m17x (allpowerful) respawn feature - advanced backup question

So 1 day in and I decided to use the respawn due to a mini screw up and hindsight on my part (but thanks to this, my knowledge has GROWN! Hurrah! I thought I perma-screwed my m17x's ability to record sound). I noticed in the respawn feature there is an advanced backup feature which will put everything in c:\backup before reformatting. A handy feature, no doubt, but I didn't need it yesterday because I

However I am curious what if you exceed over 50% of your partition space? How will it still backup everything onto there? (or does it only select certain files?) It just seems weird the option is provided but I haven't tried to go into that yet and I doubt i'll get a chance to now until something else goes wrong. So i was wondering if anyone here has tried it already, and can tell me what it is like?

 

I've used respawn three times, because of three different "minor" screwups on my part.
What it actually does is move, not copy files into the c:\backup. Therefore remaining space is not an issue in this process. (I know first hand)

Believe me this is a handy tool, with respawn, I can regain a functional machine (functional machine, not a total system restore) within 30 minutes, even if I am on the road when this happens. Thanks to other tools, I can restore key applications and my documents, and within an hour have a basic restore even out in the field.

My only gripe about respawn is for some reason it feels the need to copy, yes copy, the Windows files. Ironic since it has been problems with Windows that I had to do the respawn in the first place. In XP it is not an issue, since an Administrator can delete them without problems. In Vista though, you have to go through a series of tedious procedures to have the ability to delete them and reclaim the substantial space they are consuming.

 

oh so it MOVES! thanks for that, makes more sense now.

In this case as long as I have 20gb or so in reserves to put vista/default image on top, i'm somewhat forever invincible.

Ironic indeed, I agree. What procedures do you speak of? I haven't heard of anything like this before. But if all goes to worst, I'll just use the advanced backup, then use the full backup which destroys everything, after I backed up my other files haha.

 

Yep, as long as have the respawn partition, you should be able to get your factory image on your machine.

Ah, the procedures. In case you were not aware, Vista has a hidden Administrator account, which is the "true" administrator. You have to activate it to access it.

Sadly, even as the true administrator, you still do not have sufficient privileges to delete Windows files that are in the C:\backup directory (and some of the windows apps in the program files directories too).
What you first have to do is have the Administrator account take ownership of all 100,000+ files, then it must change the Access Control List to have full control. After all this is done, then, and only then, can these redundant files be deleted. The entire process takes several hours. Essentially, you cannot use your computer while it is doing this, so I let it run overnight.

I wonder, if I use a Linux CD that boots and has a full OS off the disk, if I can simply delete the files that way. Linux experts?

 

Oh thanks! Looks like you replied twice, you must've though you lost the original post.

I like what i'm reading, but screw going through that, I will do as suggested/as said, do advanced backup, reformat, using the fresh image, access my stuff, backup, then do a full reformat and kill the disk, which I'm sure will be quicker than activating true admin and everything. Hehehe.

 

LOL yeah, I didn't see my first reply show up, I assumed it lost. Oh well....

I'm going to look into a Linux OS CD and try that instead.