I'm thinking of backing up my C: drive onto a second HD in my PC, using Drive Image. Will I create a second bootable (primary) partition when doing that, and how will the computer handle that situation on re-boot?Thanks,Bruce.

Hi.I am not sure about Drive Image, but in general, an Image is a File, of your data. If you Restore that Image to your Partition/Drive it becomes active after Reboot. I hope this clears it up. I keep my OS on a 1.6 Gb partition and create/save an Image of it, after every major install. Once a week I write it to CDRW, about 600 Mb for W98SE. Post here if need more info. I use Ghost. TV

Hi Bruce,I have two 20 gig drives in my system, each formatted with one partition (same size). Once a week or so I clone the C: drive to the D: drive using Norton Ghost, so the data on each drive is identical (kind of a lazy man's RAID). The system will boot off whichever drive is configured as the master. Having Windows and all of the other system related stuff on the D: drive doesn't bother the system at all.Hope this helps,Tony

Hi, Tony.Your setup behaves AS IF it does not matter, but in reality, if you had, let

Thanks guys.So- Tony, you reminded me (the mind's the first to go :) ) that the 2nd HD is a Slave, and therefore whether the partition image is bootable or not is a mute point.But TV- you replies tend to indicate that the partition may still be bootable by the PC even though the image is copied to a slave HD. Is this what you're meaning? If so, how do I make my image of C: look unlike a bootable partition?Thanks guys, I appreciate the answers.Bruce.

One tihng REALLY MATTERS. If it's windows XP, MOST likely you will not be able to boot anymore.I've tried it and it didn't work, however I have done it with 98SE and Me and worked with no problem.

Yes, I do have XP (Home). I believe what you are referring to is the fact that XP can boot off any partition, and therefore by creating an additional bootable partition (even on a slave HD) this will confuse the boot-up process. Thanks for all the help with this, everyone. Bruce.

I should mention that I'm also running XP Home on the aforementioned system. Prior to that I was running 98SE on the same system. I haven't had any problems with this setup. Been doing this for over two years now. As always, YMMV.Tony

Hi Tony,Thanks- sounds like you have no problems with having a bootable partition- your's in D: and on the slave, it appears. Thanks. You refer to this as a "lazy man's RAID", which is what I'm looking to do too.Bruce.

Hi, Bruce. It is not recommended that you have more than one bootable partition, unless it is managed properly. You can run your system as long as everything works without problems. The situation changes when the OS is attempting to recover itself from errors, then it can pick up on the wrong boot partition and get very confused, including overwriting your FAT.In your case I see no real issue, you can save your image on your D: drive, that does not make it bootable. When you need to make it bootable, just use your floppy and Restore your Image to that Drive, that would make it Bootable, and you can use it as drive C:,after you change jumpers, at least that is what I would do. I am not sure why you want both drives to be bootable, the data on the boot sectors does not get written to, unless you decide to do a Disk clone/copy, otherwise it will create an Image that you cannot view unless you use the tools from Drive image. Go ahead and image your C: on D:, and leave D: without the Boot capability until you need it, then just Restore your image to it. TV

Hi TV,Thanks- I actually don't want the image to be bootable, this is where I was originally going with this question- would the image become bootable and then what?... your answer "Go ahead and image your C: on D:, and leave D: without the Boot capability until you need it, then just Restore your image to it"is what I wish to do.Thanks,Bruce.