TeraByte Unlimited

I have a Windows XP Pro laptop on a home network, which includes a Seagate NAS, etc. On the laptop I use IFW ver. 2.66 to backup to the NAS over an ethernet connection. It works smoothly and I can access the image whenever I want to use the data. I make a full backup of the entire disk in the laptop, which has only one NTFS partition on it. When I want to restore the entire image to fully recover the disk contents, I plan to use the IFL environment booted from a flash drive, which I have already created and checked. It boots correctly so far as I can see. However, when I boot the laptop with the IFL program and look at the options to restore, all I can see is the locally connected disk drives on the laptop itself, but I do not see my NAS drive and I do not see an option to "find it", nor for accessing anything over a network connection. As I understand it, I normally access this NAS device as if it were a samba server; at least that is how I see it when accessing it from my linux box and I believe that Windows sees it in the same way. How can I make this device available to restore from to my laptop in the IFL environment? Thanks.

userX, you need to adapt this..

IFL Backing up to a network share (pdf)

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/index.htm

mount the share from the main boot menu that shows up, then within the
program you use File (OS) to access the mounted location of the share.

"userX" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

I have a Windows XP Pro laptop on a home network, which includes a Seagate
NAS, etc. On the laptop I use IFW ver. 2.66 to backup to the NAS over an
ethernet connection. It works smoothly and I can access the image whenever I
want to use the data. I make a full backup of the entire disk in the
laptop, which has only one NTFS partition on it. When I want to restore the
entire image to fully recover the disk contents, I plan to use the IFL
environment booted from a flash drive, which I have already created and
checked. It boots correctly so far as I can see. However, when I boot the
laptop with the IFL program and look at the options to restore, all I can
see is the locally connected disk drives on the laptop itself, but I do not
see my NAS drive and I do not see an option to "find it", nor for
accessing anything over a network connection. As I understand it, I
normally access this NAS device as if it were a samba server; at least that
is how I see it when accessing it from my linux box and I believe that
Windows sees it in the same way. How can I make this device available to
restore from to my laptop in the IFL environment? Thanks.

Apparently, when I used the 'makedisk.exe' program to create an IFL boot media on the flash drive, it did not create the network version; and I say that because the instructions for "How to backup to a network share using image for linux", available here: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/index.htm, shows an option that does not show up on mine when I boot into the IFL environment. Specifically, the menu option about "Mount/Unmout Samba/Windows Shares" is not one I see in my menu options. Is there a program for creating this IFL environment on a flash drive, or is it only on CD?

There are two IFL downloads. I guess you have the wrong one.

Yes, I have found now what you referred to, and I have the option to backup and restore over the network at home with IFL. I started the process off just to make sure that it would begin without a glitch, and I see that it worked correctly. Thanks for the pointers.
Another related question I have is in connection with using this type of backup and restore function with a disk that has whole disk encryption, using Truecrypt for instance. Currently, I am able to use the IFL to make a "copy" of the whole disk to another disk directly attached to the laptop with a USB device, and I am able to restore the data with IFL by using the same "copy" function going in the reverse direction. I have tested this and it works although the data is not accessible for browsing when copied like this; it does yet make good and reliable copies. Apparently, this type of "copy" procedure is not available over the network, only to a locally attached disk, from what I can see. As I am now able to make an image backup over the network with the IFL environment, can I use this procedure of backup and restore (instead of copy disk one way and back again) provided I do select the option to "backup/restore unused sectors", even though the whole disk encryption is in place? Does this type of restore actually take into account the entire MBR header data used by Truecrypt?

I don't use whole disk encryption but does this help?

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=462

It surely does. Muchas gracias, Brian.