I attempted to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive using XP's
backup feature; however, as my laptop has no floppy drive, it would not
allow me to do so. What can I do to back up my drive?

Thanks..

J-Man wrote:
> I attempted to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive using
> XP's backup feature; however, as my laptop has no floppy drive, it
> would not allow me to do so. What can I do to back up my drive?
>
> Thanks..

Umm what has the floppy drive got to do with it? How is the external HDD
connected to your laptop?

The floppy is selected by default. Click the browse button. A message will
appear saying the is not floppy (or something like that) Click Cancel on the
'floppy' message and you should get the 'Save As' windows appear. If you are
using a CD to backup select to save the file on yuor desktop and then copy
to your cd from there.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
www.freelanceit.glowinternet.net

" J-Man" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:vyved.5169$%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I attempted to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive using XP's
>backup feature; however, as my laptop has no floppy drive, it would not
>allow me to do so. What can I do to back up my drive?
>
> Thanks..
>

I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to back
up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got the
impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up files
but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process. I
don't have my laptop right now (in the shop) and my desktop has Windows 98,
so I can't replicate the problem right now.

"John Barnett MVP" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%23rDv%(E-Mail Removed)...
> The floppy is selected by default. Click the browse button. A message will
> appear saying the is not floppy (or something like that) Click Cancel on
the
> 'floppy' message and you should get the 'Save As' windows appear. If you
are
> using a CD to backup select to save the file on yuor desktop and then copy
> to your cd from there.
>
> --
> John Barnett MVP
> Associate Expert
> www.freelanceit.glowinternet.net
>
> " J-Man" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:vyved.5169$%(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I attempted to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive using XP's
> >backup feature; however, as my laptop has no floppy drive, it would not
> >allow me to do so. What can I do to back up my drive?
> >
> > Thanks..
> >
>
>

JMSinLA wrote:

>I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to back
>up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got the
>impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up files
>but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process.

The NTBackup when run in Pro can make an ASR (Automated System Recovery)
floppy disk to use in a restoration after a total disk failure. It is
not essential to do so, and I think in any case there are better means
of making a total recovery backup


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (E-Mail Removed) (remove the D8 bit)

"Alex Nichol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> JMSinLA wrote:
>
> >I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to
back
> >up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got the
> >impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up
files
> >but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process.
>
> The NTBackup when run in Pro can make an ASR (Automated System Recovery)
> floppy disk to use in a restoration after a total disk failure. It is
> not essential to do so, and I think in any case there are better means
> of making a total recovery backup
>
Well, I guess I'll have to wait until I get my laptop back, but it seemed to
me that the backup program wouldn't let me proceed any further once it
realized that I had no floppy installed (internal or external.)

He's correct. If you try and select "backup all info on this computer" using
xp home, it requires that you have a floppy disk to recover the computer. I
am having the sam problem in that I have a laptop with no floppy drive. I am
backing up to an external HDD and cannot fool xp into using as the floppy as
well.

Please help!

"JMSinLA" wrote:

>
> "Alex Nichol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > JMSinLA wrote:
> >
> > >I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to
> back
> > >up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got the
> > >impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up
> files
> > >but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process.
> >
> > The NTBackup when run in Pro can make an ASR (Automated System Recovery)
> > floppy disk to use in a restoration after a total disk failure. It is
> > not essential to do so, and I think in any case there are better means
> > of making a total recovery backup
> >
> Well, I guess I'll have to wait until I get my laptop back, but it seemed to
> me that the backup program wouldn't let me proceed any further once it
> realized that I had no floppy installed (internal or external.)
>
>
>

Create a Bootable (Floppy emulated) CD-R. It will "Fool" Xp into
thinking it is Drive A: and allow you to use backup.
Essentially, you just take a floppy image (BootDisk.Com) and burn
the image file onto a CD-R disk using Easy CD or Nero. Set your
PC/Notebook to boot CD as 1st device & you're all set.

