Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

[Guest pat_mc]

After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

 

Concretely, I wish to know:

 

1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

backup?

 

2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

data integrity in any way?

 

3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

external drive?

 

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Cheers -

 

Pat

 

 

--

pat_mc

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

 

"pat_mc" <p_surname@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:pat_mc.35nudk@no-mx.tabletquestions.com...

>

> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>

> Concretely, I wish to know:

>

> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> backup?

>

> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> data integrity in any way?

>

> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> external drive?

>

>

> Thanks in advance for your help!

>

> Cheers -

>

> Pat

>

>

> --

> pat_mc

 

How did you create your image? With an imaging program? If

so then the image retains the original file system attributes,

regardless of the file system of the medium where you store it.

[Guest philo]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

 

"pat_mc" <p_surname@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:pat_mc.35nudk@no-mx.tabletquestions.com...

>

> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>

> Concretely, I wish to know:

>

> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> backup?

>

> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> data integrity in any way?

>

> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> external drive?

>

>

> Thanks in advance for your help!

>

> Cheers -

>

> Pat

>

>

 

If you created an image of your HD onto the external drive...

it's an actual sector by sector copy...so the image itself is not on a fat32

partition.

[Guest pat_mc]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

 

Pegasus \(MVP\);932389 Wrote:

> "pat_mc" <p_surname********.com> wrote in message

> news:pat_mc.35nudk@no-mx.tabletquestions.com...

> >

> > After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> > full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> > has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> > wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

> >

> > Concretely, I wish to know:

> >

> > 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> > my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> > backup?

> >

> > 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> > data integrity in any way?

> >

> > 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> > system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> > external drive?

> >

> >

> > Thanks in advance for your help!

> >

> > Cheers -

> >

> > Pat

> >

> >

> > --

> > pat_mc

>

> How did you create your image? With an imaging program? If

> so then the image retains the original file system attributes,

> regardless of the file system of the medium where you store it.

 

Thanks, Pegasus. This I did not know. And yes, indeed, I created the

mirror with the freeware imaging tool 'DriveImageXML'

(http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm) which seems to make a

sector-by-sector copy. So I gather I should be OK as for this full

drive image.

 

I did, however, also copy all of my wife's HDD from her broken Windows

XP laptop using a 'Knoppix Linux ' (http://www.knopper.net/)bootable

from CD. Those files I only copied using the Linux command 'Copy to' on

all folders in the main partition.

Am I then right in assuming that these direct file copies are not

re-transferable as easily? If there are challenges, what will they be?

 

Thanks again -

 

Pat

 

 

--

pat_mc

[Guest smlunatick]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

On Mar 2, 2:36 pm, pat_mc <p_surn...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>

> Concretely, I wish to know:

>

> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> backup?

>

> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> data integrity in any way?

>

> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> external drive?

>

> Thanks in advance for your help!

>

> Cheers -

>

> Pat

>

> --

> pat_mc

 

You must now that Microsoft has "lamed" the Fat32 partition format in

XP. You can not store any files greater than 4GB nor can you re-do the

Fat32 partitions directly with XP (limit: 32GB)

[Guest Bob Harris]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

The short answer is yes.

 

A disk image is just a string of 1's and 0's that represent the original

disk. When restored, they bring back all attributes of the image, including

the format. In fact, if the image contained multiple partitions, restoring

the image would bring all of them back. (This is not your case, since you

have only one partition on the internal hard drive, but its is a more

extreme example to illustrate the principle.)

 

The only limitation of FAT32 with respect to images is that no single file

on FAT32 can be larger than 4 Gig. If the image is larger than that, it

must be broken into two or more files. Most imaging software is smart

enough to do this automatically (e.g., GHOST, TrueImage).

 

One thing to note, a disk image is slightly different than a partition

image, even if there is only one partition on the disk. A disk image will

contain the master boot record and thus can be restore to either the

original hard drive or a replacement (blank, raw) hard drive. A partition

image usually needs to be restored to the same hard drive. If a partition

image resorted to a new (blank, raw) hard drive, the system may not boot.

