Windows 2000 Pro SP4 backup on old laptop

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I am trying to create an image backup of a Windows 2000 Pro SP 4 installation on an old Toshiba laptop that has only 95 MB of RAM. It has a 4 GB internal hard drive (only about 1/3-rd full). I attach an external USB drive with a 150 GB partition for the image backup. The laptop is not connected to the internet for security reasons.

I tried using Acronis True Image Home 2009, booted from the CD. This resulted in an infinite loop (4-5 times anyway) of returning to the initial selection screen. I also tried installing Acronis on Win2K. This resulted in a message “……..unsupported platform…….”. Reviewing the documentation on the CD reveals that Win2KProSP4 is supported but Acronis requires 128 MB of RAM.

So, does anyone have a recommendation for backup software that will run on my very old and restricted Toshiba? I need to preserve this machine because it runs old software/hardware that has no current equivalent and has not been updated since Win2K days.

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Thank you, jwoods.

I will try your two suggestions.

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You can convert a Macrium image to a virtual disk file and then run it in VMware, HyperV etc. Then you don’t need to keep an old PC to run it.

cheers, Paul

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jwoods:

I tried both Macrium and ToDo-backup. The current versions of these do not support Win2K and I was unable to find older versions.

Paul T:

The emulation route won’t work because the hardware communication occurs via RS232 port which my current PC does not have. Ehat I’m doing is developing code on the old PC and downloading it to EPROM on the external unit.

CLiNT:

See comment to jwoods above. I tried finding an old version of Macrium, but no luck. Any suggestions to the location of archives of old software?

Thanks to all for your responses.

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…I tried both Macrium and ToDo-backup. The current versions of these do not support Win2K and I was unable to find older versions…

Have a look at “Image for DOS” (runs outside Windows): http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-dos.htm

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edit: I think Coochin nailed it on that laptop. Only requires 32MB to run. OS independent.

This is the oldest version filehippo has:
http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect/tech/7249/

Hirens Boot CD has Macrium Reflect Free 4.2.3775, but I doubt the XP loader will boot and load the app with 95MB of RAM.

If you have a IDE laptop interface capability (assumes it is a 2.5″ laptop IDE drive) you might pull the drive and connect it to the interface and then back up the image and reinstall the drive. Or buy it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002&cm_re=sata_usb_cable-_-12-232-002-_-Product

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I was able to resolve this problem using TeraByte Image for DOS, thanks to Coochin’s suggestion. I used the version currently available on their web site, which I assume is the latest. I did not have to hunt for an earlier version. Makes sense, I guess, since this runs independent of Windows.

A few points might be useful for others in a similar situation.

First, the GUI version of the software (created on a CD) would not boot the TOSHIBA laptop. I’m guessing this might have been due to the limited RAM of the machine. The non-GUI version worked well.

Second, I had a lot of trouble trying to create the image file on an NTFS formatted partition on a USB HDD. After many trials, I did successfully create one on a FAT32 formatted partition. (By the way, it appears that the only way to accomplish FAT32 formatting these days is on a Mac.)

I was also able to create an image file on a flash drive (also FAT32 formatted).

Thanks to all for your suggestions, and especially to Coochin for the lead for TeraByte IFD.

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