition.This is logical as you have made an image of a partition/drive so in effect when you install the image you are also making a partition.
3:Use a CDR/W disk to practice and after a couple of goes it will be easy.
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