
                  +----------------------------------------+
                  |                                        |
                  |            Partition saving            |
                  |                                        |
                  |    http://www.partition-saving.com     |
                  |  Copyright (c) 1999-2004 D. Guibouret  |
                  +----------------------------------------+

                                     HOWTO

Table of contents 
-----------------

  1- Preamble 
  2- Some definitions 
  3- Some DOS commands 
     a) Change drive 
     b) List directory contents 
     c) Change directory 
     d) Execute a program 
  4- Preparation 
  5- Saving 
  6- Restoring 


1- Preamble 
-----------

This is not the Partition Saving manual. This is a short description of how to
use this program in a standard case. To have more details, please read manual 
and FAQ. 


2- Some definitions 
-------------------

A drive is a partition on a hard disk, a floppy drive or any other device that
allows storing data. With DOS it is identified with a letter between 'A' and 
'Z' followed with ':'. 

A directory (or folder) is an element of a drive that allows grouping files 
(or sub-folders) together. Directory organisation on a drive is called a tree.
A directory inside another directory is called a sub-folder, a directory that 
contains a sub-folder is called parent directory (or upper directory) of 
sub-folder. The upper directory into tree (those that corresponds to drive) is
called root. 


3- Some DOS commands 
--------------------

DOS is an OS that run with command line. Here are some commands that could be 
useful. All commands given here must be validated with Enter key to be 
executed. 

  a) Change drive

To change drive, you have to enter "<drive letter>:". 

Example: 
--------
To go on floppy drive, you have to enter "A:". 

  b) List directory contents

To list what a directory contains, you have to enter "dir". If you enter "dir 
<directory name>" you will get contents of <directory name>. If you do not 
give directory name, you will get contents of current directory. If there was 
more files into a directory than it could be displayed on screen, you could 
enter "dir <directory name> /p" to stop command between each screen. 

Example: 
--------
"dir savepart". 

  c) Change directory

To change directory, you have to enter "cd <directory name>". If you do not 
give <directory name>, current directory name will be displayed. If <directory
name> is equal to ".", nothing is done, if it is equal to "..", you go into 
upper directory, if it is equal to "\" you go into root directory. You could 
cross over several directories by separating them with "\". 

Example: 
--------
If you have following directory tree: 
C: 
|- savepart 
|  |- doc 
|     |- en 
|     |- fr_ansi 
|     |- fr_ascii 
and you are into C:. If you enter "cd savepart", you go into savepart 
directory (enter "cd" to check this). Then if you enter "cd doc", you go into 
savepart\doc. A faster way to be into this directory from C: is to enter "cd 
savepart\doc". Once you are into savepart\doc, you could enter "cd .." to go 
back into savepart, "cd \" to go into root directory (C:). 

  d) Execute a program

To execute a program, you have to enter its name. DOS begin to search a file 
"<program name>.bat", "<program name>.com" or "<program name>.exe" into 
current directory, then into all directories given into "PATH" variable (to 
know what contains this variable, enter "path"). You could also give directory
name with program name for the DOS to search it directly into this directory. 

Example: 
--------
With considering that you have savepart.exe into savepart directory from 
previous example directory tree and that you are into C:\, you could enter 
"savepart\savepart" to run program, or enter "cd savepart" then "savepart". 


4- Preparation 
--------------

Here are elements to be done before saving/restoring a partition: 

  - To be able to save/restore a partition, you need a boot disk. To know how 
to create one, you could read FAQ Q10. You have to check that fdisk.exe, 
sys.com and format.com are on it, they could be useful.
  - To avoid saving useless things, it is better to remove temporary and 
useless files, .... Swap file could also be moved onto another partition to 
avoid saving it.
  - It could be better to defragment partition before saving it to group all 
data at beginning, moreover if you will restore it onto a smaller partition.
  - If you thing to clone a NTFS partition on another computer, you have to 
prepare Windows to this. For this purpose, please read Microsoft site. This is
not needed when saving/restoring a partition that was not moved on disk. 
Beginning with 2.90 version of Partition Saving, this is also theoretically 
not needed with using options to update registry and BOOTSECT.DOS file.
  - You need a FAT partition or a device that could be written by DOS to 
create saving files. Writing CD directly from DOS is rarely available. In this
case you need to create saved file on hard disk then go back to your usual OS 
to burn CD. For USB devices, it seems that some generic drivers exist to 
access them from DOS. If you have several types of partition (like NTFS and 
FAT) into a logical partition, you have to put FAT partitions before the 
others (else DOS seems not to be able to find them).
  - To be able to find easily which partition to choose, it is better to give 
a name to each partition. This will avoid confusion in case matching between 
partition and corresponding letter is wrong.
  - The part that is better to save is system partition (the one where OS is).
If system is installed on a partition and programs on another, as they could 
be links between them (example: register base and DLL for Windows), you have 
to save both partitions with running program twice. 
    As a good way of doing, it is better to create at least 2 partitions: one 
with OS and programs, second with your data (that do not need restoring in 
case of problem with OS). If it is not the case, before restoring, you will 
have to save your data somewhere to avoid them being erased with an older 
version.


