Running Gparted to backup Factory HD

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha Y'all,

My A9 came in today, 20 Aug. All I've done so far is charge it. Usually when I get a new PC I like to back up the HD using Gparted. I was planning on creating a bootable USB stick with Gparted and attaching it and an Ext USB HD via the Port Replicator.

Can I backup the A9's HD booting from Gparted? I've searched the forum and got no meaningful (to me at least) hits.

Thanks,

Allen

[CBers]

Hi Allen.

Glad to hear you've received your new toy :-)

What OS do you intend putting onto the A9 ??

Apart from copying off the software and drivers that come with it, I trashed the disk and installed W7 Pro.

The drivers and software are available from Archos' FTP site, so you don't need to copy them off.

After performing Windows Updates, I installed the latest graphics and touch-screen drivers, and then installed office 2010.

All works a treat, and Control Panel-<System says it's a tablet PC !!

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha CBers,

G'day from Kauai!

Hi Allen.

Glad to hear you've received your new toy :-)

Thanks. Think Archos tablets have a theme?

Archos 7HT ... 5IT... A9

What OS do you intend putting onto the A9 ??

Initially, I want to explore Win7 Starter which is why I want an out of the box HD image backup. After I can backup/restore the factory image then I'll play with other OSes.

Apart from copying off the software and drivers that come with it, I trashed the disk and installed W7 Pro.

The drivers and software are available from Archos' FTP site, so you don't need to copy them off.

I've already been to the Drivers Topic and DLed the drivers from Archos, Intel, and RealTEK, I've also DLed SetFSB.

After performing Windows Updates, I installed the latest graphics and touch-screen drivers, and then installed office 2010.

All works a treat, and Control Panel-<System says it's a tablet PC !!

My A9 is going to stay a Win7 tablet. However, I'd like to play with various Win7 versions, WinXP, MacOS, and some Linux distros. So being able to backup/restore a HD image seems like a nice skill to have since I can then easily swap OS images.

So until I know how to back up the factory HD my A9 sits there unused. Ideas?

Allen

[formerceo]

I've been on the fence but now ready to take the plunge. One question - My A5IT build quality is quite good and no problems for well over a year.
How is the build quality of the A9 compared to the A5 - meaning hardware sturdiness, etc?

[AllenPapapetrou]

Hi Former CEO,

From Amazon USA at $485.61 for the A9, Port Replicator and Case seems like a great deal. I bought a spare battery for $61.05.

After the 5IT and 7HT the A9 feels kinda heavy, I figure it'll feel lighter as I use it. Seems like the weight of a large hardback book. It doesn't have an accelerometer so no auto rotate. However, I've seen reports of a rotate setting.

Chipping in his 1.5hr video life testing the initial Z510 1.1Ghz A9 complained about the stand moving if you move the A9 to the right. Then the A9 falls down. The stand is offset right when fully extended and I haven't had the problem.

However, the stand just pulled out now when I tried to extend it. It went back on easily. But now I have to hold the top part of the stand if I want to extend it. A little glue should fix it. Bad form Archos!

Browsing the A9 forum and Video Reviews I haven't found any reports of bad build quality.

Hope this helps a little...

Now, any help on backing up the factory HD?

Allen

[formerceo]

Allen:

Thanks for the quick response - I think I'll buy one - the price is just too good. Have you tried Acronis for backup - it's always worked for me on my Windows boxes? The other thing that I'm thinking is that with external drives ridiculously cheap (my local BestBuy has the Seagate 1 TB drive for $90) you can just make an ISO image of the whole drive and put it on the external drive.

Older geek

[AllenPapapetrou]

Allen:

Thanks for the quick response - I think I'll buy one - the price is just too good. Have you tried Acronis for backup - it's always worked for me on my Windows boxes? The other thing that I'm thinking is that with external drives ridiculously cheap (my local BestBuy has the Seagate 1 TB drive for $90) you can just make an ISO image of the whole drive and put it on the external drive.

Older geek

Aloha Former CEO,

I've already backed it up using Gparted 0.2.6-2. Gparted uses Debian Linux was so Linux the first OS to run on my A9. I had 138G left on a 2T WD USB Drive so I used it. Be sure to get the Port Replicator so you have 3 USB ports:
USB Ports Used:
1. Dongle for Adesso WKB-4000US wireless KB/TP
2. SansDisk 4G USB Stick with bootable Gparted
3. WD 2T HD

55 minutes to backup SYSTEM partition and 5 minutes for RECOVERY partition. Contrary to reports here the Recovery partition showed 3G used in Gparted and 356M in WinVista Explorer.

The cool thing about a Gparted backup as opposed to an ISO backup: I've explored the files on the SYSTEM partition under WinVista on my Dell box without having booted the A9.

Well, I'm off to find the msconfig changes Roy recommended.


Allen
Younger old geek

[genci88]

Why not just plug in an external drive and use Windows' own backup program?

Personally I deleted the Archos "backup" partition, and expanded the primary partition to cover the whole drive. Additionally, a complete drive image resides on an external hard drive.

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha genci88,

I used Gparted because I wanted to be able to restore the drive to the way it came from the factory. So I had to backup before Win booted. Just a thing I have with PCs.

Now that I have a backup I feel comfortable making any and all changes to the drive.

Allen

[CBers]

Thanks. Think Archos tablets have a theme?

Archos 7HT ... 5IT... A9

You've almost got as many Archos devices as me :-)

I have a 704, 605, 105, two TV+ and now an A9 !!

[AllenPapapetrou]

You've got a bunch CBers!

I had a Jukebox FM Recorder which may be in drawer somewhere. I gave my 60G 5IMT to a friend when I found the 5IT would do everything the 5IMT did and more. I will say it's nice having Flash working on a tablet again. Not giving a personal opinion about Flash, just that a bunch of places I surf use it.

Allen

[CBers]

You've got a bunch CBers!

I had a Jukebox FM Recorder which may be in drawer somewhere. I gave my 60G 5IMT to a friend when I found the 5IT would do everything the 5IMT did and more. I will say it's nice having Flash working on a tablet again. Not giving a personal opinion about Flash, just that a bunch of places I surf use it.

Allen

You have a few then :-)

I must admit, I do like the A9, I use it more and more each day.

I do hope Archos give the option of Android or W7 on any new tablets they release.