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The author: a not particularly IT-literate fiftysomething running Windows XP on a Samsung N110
I recently installed ubuntu 12.04 on my now 3 year-old Samsung netbook, and succeeded in doing this without losing access to the recovery partition via the F4-key at boot. Read about my method here:
In preparation for this install, I decided to back up my existing Windows XP system. This turned out to be the hardest part of the entire project, so I thought I would post about it here.
Yes, I know, there are a host of Windows cloning / back-up solutions out there, but the one immediately available to me, and the one I was determined to use, was the on-board recovery ap: Samsung Recovery Solution III (hereafter: SRS III). Samsung Recovery Solution IV (also XP-compatible, I believe) is also available for download, as is SRS V (intended for Windows 7); but I didn’t need either of these.
This first post (of 4) is intended to be purely introductory, the remaining 3 posts will deal with specific backup / restore scenarios.
Some background info on SRS III; the functions it offers
SRS III contains, among other tools, a re-badged version of “winclon”, a well-known cloning ap. The Samsung implementation of winclon is limited, however, to making restorable “images” of the C:-drive (the drive containing Windows) only. These images might be stored on the D:-drive, or on an ext HDD, or on DVD. They provide the only means that the owner of an N110 has of restoring her N110. Samsung do not supply a Windows recovery disc, or equivalent (physical) recovery solution.
The ap (SRS III) is actually stored on the C:-drive, as part of the Windows set-up; and also in the Recovery Partition (in case, of course, the user loses the C:-drive), though these two versions of SRS III do not have quite the same capabilities: SRS III in Windows is the junior partner of SRS III in the Recovery Area.
Essentially 4 backup / restore functions are offered:
i) Basic restore. This seems simply to invoke the Windows restore function. The latter rolls the Windows-system, though not the user’s personal files, back to the nearest available “restore point” (i.e undoes all changes to system files made after that point). The system creates these restore points automatically, though the user can also set them up. A basic restore can be done from within the Windows system; the user does not have to boot into the Recovery Environment using the F4-key to carry one out.
ii) Data backup / restore. Saves personal data-files to an external volume that might be a HDD, or a DVD. The DVD option produces something like a regular data-DVD, and, in fact, you don’t need SRS III to restore the backed-up data; you can simply copy and paste it back from the ext. source. The advantage of using SRS III to restore the data is this: it “remembers” the paths to the original file locations (or rather it “reads” these paths from material backed up with the data), so you don’t have to remember them. This greatly simplifies file-restoration if you’ve grabbed stuff from all over the C:-drive. Data-backups can also be carried out entirely within Windows; they don’t require use of the Recovery Area either.
iii) Restore to initial state (factory condition). This effectively wipes all the changes that the user has made to Windows subsequent to registering with microsoft, returning the N110 to something like its original factory state. But not exactly to its original state. My source for this last statement is this post:
I quote:
“ …when you switch on the Sammy for the first time the following happens:
– Recovery solution finds no C/D partitions – prompts you to create them – Note I haven’t had the courage to delete C and D partitions to test this out!
– Initial images are copied to the C drive
– The Sammy reboots and runs Windows for the first time using sysprep deployment tool – owner name, computer name etc are registered
– Once setup is finished, the computer reboots and ‘re-creates’ the initial image onto the recovery partitionHence the files init.wcl and init.woo are NOT the true initial images – they are post-registration images which have overwritten the original factory images. Hence as stated by Samsung, once you use your Sammy, you can never revert to its ‘true’ factory install again…”
But why would you restore back to the N110’s initial state anyway?
One reason that you might want to re-install the initial state of an N110 is if you were preparing to sell it – such a re-install would certainly get rid of all your personal data.
And what would you find if you did regress your N110 back to its “initial-state”?
I dunno – haven’t done it, and it’s been 3 years since I first switched on my N110, so I remember very little about the initial set-up procedure. There’s also very little (i.e. nothing) about this on the Internet. But I suspect that you might have to re-sign a EULA and re-register with Microsoft. I also remember (or I think I remember – getting into Philip K. Dick territory here) that, after switching on the N110, the user has to “complete” registration within 3 months or Windows goes kaput.
Finally, can you get at, and back-up, the initial image?
You certainly can, and we shall deal with this point in due course
Restoration of the initial state of the system, though it might be started in Windows, is carried-out (I believe) from within the Recovery Environment (Windows requires you to boot into the latter using the F4-key); it thus requires a working Recovery Partition.
iv) Full system backup / restore. This copies the contents of the user’s C:-drive to a set of files in a nominated external location, which might be a HDD or one or more DVDs. The file-set contains files labelled “user1.wcl” (a biggy, 4.3GB in my case) and “user1.woo” (25B); and also a number of files labelled “user1.wo1”, “user1.wo2”, etc. – all wrapped up (if you’ve backed-up to a HDD) in a folder labelled “SamsungRecovery”. A full backup can be started from the Windows desktop, but the user is then invited to boot into the Recovery Environment using the F4-key to complete the job. Restoration of a backed-up image, too, is most easily carried out from the Recovery Environment, though there are other options (as we shall see).
The actual keyboard- / mouse-mechanics of making and restoring backups (of all kinds) with SRS III are well-described in this official Samsung document:
An N110 user of any longevity will almost certainly already have made one full system backup. During registration, which (I think) requires an Internet connection, a whole bunch of drivers are installed / permanently-installed and the user is given an opportunity to re-assign the volume on the internal HDD between the C:- and D:-drives. When all this has been done, the user is prompted to carry out a “first backup”. This is a full-system backup. By default, it is stored on the D:-drive.
Thus when I started the install Ubuntu 12.04 project, I actually already had two back-ups: the post-registration initial-image in the Recovery Partition, and a full back-up – albeit a rather ancient one (3 years old) – sitting in my D:-drive. But obviously, I needed to improve on this.
Now read on…
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