5- Saving 
---------

Here are steps to save a partition: 

  - You have to begin with choosing "Save an element" info first window.
  - Then you have to choose support. As a general rule, system partition is on
disk number 0, so it is this one that you have to choose. "DOS devices" choice
should be used only if element to save is not on a hard disk or a floppy disk.
  - Third window allows choosing what exactly will be saved. It will not 
appear if you choose a floppy disk on previous window. So you have to choose 
into list what you want: generally it is only system partition. Full save of 
disk is of poor interest (it needs a lot of place), saving each partition 
individually is better. It is the same thing for logical partition: it is 
better to save each partition than the whole extended partition. Saving 
partition table or MBR could be interesting in case one day a virus infects 
your computer (some of them destroy this data).
  - Fourth window allows choosing what is to save on chosen element. This 
window appears only if you choose a partition, a floppy disk or a DOS device 
for which filesystem is known. Saving all sectors does a copy of each sector 
of partition, but it could be restored only on a partition that is identical 
to saved one. Choosing to save occupied only sectors does a copy of each 
occupied sector of partition, this need less space and allows restoring on a 
different partition than saved one. "Element on itself" choice appears for FAT
partition only: if you have only one partition, this allows saving this 
partition with creating saving file on it (if you do not choose this option, 
you should not created saving file on saved partition).
  - Following window allows giving saving file name. With DOS, names could not
be more than 8 characters long and could be followed by a 3 characters 
extension (example: "fichier00.part" will be cut into "fichier0.par"). 
Filename could contains alphabetical and numerical characters and '$', '%', 
''', '-', '_', '@', '~', '`', '!', '(', ')', '{', '}', '^', '#' and '&' 
characters. Files created with this program do not need any specific extension
(do not give them an extension used by another program to avoid confusion). 
Filename should be given into "File" line. As default it contains "*.*" which 
means: list all files into current directory. You could give a simple filename
(in this case it will be created into current directory) or a whole pathname 
(example: "D:\DISK_C.PAR"). Others window elements allow changing drive 
("Drives") or directory ("Directories") or choosing an existing file 
("Files"). Unless you choose option to save partition on itself into previous 
window, you should not create a saving file on partition you save.
  - Following window asks for the size that you do not want the file override.
This is useful as example if you want to burn files on CD to force it to not 
be bigger than CD. In all cases you could not create a file bigger than 2047 
Mb. If saving need more place, program will ask you name of a second file 
where it will continue to save data.
  - Following window asks if you want to compress data. Bigger the chosen 
value is, bigger the time to save is (restoring will less be influenced by 
it). As a general rule, going over level 5 do not win a lot of space in 
comparison to time spent.
  - From this point, saving phase begins. Upper progression bar shows saving 
progress, as lower bar shows filling of file in comparison to maximum size 
defined. If this file is filled up, another one will be asked to you. List 
under contains errors that were found when saving. You could cancel this 
saving, but in this case, you should not use created files.
  - Once saving is ended, program asks you if you want to create a 
configuration file. This file is a text file that allows doing the same saving
or restoring this partition without program asking you anything. If you answer
yes here, filename to create will be asked. 
    If after exiting program, you move saving file (with burning them on CD by
example), you have to modify the configuration file to put new place of saving
file (example: if you create saving file into D:\DISK_C.PAR, configuration 
file into D:\DISK_C.CFG, your CD reader has the F: letter and you want to burn
both file. Before doing it, you should edit configuration file (with a text 
editor) to change "file=D:\DISK_C.PAR" line into "file=F:\DISK_C.PAR" and that
for all "file=..." lines that are into file).


6- Restoring 
------------

If when saving you have created the configuration file and you want to do 
restoring on saved partition, you could enter "savepart -r -f <configuration 
filename>" and restoring will be automatic. Warning: in this case no 
confirmation will be asked you before. 
If you do not create configuration file or prefer to do restoring by hand, 
here are all steps: 

  - Begin with choosing "Restore an element" option in first window.
  - The second window asks which is the first saving file: you should enter 
its name into "File" line (or double click on its name into "Files" list) with
changing directory or drive before if needed. You must be sure that this file 
is not on partition you want to restore.
  - Depending on file contents and how your partitions are, program gives you 
list of partitions that match the one into saved file. The one that is 
identical to the saved one is marked with an 'X' into Id. column. Note: 
restoring a partition obviously erases the current contents. If you saved 
partition table and restore it, you will loose content of all partitions on 
disk on which restoring is done as this modify disk organisation.
  - A window asks you to confirm your choice.
  - From this point restoring begins. Upper progress bar shows progress for 
file that is currently read, lower one gives progress for the restored 
partition. If saving was done into several files, program will ask you the 
following one when it reaches end of current one.
  - Once restoring is ended, you should not access to restored partition 
before having booted your computer. This is because informations that DOS has 
into memory are no more coherent with partition content and so using it will 
end with data corruption. After that, if you have saved partition on itself, 
saving file could appear on restored partition, in this case you could remove 
it as it is not valid (I speak about the file that could appear on restored 
partition, not those you use to do this restoring which is always correct).
  - If when restoring, you do not have restored partition on the one that was 
saved (either it is not on the same disk or beginning of partition has moved 
on disk) and you have Windows 2000 and XP, you have to update some definitions
into registry and into a file (BOOTSECT.DOS) used in case you have several 
Windows installations (see chapters 11 and 12 of manual).
  - In some cases, if you restore system partition, it could be no more 
bootable. You should begin with checking with fdisk that it is activated. Then
for FAT partition, you have to restore MBR with "fdisk /mbr", then boot sector
with "sys c:" (from boot floppy disk). For ext2fs partition, you have to 
restore boot loader by using install CD used into rescue mode (method to use 
depend on boot loader). For NTFS partition, you have to use fixboot, fixmbr 
and bootcfg commands by using repair console that could be obtained with 
install CD.

------
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