WhitePaper: Automating Backups and Restores with BootIt NG and Image for DOS

A whitepaper is available that outlines a simple and flexible method of automating (or semi-automating) one or more image operations using a combination of the BootIt NG and Image for DOS products.

The basic premise is to set up a bootable DOS partition with one or more batch files to run the desired Image for DOS commands and to use BootIt NG to boot into the partition from its menu to initiate the image operation(s). Optionally, BING can be installed to the DOS partition so that only one primary partition is required to implement the method.

Included with the whitepaper are two prepared images of bootable FreeDOS-based partitions, either of which can be restored to a hard drive to serve as the DOS partition. The images contain a simple DOS menu that can be used to select which batch file to run, as well as working templates of batch files to use. The DOS menu is configured so that the keystrokes feature in BootIt NG can be used to automatically preselect a specific batch file to be executed when the corresponding boot item is chosen from the BING menu.

For addtional automation, the BootNow utility can be used to initiate an image operation from an operating system. The DOS version of BootNow is included in the FreeDOS images so that, optionally, a specified boot item can be booted after an image operation completes.

The whitepaper can be downloaded here.