Started New Rad Guide » Hard Drive Imaging & Disk Cloning

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Back when I investigated how to create a webpage template, a couple weeks ago, I really had in mind the notion of using a template as the basis for a new Rad guide .. not one on Dreamweaver Templates however, but rather one for » Drive Imaging & Disk Cloning. Today I created that template, and began a new Rad guide.

Hard disk drive internals Definitely takes longer to get up-n-running when using a template, cuz you first must determine exactly how the guide will be structured .. and what items to include in the template, and what parts need to be editable.

Can't just start cranking out pages of text and entertaining new ideas (.. like I used to) .. leaving the details of page structure to deal with later.

Templates force you to pre-think everything up front, before you begin generating content-one. They even force you to anticipate changes .. which is new for me .. especially since I've grown accustomed to the ready-fire-aim approach, which leaves the details of page structure for later .. but by then it's difficult to make changes .. cuz each page must be edited individually (.. hence the need for templates).

I was so eager to get started on the guide that I actually had to start over (several times) .. due to major template modifications. (Arrgh!) Kept getting new ideas .. things I wanted to add/tweak.

You can always modify a template, as that's what they are designed for. But when a template requires many edits, it seems easier to just start over and create a new one. (Something I'm getting good at .. from all the practice.)

••• today's entry continues here below •••

This is true primarily before many pages have created, based on the template. There eventually comes a point of no return, where it's no longer worth starting over.

But now that the template is finished (for the last time, hopefully), it'll be easier to crank out each new page. I've already made a few. Still rough drafts, but Imaging & Cloning is a topic about which I know quite a bit, and something Radified is known for. So I think it will complement the site nicely.

The other imaging and cloning guides I wrote were application-specific .. to Norton Ghost. This new guide will address the concepts of imaging & cloning in general .. things we've learned over the years .. like a Best Practices guide. I've adopted this new approach cuz:

  1. cloning programs have become easier to use (no longer DOS-based)
  2. all cloning programs employ the same basic principles
  3. I have experience with cloning programs other than Norton Ghost
  4. other good imaging programs besides Ghost exist
  5. cloning programs provide powerful (Rad) functionality
  6. imaging & cloning is what we do here at Radified
  7. we've seen many problems posted in the forums, from users over the years, so have a good idea of where common troubled spots lie

Anyway, I'm going to get back to working on the new guide .. hope to work on it a little every day. But now that the template is finally dialed in, I feel the wind at my back. [ You might've noticed I also created a new subdomain for the new guide » clone.radified.com ]

For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » hard drive imaging disk cloning

When not working on the new guide, I've been learning the DOM .. which goes hand-in-hand with Javascript. Cool stuff. More on that later.

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This page contains a single entry by Rad published on May 31, 2009 2:20 PM.

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