How do I backup my Windows installs that are on CF cards

[Nama]

Hi,
Let me begin by saying I'm a mac guy. I've only used Windows for some specific retro needs and I had an old think pad I was using for this.
However, recently I decided I really needed to build a proper twiner machine, and I built the following machine:

- PIII @ 1Ghz
- 360k & 1.2m 5.25" floppies
- External USB 3.5" floppy
- Windows 98 and 2000 and DOS 6.22 on three separate CF cards that I can easily swap around depending on my needs.

So my question is simple, but I haven't found any easy solutions yet. I want to be able to make backups or images of the Windows CF cards (on a semi regular basis). If one of the cards dies I can easily buy another 16Gb CF card and reinstall everything from that last backup.
Does anyone know what would be the simplest way to do this?

Thanks
Phil

 

[Stone]

Just make disk images to the media of your choice.

 

[Nama]

Yes, I've tried using WinImage but the problem is that it takes about 20+ hours to image the 16Gb CF card which doesn't really make it practical for doing on a semi regular basis.

What I'm trying now is to image the card in OS X and make a .dmg file. I'll have to get another CF card and write back the image I made as a test to be sure it works. I'm hoping the faster processor on the Mac will speed things up considerably.

Thanks
Phil

 

[Stone]

You only need to image the entire card once. Then you can do incremental or differential follow-ups.

For a DOS card you can use xcopy. BTW, why would you even use a 16GB card for a DOS system? My DOS 7 tweener uses a 1.6GB drive and it's overkill!

 

[Nama]

Thanks again,
Only Win 2000 and Win 98 are on 16GB cards. DOS is on a 2GB card...still overkill, but it's all I had at the time.
I'll look into xcopy.

Thanks

 

[SkydivinGirl]

An older copy of Norton Ghost would be great. It images the entire drive and compresses it into a nice, small package. The last version of Norton Ghost that included a DOS version of the software was Ghost 2003. With that, you could easily use a Network Boot Disk to backup directly from the machine. This is the method I used for years and it works on anything DOS based up to and including Windows XP computers.

You might be able to use the newest version of Ghost or any other Windows based disk imaging software to create a backup of the CF card from within Windows on your current generation system.

Good luck!

Heather

 

[Mau1wurf1977]

I stick my CF cards in a USB card reader on my main desktop. Then I use Acronis (there are free versions from the harddrive manufacturers) to make an image.