"Gilbert" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6A50AAD0-EBBB-4294-998B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> He's correct. If you try and select "backup all info on this computer"
> using
> xp home, it requires that you have a floppy disk to recover the computer.
> I
> am having the sam problem in that I have a laptop with no floppy drive. I
> am
> backing up to an external HDD and cannot fool xp into using as the floppy
> as
> well.
>
> Please help!
>
> "JMSinLA" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Alex Nichol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > JMSinLA wrote:
>> >
>> > >I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to
>> back
>> > >up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got
>> > >the
>> > >impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up
>> files
>> > >but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process.
>> >
>> > The NTBackup when run in Pro can make an ASR (Automated System
>> > Recovery)
>> > floppy disk to use in a restoration after a total disk failure. It is
>> > not essential to do so, and I think in any case there are better means
>> > of making a total recovery backup
>> >
>> Well, I guess I'll have to wait until I get my laptop back, but it seemed
>> to
>> me that the backup program wouldn't let me proceed any further once it
>> realized that I had no floppy installed (internal or external.)
>>
>>
>>

Yes, I've considered doing that, but is there any way to quantify it in the
xp backup utility?

Thanks.

"R. McCarty" wrote:

> Create a Bootable (Floppy emulated) CD-R. It will "Fool" Xp into
> thinking it is Drive A: and allow you to use backup.
> Essentially, you just take a floppy image (BootDisk.Com) and burn
> the image file onto a CD-R disk using Easy CD or Nero. Set your
> PC/Notebook to boot CD as 1st device & you're all set.
>
> "Gilbert" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:6A50AAD0-EBBB-4294-998B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > He's correct. If you try and select "backup all info on this computer"
> > using
> > xp home, it requires that you have a floppy disk to recover the computer.
> > I
> > am having the sam problem in that I have a laptop with no floppy drive. I
> > am
> > backing up to an external HDD and cannot fool xp into using as the floppy
> > as
> > well.
> >
> > Please help!
> >
> > "JMSinLA" wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "Alex Nichol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> > JMSinLA wrote:
> >> >
> >> > >I'm sorry -- perhaps I misstated the problem. I wasn't attempting to
> >> back
> >> > >up TO a floppy, but rather to another (external) hard drive. I got
> >> > >the
> >> > >impression that the floppy was required not to contain the backed up
> >> files
> >> > >but rather to use as a bootable disk, or to start the backup process.
> >> >
> >> > The NTBackup when run in Pro can make an ASR (Automated System
> >> > Recovery)
> >> > floppy disk to use in a restoration after a total disk failure. It is
> >> > not essential to do so, and I think in any case there are better means
> >> > of making a total recovery backup
> >> >
> >> Well, I guess I'll have to wait until I get my laptop back, but it seemed
> >> to
> >> me that the backup program wouldn't let me proceed any further once it
> >> realized that I had no floppy installed (internal or external.)
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>

J-Man,

You can still run an ASR backup without a floppy drive. Just run the
complete backup and cancel at the end when prompted for the floppy. You will
have a complete backup. The three files needed for the ASR floppy are found
in %windir%\repair named ASR.SIF, ASRPNP.SIF, and SETUP.LOG. These files can
be copied to any media for safekeeping, they will be needed for an ASR
restore (%windir% usually is c:\windows).

The ASR does require a floppy disk for the ASR restore (I'm in the process
of finding a work-around). The backup file can be accessed anytime to
restore files directories or even the system state (give it try and you will
see how easy it is).

The ASR restore process requires you to have your Windows XP CD, you boot
with the Win XP CD and select ASR recovery, which during that process, you
are prompted for the floppy.

MCSE

"J-Man" wrote:

> I attempted to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive using XP's
> backup feature; however, as my laptop has no floppy drive, it would not
> allow me to do so. What can I do to back up my drive?
>
> Thanks..
>
>
>