I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest in
purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.

so,

What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?

How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?

Thank you

What do you have?? CD ?? DVD?? 2nd HD ???
The "magic" is to back up to a specific folder of your choosing on the HD
and then use a 3rd party burning program that will burn spanned volumes ..CD
or DVD.This of course depends upon the size of the backup...a few items will
be able to be burned to a CD with XP's native burning program. so long you
do not exceed the capacity of the CD.DVD's you will need a seperate program
as XP does not natively burn to DVD's.If the backup is bigger than the
CD/DVD then you will need a burning program that is capable of continuing
the burn on a 2nd/3rd/4th CD/DVD.
Nero does this as do some others and chances are if you have a CD/DVD you
have a program for that task.
peter

"Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest
>in
> purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
>
> so,
>
> What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
>
> How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
>
> Thank you

"Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers.

A common enough scenario. Laptops haven't come with floppies for some time
now.

> I have no interest in
> purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.

It's perhaps $20-$30 for a USB floppy that you can attach to any system.
They work very well, as long as the floppies work.

I see internal floppy drives for maybe $12, but then you have to open the PC
case.

> so,
>
> What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?

IIRC, you don't need a floppy to backup your data, only the system state if
you are using ASR.

> How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
>
> Thank you

Well, a starting point mught well be choosing a backup program or method
that does not require a floppy drive.

For example, Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost don't require floppies at
any point in the process, and you will get a complete, quickly restorable
system image. And from what I observe here, these images are *much* more
reliable than the results of ntbackup.

And it's very easy to mount the image file and verify the files. After
all, backups are less than worthless if they failed. Verification is
essential.

However, this may require that you purchase multiple copies of software,
which, as it happens, will be somewhat more than the price of the single USB
floppy you can move from system to system as needed.

Ultimately, it's up to you, and what you consider the value of your time and
data to be. I personally use Acronis True Image, and there's a free
trial, so you can check it out for two weeks.

HTH
-pk

Mars <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest in
>purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.

You'd not be able to efficiently backup anything if you used floppies
anyway.

CD works, but it's clunky and requires a lot of those as well. Best
solution is an external hard drive.

??????????????????

what would a FLOPPY DRIVE have to do with backing up Windows??

this isn't Windows 3.1





"Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest
>in
> purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
>
> so,
>
> What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
>
> How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
>
> Thank you

To everyone who wrote....

Wow, this is my first time asking a question in a Microsoft Windows Forum.
Not exactly the same experience as when asking in other forums.

Okay, should I start off by saying, " I love Microsoft, I think they are the
greatest company in the world and make the best darn software I ever did
use,.... please help." ?

hehehehe,

So, essentially I'm not a hard core windows geek, and my only experience
with command line tasks have been with Bash. I do remember using DOS back in
the good ole days when purchasing an old X86 with a monochrome monitor was
somehow a step up from my Commodore 64.

So, why am I saying this?

Because I do not know what all these acronyms are in Windows. Think of me as
a neophyte and someone who would like to embrace Windows, and does not have
much patience for silly remarks, unless of course they come from my nephew.

So back to my original Question I was asking:

I have used the BackUp application which comes with Windows XP Pro. It's
free and makes sense to use whatever utilities come with the operating system.

I do not wish to purchase a floppy disk driver, I don't care if it costs
less than bowl of cherries, I'd rather buy the cherries thank you.

Every operating system I have used has a nice quick utility for creating "
disk images " I am looking how to create a "floppy disk image" for windows
xp.

Why?

Because after backing up "All information on my Computer" using "Backup" it
asks me to insert a floppy disk so that restore information can be saved.

I am backing up everything because I am hoping that if Windows XPpro gibbles
on me again, ( This largely do to some sort of issue with ArcGIS Info and a
developer tool set I installed improperly.. I assume) I can simply restore my
system to my latest Backup and not go through the full 12hr + reinstallation
of Windows XP, it's many updates, then ArcGIS, it's many updates, then all
the dependancies updates.

So now that you know I am not an operating system wizard, not an acronym
juggler, not interested in purchasing a floppy drive, that I do wish to
embrace XP and what it can offer, and am interested in finding a nice simple
solution, any takers?

oh Yes, I back up to a hard drive. That hard drive gets mirrored to another
hard drive and all my hard drives get once again backed up to an offsite
location. So yes, my time and data are very important to me.

