Windows Creating custom Recovery CD's

I have been looking for a way to make my own Recovery dvd for my fresh winxp and program install.

I spend way to much time reinstalling windows and all my programs on my computers.

I've been playing around with Acronis True Image 9.1 trial, and I can successfuly make a "Full Back" file,
(sector by sector image of used space. Approx 3gb)
but I can't make a bootable .iso file out it... or figure out a way to get Acronis to use DVD's instead of harddrives for back up medium.

Im new to this obviously, however, has anyone done something similar and what did you use?

Thanks

winxp pro
250gb partitioned, 40gb part for windows,
1gb OCZ ram, AMD64 3200+,

 

i created my perfect system and created bootable cd's with Norton Ghost.

i've also created a "hands free" XP pro install dvd for a mate, it installs XP with the key already in, office 2003, sophos rah rah rah.

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ <- gives an excellent guide, well i could follow it so it must be easy

 

Howz about trying one or other of these 'Slipstreaming XP' guides:

Slipstreaming Windows XP with SP2 (by Paul Thurrott)
Slipstreamed Windows XP CD Using SP2
Slipstream your XP installation

 

Well shoot, now im in a debate, since this Slipstreamed process might be the way to go. How ever I would like all of my Windows settings, drivers and program settings to remain the same... so a recovery cd that is an "image" which can copy itself over to a hard drive is still my wish. I'll try this slip streaming out this weekend. Thanks.

Still if anyone has done a recovery disc with True Image or Norton ghost (without floppy discs) please let me know.

 

Slipstreaming (and install scripts) won't give you a truly personal setup, it just makes install quicker (and often more reliable) and you don't have to answer questions so it can be unattended.

I think you need the image of your drive as soon as you've got it set up to suit you, with all your favourite programs installed. It's a bit like a roll-back to Day 1 (or the day when everything was working). Ghost or any other drive imaging program will do that.

I'm not sure a "bootable iso" of the drive is normal - you get a bootable disc containing the image restore program, run that and point it to the start of the backup files. It's no doubt possible to put all the ingredients on 1 boot DVD for a small setup, but easier to just run the imaging program as intended.

 

I work in a PC repair shop and I do recovery/reinstalls all the time. By far the quickest way is to get your perfect system up and running with all the programs you need/want, then make a ghost image. Then when you have done that put the image on a bootable DVD which boots the DOS version of ghost.

That way when you boot from the DVD it will load ghost and you can restore the your system from the image on the DVD. Restoring this takes 10-15mins and you can leave it to it after you set it going, as opposed to 30 mins to install the OS then a good while more installing the programs.

The most important thing is that you mustn't activate anything, like Windows or Norton Antivirus, etc. before you make the image as when you restore it it may cause problems.

You can even restore the ghost image to other systems provided you redetect hardware after you have finished in device manager.

 

For my laptop i have a USB disc and a BartPE disc.

Boot up the bart pe-disk (With norton ghost). and just load the image from the USB disc.

It takes about 2-3 minutes to load the image (and 2-3 minutes to boot up bart pe)

 

Yeah, I have been using Norton Ghost and programmes just like it for years now, beats pating in excess of £50 for a certified reboot CD and of course it will just reformat to the moment it was first turned on and you can't make a custom disc with SP2 or any program you wish....
Thankyou Norton Ghost, so much time saved and money...

 

I use Acronis now used to use Ghost but Acronis is easier I find, I bought a small second hand laptop hard disk and back up to it, normally takes about 7 mins to do a full restore including all my programmes.
It's very quick and easy.

 

Alright, well I hear its possible, I guess ill give norton Ghost another chance.

Thanks