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Recommended image backup/recovery solution for a netbook (no CD drive)

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MerleOne:
Hi,

I will soon be configuring a netbook, a Samsung NC10, running XP SP3 Home, and I am wondering which solution to use for backup/recovery.  I have to take into account that this machine has no CD/DVD reader.  Even if I could use an external CD/DVD recorder with USB, I would prefer a solution where it is not necessary.  I guess the system will come with 2 partitions, System & Data, plus probably a proprietary recovery system.  I would like to have a system that can withstand user error (user would be ... myself).

So far, I have identified these solutions:

* FD-ISR (full version, not the cut-down currently sold by HDS)
* R-TT drive image which has a CD-less recovery boot system
* Drive Clone Pro 6 which install a non standard MBR and can reboot in Win PE environment
* Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal which allows to use a usb key as bootable recovery medium
* Image for Windows v2 which also supports usb key as bootable recovery medium
I'd like to know which solution you would recommend in this CD-less configuration, either from this list or from another.

Thanks.

tomos:
have you seen this
Guide for Creating an Acronis Bootable USB Hard Disk
I have no experience with it so cant really comment myself ...

4wd:
I have an Acer Aspire One, only the 8GB SSD model, (expanded with a 4GB SDHC card), not a HDD like you but maybe my solution might give you some ideas.

For drive image backup/restoration I use Partimage Is Not Ghost, (which is akin to the original Norton Ghost restore/backup bootable floppy), on a bootable 2GB Flash Drive, using compression I can store a compressed image of both my current XP Pro+SP3 install and a compressed image of the original Linpus Lite installation.

The XP Pro+SP3 installation is highly nlite'ned and with compression the image comes in at around 400MB, less than the Linpus image at ~600MB.  This still leaves with over 600MB free on a 2GB Flash Drive for any subsequent backups.

It can also backup to a network share via SAMBA, so you can save/restore from another computer and don't need to carry any more than a basic restoration image if it dies while you're on the road.

Regarding using FD-ISR or similar, I suggest having a look at either Microsoft's Enhanced Write Filter or File Based Write Filter as I mentioned over here.

Using EWF you could redirect all writes to the System drive, (C:), to a directory on the data partition or create a separate partition specifically for it.  The next time you reboot the System partition will come up sans any changes you made last time - unless you commit those changes to the drive.

As I said above, might not be suitable for what you specifically want to do but it comes in at the right price - free.   :Thmbsup:

MerleOne:
Thanks both.  I forgot to mention the netbook has a 160GB HDD

Regarding the Microsoft EWF, I suppose it is equivalent, more or less to SteadyState, which has been found to improve SSD usage by some ?

4wd:
Thanks both.  I forgot to mention the netbook has a 160GB HDD

Regarding the Microsoft EWF, I suppose it is equivalent, more or less to SteadyState, which has been found to improve SSD usage by some ?
-MerleOne (April 17, 2009, 07:22 AM)
--- End quote ---

I had a quick look at SteadyState while I was looking for something similar but found EWF did everything I wanted and was a lot easier to set up and control afterwards.

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