To fix that use either FDISK /MBR or use the XP recovery console's command

FIXMBR. I have heard that TrueImage version 9 or 10 will also handle the

boot record during a restore.

 

"pat_mc" <p_surname@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:pat_mc.35nudk@no-mx.tabletquestions.com...

>

> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>

> Concretely, I wish to know:

>

> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> backup?

>

> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> data integrity in any way?

>

> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> external drive?

>

>

> Thanks in advance for your help!

>

> Cheers -

>

> Pat

>

>

> --

> pat_mc

[Guest Bill in Co.]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

smlunatick wrote:

> On Mar 2, 2:36 pm, pat_mc <p_surn...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

>> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

>> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

>> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>>

>> Concretely, I wish to know:

>>

>> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

>> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

>> backup?

>>

>> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

>> data integrity in any way?

>>

>> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

>> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

>> external drive?

>>

>> Thanks in advance for your help!

>>

>> Cheers -

>>

>> Pat

>>

>> --

>> pat_mc

>

> You must now that Microsoft has "lamed" the Fat32 partition format in

> XP. You can not store any files greater than 4GB nor can you re-do the

> Fat32 partitions directly with XP (limit: 32GB)

 

But the 4 GB limitation for files in FAT32 has nothing to do with the

operating system, it's just a function of FAT32.

 

The (likely) bigger potential problem is that 32 GB limit, but that can be

avoided with third party utilties, if needbe.

[Guest Colin Barnhorst]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

The 4GB file limitation is not "laming" in XP. It is inherent in FAT32 and

has always been true.

 

"smlunatick" <yveslec@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:0d22c06b-b63d-469d-83fc-9acc91970f59@c33g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...

On Mar 2, 2:36 pm, pat_mc <p_surn...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

>

> Concretely, I wish to know:

>

> 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> backup?

>

> 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> data integrity in any way?

>

> 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> external drive?

>

> Thanks in advance for your help!

>

> Cheers -

>

> Pat

>

> --

> pat_mc

 

You must now that Microsoft has "lamed" the Fat32 partition format in

XP. You can not store any files greater than 4GB nor can you re-do the

Fat32 partitions directly with XP (limit: 32GB)

[Guest pat_mc]

Re: Can I restore data to NTFS which were backed up to FAT32?

 

 

smlunatick;932447 Wrote:

> On Mar 2, 2:36*pm, pat_mc <p_surn...********.com> wrote:

> > After purchasing a 500GB external HDD recently, I have just created a

> > full image of my Win XP laptop's 40GB C drive (the only partition it

> > has). Since the internal HDD is NTFS and the external one is FAT32 I

> > wonder if I am actually as safe as I had believed to be.

> >

> > Concretely, I wish to know:

> >

> > 1) In case of system crash can I simply copy the entire image back to

> > my laptop's internal HDD to re-create the system state at the time of

> > backup?

> >

> > 2) Will the fact that the storage media have different formats affect

> > data integrity in any way?

> >

> > 3) Which conversion steps - if any - are necessary to achieve a full

> > system recovery after copying the image back onto the laptop from the

> > external drive?

> >

> > Thanks in advance for your help!

> >

> > Cheers -

> >

> > Pat

> >

> > --

> > pat_mc

>

> You must now that Microsoft has "lamed" the Fat32 partition format in

> XP. You can not store any files greater than 4GB nor can you re-do the

> Fat32 partitions directly with XP (limit: 32GB)

 

 

smlunatick -

 

Thanks for pointing out the limitations to FAT32 introduced by

Microsoft under XP.

 

The data I copied directly from NTFS to FAT32 is about 20GB - so the

32GB limit will not be a problem. As I mentioned, I copied those data

under Linux, so I am not aware of any problems with files larger than

4GB. In fact, I believe there were no files of that size involved

anyway.

 

My concern is to find out whether there will be any problems when I

copy these data back from FAT32 to NTFS after re-installing XP.

 

Thanks again.

 

Pat

 

 

--

pat_mc