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<DIV><FONT size=4>My laptop is a 233 MHz Pentium currently running Windoze
98se. I recently crashed the hard disk and had to reinstall everything
from scratch. I don't want to do that again any time soon! I've
investigated all the backup options I can think of on the Windoze side and
nothing seems adequate. The problem is that I can't install an internal
CDRW in this machine and Norton Ghost won't do an image dump/restore on an
external device (and I don't have another computer to use over a
network).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>SO ...</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=4>I would like to make this a dual boot machine anyway with
something like Mandrake or Red Hat. If I do, is there some way I can buy
an *external* CDRW and do a system image dump that can be restored?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Ideally, I'd like to be in a position where I could format my
hard drive, stick in a floppy boot disk and automagically have it restore Linux
and Windoze from the *external* CDRW just like nothing happened. If that's
asking too much, I could certainly do a minimal Linux install and run some
utility from there. Can this be done? I know Linux can do a
lot of things Windoze can't. I'm not stuck on a CDRW if there's another
reasonably priced device that would do it better, but a CDRW would be nice to
have.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The tricky parts are that the CDRW has to be external and that
Windoze likes to overwrite the MBR. And of course, if I have to install
Linux before I do the restore, it might get upset if the restore tried to
overwrite the programs doing the restoring.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Machine details: It's a Winbook XL 233 MHz Pentium with
a CDROM and a 10 GB HD (8 GB available through the BIOS). It has a 3COM
Etherlink III PCMCIA card (3C589D) in it and an LT Winmodem (549 driver)
built in that has to can be convinced to work.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The hard drive is currently partitioned roughly in half (C:
& D:) with a total of about 5 GB free (not counting the unused 2 GB the BIOS
can't see).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Any ideas would be appreciated. If I can't think of
anything else, I'll buy another laptop with a CDRW and an Ethernet card and use
Ghost 2002 over the network to back it up. I'd love an excuse to get
a new computer, but I'd really rather not spend the money if I don't have
to.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Thanks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Joe</FONT></DIV>
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