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From: jim.s.witherspoon on 13 Jul 2010 21:05
OK, here's the story. I have a Gateway netbook running XP. It did not
come with a restore disk, but it does have a Gateway Recovery Management
program to create restore DVDs (OS, application and drivers). It doesn't
have an internal DVD burner. It's rather not have to buy an external usb
burnder; i would use it so rarely. (I will if I have to, though.)

Gateway Recovery Management does not give me the option to burn to an image
file. It wants to see a DVD burner. So, here's the idea. I'd like to be
able to mount an ISO file as a virtual DVD drive/disk, so that it will fool
Gateway Recovery Management into thinking it's writing to an actual DVD.
Then burn the DVD images to ISO files. I'd hope to end up with image of
the OS restore DVD, and the Applications and Drivers DVD. I could copy
this to a USB flash drive or to another computer over the network to use
later.

Then, when I wanted to do a restore (assuming that the netbook hard drive
is dead and restores can't be done from it), I'd like to be able to put the
disk images on the flash drive and restore from the usb flash drive.

But right now, I'm not concerned with how to restore the images, I just
want to fool GRM into making the images in the first place.

Is there any freeware way to do this?

jim


From: Craig on 14 Jul 2010 01:23
On 07/13/2010 06:05 PM, jim.s.witherspoon wrote:

> But right now, I'm not concerned with how to restore the images, I just
> want to fool GRM into making the images in the first place.
>
> Is there any freeware way to do this?

Jim;

If I'm following you, you're looking for an app that will create iso
images. In that case, I can recommend imgburn. The interface can be a
bit odd for new users so make sure to check out their on-line tutorials.

<http://www.imgburn.com/>

hth,
--
-Craig
From: Aaron on 14 Jul 2010 02:18
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 07/14/2010 01:23 AM, Craig wrote:
> On 07/13/2010 06:05 PM, jim.s.witherspoon wrote:
>
>> But right now, I'm not concerned with how to restore the images, I just
>> want to fool GRM into making the images in the first place.
>>
>> Is there any freeware way to do this?
>
> Jim;
>
> If I'm following you, you're looking for an app that will create iso
> images. In that case, I can recommend imgburn. The interface can be a
> bit odd for new users so make sure to check out their on-line tutorials.
>
> <http://www.imgburn.com/>
>
> hth,

I don't think that's going to be directly applicable. Jim, you don't
need to emulate a disc. You need to emulate the burner (the drive, in
other words). That's a tall order, and I don't know whether such
software exists. I think it would have to include a device driver
(kernel code) that looked like a physical burner to the OS, thus
creating a lettered drive and so forth, but actually passed data to a
program that would simply put it in a file on your hard disc (the image
file).

Actually, while I don't know of a stand alone application, this is the
kind of thing virtual machines are good at. Maybe you could run the
backup software from within a VM, with a "virtual burner" included.

A bit off topic, it's a shame that you're being made to jump through
this kind of hoop. You should solicit the OEM for proper discs, which
they should have given you to begin with. Of course, there are always
other OS options ... but I'll refrain from preaching.

- -Aaron
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From: GlowingBlueMist on 14 Jul 2010 09:42
On 7/14/2010 1:18 AM, Aaron wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 07/14/2010 01:23 AM, Craig wrote:
>> On 07/13/2010 06:05 PM, jim.s.witherspoon wrote:
>>
>>> But right now, I'm not concerned with how to restore the images, I just
>>> want to fool GRM into making the images in the first place.
>>>
>>> Is there any freeware way to do this?
>>
>> Jim;
>>
>> If I'm following you, you're looking for an app that will create iso
>> images. In that case, I can recommend imgburn. The interface can be a
>> bit odd for new users so make sure to check out their on-line tutorials.
>>
>> <http://www.imgburn.com/>
>>
>> hth,
>
> I don't think that's going to be directly applicable. Jim, you don't
> need to emulate a disc. You need to emulate the burner (the drive, in
> other words). That's a tall order, and I don't know whether such
> software exists. I think it would have to include a device driver
> (kernel code) that looked like a physical burner to the OS, thus
> creating a lettered drive and so forth, but actually passed data to a
> program that would simply put it in a file on your hard disc (the image
> file).
>
> Actually, while I don't know of a stand alone application, this is the
> kind of thing virtual machines are good at. Maybe you could run the
> backup software from within a VM, with a "virtual burner" included.
>
> A bit off topic, it's a shame that you're being made to jump through
> this kind of hoop. You should solicit the OEM for proper discs, which
> they should have given you to begin with. Of course, there are always
> other OS options ... but I'll refrain from preaching.
>
> - -Aaron

I know you don't want to purchase a new DVD drive just to do the backup
but here is possibly a cheaper way to go. If you already own an
external USB drive you may be able to get by with temporarily swapping a
DVD drive into that case in place of the hard drive.

I had a similar problem with a laptop that had only a CD burner and I
did not want to make a backup using multiple CD's. I went to one of my
local PC repair shops to see what was available. They had a box full of
used CD or DVD drives they were selling for around $10 each that they
had pulled from salvaged computers. Fortunately they had a DVD burner
that had the same interface as my USB/hard drive box, mine was IDE but
they also come in SATA with a few USB adapters that support both
interfaces. I swapped the DVD drive into the case and was able to make
the backup I wanted. Then I put the USB drive chassis back to it's
normal hard drive configuration. The DVD drive is now on the shelf as a
"spare" in case it's needed.

For what it's worth, don't try this with any USB adapters that are not
powered externally as the adapter circuitry usually does not supply
enough power to support DVD drives when powered by just the USB port.

I could have driven around on "trash" day and found a free DVD drive in
a discarded chassis but did not want to spend the time or gas to do it.
From: Craig on 14 Jul 2010 09:47
On 07/13/2010 11:18 PM, Aaron wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 07/14/2010 01:23 AM, Craig wrote:
>> On 07/13/2010 06:05 PM, jim.s.witherspoon wrote:
>>
>>> But right now, I'm not concerned with how to restore the images, I just
>>> want to fool GRM into making the images in the first place.
>>>
>>> Is there any freeware way to do this?
>>
>> Jim;
>>
>> If I'm following you, you're looking for an app that will create iso
>> images. In that case, I can recommend imgburn. The interface can be a
>> bit odd for new users so make sure to check out their on-line tutorials.
>>
>> <http://www.imgburn.com/>
>>
>> hth,
>
> I don't think that's going to be directly applicable.

Yea;

I missed the

> ...and restore from the usb flash drive

Have you considered using Clonezilla to clone an image of your disk to a
backup such as an external USB drive? That might be your easiest bet.

Otherwise, take a look at the following two options.

Although the first refers only to Linux distributions, it's been used
successfully on Windows 7. Not exactly XP but, it might be worth a try.
I've used this for other OSes and it's pretty easy & straight-forward.

> UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives
> <http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/>

Here's a tutorial from Tom's Hardware using Bart's PE to burn a Windows
XP install image to usb:
<http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/windows-in-your-pocket,review-1427.html>

hth,
--
-Craig
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