I need some help finishing this. If I use this it builds a file list of whats on my hard drive.



run it before and after a software install and it builds a list of what was installed and where. then run this to compare the text files.




heres what I am trying to do. I need a program that will tell me what files are installed and where when I install a program. That way I can add my registered programs to bart pe. I also need a program that will backup and restore my c drive with out the installed windows getting in the way. the fc command will also compare directories as well as txt files. If I can get the first bat file to let me asign a name and get the second one to let me do a browse and pick a a text file to compare instead of using file nams for file 1 and file 2 then I can start working on xcopy to copy the files over to a second hard drive, also mkisofs could be used to make cds of c drive to restore your drive to origanal with activation. i.e OEM Restore. I am not a programer and while I am still researching how to do this I have reached the limit of my knowledge right now. But this would be a great edition to bart. Will someone help.

Have you tried Microsoft's File Monitor and Process Explorer. They are very useful for tracking install changes and app relationships.

Any image backup utility needs a means of running outside the C:\ drive for restore operations. BartPE is a good base for RunTimeSoftware's free DriveImage XML backup/restore app.

You could try Installrite, rather than re-inventing the wheel.
http://users.telenet.be/Robvdb/how_plugin.htm

drive image xml just does not work. i have xphome on this thing. drive image gives two differant way to handle backup shadowcopy and i forget what the other one is but both just gives me errors. I have been downloading programs for two days and nothing does this. you get limited edition copies or you have to install two or three programs. to do this. this method has been used since dos and is still the easiest and most dependable. i am just trying to put it all together. it is allready in windows. with bart it just takes the os out of the way. better for restores. the closest thing to this is storage quest reflector and it is not free.

It's strange, Ed_P uses XP home and DriveImageXML all the time.

However here is a list of disk imaging apps:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16534
http://www.msfn.org/board/disk-imaging-software-t100299.html
http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_alternatives.htm

Installrite is a good app.

Tianwei's/Paraglider's Regshot, or the new 2.0 version are very useful for Registry changes:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/regshot/
http://regshot.ru/20/

This is another tool:
http://nirsoft.net/utils/reg_file_from_application.html

This would be more suited than your batches:
http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/fileutil/index.htm

For being (your words):


you seem pretty much sure about your approach:


Which is allright, of course, though personally I find that re-inventing the wheel is OK as long the result is a "better" or "rounder" wheel when compared to existing wheels, something that at first sight is not going to happen.

jaclaz

I have installrite on here right now. IT SUCKS! while it does take a snapshot of your system you can not look at it and the three install kits I built out of it would not reinstall the programs. with the directory script I can use fc on them and get a txt file of the difference then use xcopy with the output file and copy the files ta folder and have all the files I need to create a pluggin and cosidering there are more pluggins out there that do not work because of missing files and other mistakes then there are that work this is needed. windows has good solutions built in the problem is windows gets in the way. I just got through using slax linux on a computor to mirror a drive. today at 3 oclock I will go fix a computor I will take a live slax live cd a copy of winxp and an ultamate boot cd. the ultimate boot cd will be used to get the c drive bootable the live cd will be used to back up the drive before and after the repair. If for some reason I can not repair the os on the drive I will reinstall the os and move the needed programs from the backup but bart gives me a chance to take one live xp disk with all the programs I need on it. with this program once I get it put together I will be able to fix the comp back up the c drive to cds then setup an incremental backup on there second hd. that way when they back up a viris they will have a way to restore from this point. and the best point is it will take up no extra space on my bart pe disk.
can not believe people are not interested in this. oh well i will keep researching it and build it myself. sorry the post is so long.

I have XP Home on 4 different systems, SP3, and I use BartPE with DIxml on CDs, USB sticks and hds and DIxml works on all of them. It sounds like your system has something broken on it or an app that is conflicting with DIxml, of which I would suspect a security app that you're running. It could be a hard drive problem of which running CHKDSK on it should help resolve it.


Unfortunately the method doesn't take into account the Windows Registry changes that just about every app in the past 10 years updates when it is installed. Copying files is inadequate with Windows apps. That approach may have worked in the days of Windows 3.x because apps in those days added entries to win.ini and system.ini in addition to autoexec.bat and config.sys but they were files. And sometimes they added hidden system files which XCOPY would find.


Have you heard of Windows builtin System Restore system?

If you read the second link, you'll see that you don't use the install kit, just export the reg entries and the file list.
Or if you post links to the programs or plugins that don't work, people might be able to offer alternatives.