System Restore Essentials

Hi guys,
I have just formatted my HD,downloaded my most trusted win xp,AVG,ZA and
ad-aware updates.Ran all scans and the drivers are OK.Now that all is in
order, i wish to preserve this super clean condition by backing up all the
essetials in a file and then burnt onto a DVD.
The problem is what are the essentials that make up the system restore
function.I know that System State is one of them but what else?
Are these items ok?

Application Data
Local Settings
System Volume Information
Program Files.(All?)
WINDOWS(The big folder with lots of folders?)

Is there something that i missed ?

I know this is a biggie but i hope that once this is done,the next time i
suffer a major crash,all i need to do is format the HD and use this DVD to
put back all the necessary components in to their correct places.It sounds
good in theory but i hope it works!!
Hey,i think lotsa guys will benefit from your advice in the event of the
mother of all horrors-the meltdown!!

Hey,before i go,season greetings!

You need to backup your entire system partition.
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoff...t10/index.html

Steven

"pilz88" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:F39A2B59-FED7-4170-A310-(E-Mail Removed)...
> System Restore Essentials
>
> Hi guys,
> I have just formatted my HD,downloaded my most trusted win xp,AVG,ZA and
> ad-aware updates.Ran all scans and the drivers are OK.Now that all is in
> order, i wish to preserve this super clean condition by backing up all the
> essetials in a file and then burnt onto a DVD.
> The problem is what are the essentials that make up the system restore
> function.I know that System State is one of them but what else?
> Are these items ok?
>
> Application Data
> Local Settings
> System Volume Information
> Program Files.(All?)
> WINDOWS(The big folder with lots of folders?)
>
> Is there something that i missed ?
>
> I know this is a biggie but i hope that once this is done,the next time i
> suffer a major crash,all i need to do is format the HD and use this DVD to
> put back all the necessary components in to their correct places.It sounds
> good in theory but i hope it works!!
> Hey,i think lotsa guys will benefit from your advice in the event of the
> mother of all horrors-the meltdown!!
>
> Hey,before i go,season greetings!
>

Hi,

The System Volume Information is where System Restore holds it's restore
points.

To backup the system take a look at this disk imaging application.
Disk backup software: hard drive image backup program and cloning disk
with operation system
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org


pilz88 wrote:
> System Restore Essentials
>
> Hi guys,
> I have just formatted my HD,downloaded my most trusted win xp,AVG,ZA
> and ad-aware updates.Ran all scans and the drivers are OK.Now that
> all is in order, i wish to preserve this super clean condition by
> backing up all the essetials in a file and then burnt onto a DVD.
> The problem is what are the essentials that make up the system restore
> function.I know that System State is one of them but what else?
> Are these items ok?
>
> Application Data
> Local Settings
> System Volume Information
> Program Files.(All?)
> WINDOWS(The big folder with lots of folders?)
>
> Is there something that i missed ?
>
> I know this is a biggie but i hope that once this is done,the next
> time i suffer a major crash,all i need to do is format the HD and use
> this DVD to put back all the necessary components in to their correct
> places.It sounds good in theory but i hope it works!!
> Hey,i think lotsa guys will benefit from your advice in the event of
> the mother of all horrors-the meltdown!!
>
> Hey,before i go,season greetings!

My C partition contains only OS and installed applications, and so far
the entire partition fits on a single DVD, when it is written by BACKUP
applications like Acronis and Ghost, as they compress the data when
writing to the backup device. I strongly prefer Acronis over Ghost (at
least the 2003 version) when the target is an external device.

I have a set of RW disks that I rotate, so that I always have a backup
that goes several generations back, in case a problem takes a long time
to manifest itself.

Thanks for sharing that.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org


bxf wrote:
> My C partition contains only OS and installed applications, and so far
> the entire partition fits on a single DVD, when it is written by
> BACKUP applications like Acronis and Ghost, as they compress the data
> when writing to the backup device. I strongly prefer Acronis over
> Ghost (at least the 2003 version) when the target is an external
> device.
>
> I have a set of RW disks that I rotate, so that I always have a backup
> that goes several generations back, in case a problem takes a long
> time to manifest itself.

That's very close to the way I do my backups as well. Although I'm no friend of Symantec, I actually prefer Ghost 10 to True Image 9. Ghost is the only Symantec software I have on my computer.

Ghost does a daily image of my C (OS and applications) and D (My Documents, except for multimedia files) drives. Once a week I make the images directly to DVD. Multimedia files have a different schedule.

Because of something I read in one of these newsgroups I have a "second line of defense" for My Documents, which is to say I use a second program (Winzip) to backup My Documents (and a little more.)

Steven

"bxf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My C partition contains only OS and installed applications, and so far
> the entire partition fits on a single DVD, when it is written by BACKUP
> applications like Acronis and Ghost, as they compress the data when
> writing to the backup device. I strongly prefer Acronis over Ghost (at
> least the 2003 version) when the target is an external device.
>
> I have a set of RW disks that I rotate, so that I always have a backup
> that goes several generations back, in case a problem takes a long time
> to manifest itself.
>

My pleasure.

I often like to point out to people how much peace of mind one has when
one has backups of the system partition. If, like me, you like to
experiment, risking screwing up the system, you feel completely
comfortable doing whatever you want, knowing that in 15 minutes you can
restore your C partition to an earlier state. That is a very comforting
feeling. Same with a virus and unsuccessful installs/uninstalls - just
go back to an appropriate backup, and at worst, you may have to
reinstall only those applications that you've installed since that
particular backup was taken.

Bill

Bert Kinney wrote:
> Thanks for sharing that.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
> http://bertk.mvps.org
>
>
> bxf wrote:
> > My C partition contains only OS and installed applications, and so far
> > the entire partition fits on a single DVD, when it is written by
> > BACKUP applications like Acronis and Ghost, as they compress the data
> > when writing to the backup device. I strongly prefer Acronis over
> > Ghost (at least the 2003 version) when the target is an external
> > device.
> >
> > I have a set of RW disks that I rotate, so that I always have a backup
> > that goes several generations back, in case a problem takes a long
> > time to manifest itself.

Hi Bill,

That's a very good backup and recovery system you have there. :-)

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

bxf wrote:
> My pleasure.
>
> I often like to point out to people how much peace of mind one has
> when one has backups of the system partition. If, like me, you like to
> experiment, risking screwing up the system, you feel completely
> comfortable doing whatever you want, knowing that in 15 minutes you
> can restore your C partition to an earlier state. That is a very
> comforting feeling. Same with a virus and unsuccessful
> installs/uninstalls - just go back to an appropriate backup, and at
> worst, you may have to reinstall only those applications that you've
> installed since that particular backup was taken.
>
> Bill
>
> Bert Kinney wrote:
>> Thanks for sharing that.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
>> http://bertk.mvps.org
>>
>>
>> bxf wrote:
>>> My C partition contains only OS and installed applications, and so
>>> far the entire partition fits on a single DVD, when it is written by
>>> BACKUP applications like Acronis and Ghost, as they compress the
>>> data when writing to the backup device. I strongly prefer Acronis
>>> over Ghost (at least the 2003 version) when the target is an
>>> external device.
>>>
>>> I have a set of RW disks that I rotate, so that I always have a
>>> backup that goes several generations back, in case a problem takes
>>> a long time to manifest itself.