Formatting Virtual Drive to Restore Shadow Protect

I use Shadow Protect for backup and want to be able to restore to a Virtual
PC in an emergency. If I have an existing VPC it is no drama I simply restore
over the existing PC. But I want to create a blank virtual drive to then
restore the Shadow Protect image to. I assume I simply have a floppy to
format the virtual pc but how do I format for a Vista PC in absence of any XP
CDs etc.

Assuming you are talking about this product:
http://www.storagecraft.com/products...rotectDesktop/

They provide a recovery CD that you should be able to use to boot the
virtual machine, and then recover the backup.

Cheers,
Benjamin Armstrong
===========================
Senior Program Manager Lead
Windows Virtualization

Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/Virtual_PC_Guy
Book: http://tinyurl.com/ysxcbm

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. You assume all risk for your use.

MrLew wrote:
> I use Shadow Protect for backup and want to be able to restore to a Virtual
> PC in an emergency. If I have an existing VPC it is no drama I simply restore
> over the existing PC. But I want to create a blank virtual drive to then
> restore the Shadow Protect image to. I assume I simply have a floppy to
> format the virtual pc but how do I format for a Vista PC in absence of any XP
> CDs etc.
> From - Fri

Thanks for the quick response.
Yes I know they do but unless I have a VPC already cretated eg a 100GB vista
VPC to restore to it does work. My question is how do I a "virtual drive"
without actually loading an OS onto it.
The sequence is -
1. Create a virtual PC then start it
2. Boot off SD recovery CD within the VPC
3. SD then prompts for source image
4. SD then prompts for destination
this is were the problem is. As the VPC has not yet got a formatted drive SD
returns an error that it can't use unallocated space.

The problem is I need to be able to format the drive prior to trying to
restore.
I suppose I will have to find an XP system create a floopy with the format
command on it and boot from floppy within the VPC...maybe
TIA

"Benjamin Armstrong [MSFT]" wrote:

> Assuming you are talking about this product:
> http://www.storagecraft.com/products...rotectDesktop/
>
> They provide a recovery CD that you should be able to use to boot the
> virtual machine, and then recover the backup.
>
> Cheers,
> Benjamin Armstrong
> ===========================
> Senior Program Manager Lead
> Windows Virtualization
>
> Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/Virtual_PC_Guy
> Book: http://tinyurl.com/ysxcbm
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights. You assume all risk for your use.
>
> MrLew wrote:
> > I use Shadow Protect for backup and want to be able to restore to a Virtual
> > PC in an emergency. If I have an existing VPC it is no drama I simply restore
> > over the existing PC. But I want to create a blank virtual drive to then
> > restore the Shadow Protect image to. I assume I simply have a floppy to
> > format the virtual pc but how do I format for a Vista PC in absence of any XP
> > CDs etc.
> > From - Fri
>

On Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:33:01 -0700, MrLew
<> wrote:

>Thanks for the quick response.
>Yes I know they do but unless I have a VPC already cretated eg a 100GB vista
>VPC to restore to it does work. My question is how do I a "virtual drive"
>without actually loading an OS onto it.
>The sequence is -
>1. Create a virtual PC then start it
>2. Boot off SD recovery CD within the VPC
>3. SD then prompts for source image
>4. SD then prompts for destination
>this is were the problem is. As the VPC has not yet got a formatted drive SD
>returns an error that it can't use unallocated space.
>
>The problem is I need to be able to format the drive prior to trying to
>restore.
>I suppose I will have to find an XP system create a floopy with the format
>command on it and boot from floppy within the VPC...maybe
>TIA
When you use the VPC2007 wizard to create a new virtual machine you
vill be prompted to ether use an existing virtual hard disk or create
a new one. If you select new, then you will be given the opportunity
to define the size and type of this virtual hard disk.
Select dynamically expanding and set it to the max size (130 Gb).
When you have finished you have the empty virtual machine you need
complete with the empty big hard drive.
Just boot up with the SD recovery disk and go from there.

I can't believe that the SD boot disk requires the target hard disk to
be partitioned and formatted to be able to restore onto it, if so I
suggest you switch to another backup system....
--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)