Please forgive me for not being very clear in the first post, this operating
system is kinda new to me.

Thank you.

Mars

I am back up to multiple Hard drives.

Why do you have to use a third party app and create a CD or DVD hardcopy for
a system restore backup?


"peter" wrote:

> What do you have?? CD ?? DVD?? 2nd HD ???
> The "magic" is to back up to a specific folder of your choosing on the HD
> and then use a 3rd party burning program that will burn spanned volumes ..CD
> or DVD.This of course depends upon the size of the backup...a few items will
> be able to be burned to a CD with XP's native burning program. so long you
> do not exceed the capacity of the CD.DVD's you will need a seperate program
> as XP does not natively burn to DVD's.If the backup is bigger than the
> CD/DVD then you will need a burning program that is capable of continuing
> the burn on a 2nd/3rd/4th CD/DVD.
> Nero does this as do some others and chances are if you have a CD/DVD you
> have a program for that task.
> peter
>
> "Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest
> >in
> > purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
> >
> > so,
> >
> > What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
> >
> > How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
> >
> > Thank you
>
>
>

"peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:hWgli.107571$xq1.104712@pd7urf1no...
> What do you have?? CD ?? DVD?? 2nd HD ???
> The "magic" is to back up to a specific folder of your choosing on the HD
> and then use a 3rd party burning program that will burn spanned volumes
> ..CD or DVD.This of course depends upon the size of the backup...a few
> items will be able to be burned to a CD with XP's native burning program.
> so long you do not exceed the capacity of the CD.DVD's you will need a
> seperate program as XP does not natively burn to DVD's.If the backup is
> bigger than the CD/DVD then you will need a burning program that is
> capable of continuing the burn on a 2nd/3rd/4th CD/DVD.
> Nero does this as do some others and chances are if you have a CD/DVD you
> have a program for that task.
> peter
>

If he really is creating a backup, he needs to consider how he is going to
restore it. Spanned volumes are useless in this regard, because the
application required to read the spanned disk must be assumed to be absent
from the system he is trying to restore to.

Have you any idea how many people (and organisations come to that) discover
that their religiously made back up is quite useless when they need to
restore it in anger?


> "Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest
>>in
>> purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
>>
>> so,
>>
>> What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
>>
>> How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
>>
>> Thank you
>
>

"Xenomorph" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> ??????????????????
>
> what would a FLOPPY DRIVE have to do with backing up Windows??
>
> this isn't Windows 3.1
>

It is quite possible to back a Windows XP installation onto floppies. I
does, take a humungous amount of floppy disks though.

>
>
>
>
> "Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers. I have no interest
>>in
>> purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
>>
>> so,
>>
>> What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
>>
>> How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
>>
>> Thank you
>
>

Yes, floppy drives are cheep, but I am not interested in more junk floating
around in my workspace.

> IIRC, you don't need a floppy to backup your data, only the system state if
> you are using ASR.

What is IIRC and ASR? And are you saying that you do need to use a floppy
for the system state?

> For example, Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost don't require floppies at
> any point in the process, and you will get a complete, quickly restorable
> system image. And from what I observe here, these images are *much* more
> reliable than the results of ntbackup.

The microsoft representative I spoke to before purchasing Windows XP pro
stated that the backup program contained within the operating system is the
best way to create a complete system backup that can be used to quickly
restore the system to it's state at time of backup.

When you say, MUCH more reliable, what do you mean!? Backups may not work
if I use the inhouse backup program!?

The reality is, I just want to create a Floppy Image to write the important
restore stuff windows wants and needs to save to a floppy. This can not be
hard to do. I just can not figure out how to do this.

Good lord I can not even remember the last time I've seen a floppy! ha!

thanks for the software tips, though I would rather minimize the software I
have loaded into windows XP, until I become more familiar and comfortable
with it, just in case there are conflict issues with ArcGIS.



"Patrick Keenan" wrote:

> "Mars" <Mars @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:819FDB57-E09B-4C76-B1F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I do not have a floppy drive for any of my computers.
>
> A common enough scenario. Laptops haven't come with floppies for some time
> now.
>
> > I have no interest in
> > purchasing one just to backup Windows XP.
>
> It's perhaps $20-$30 for a USB floppy that you can attach to any system.
> They work very well, as long as the floppies work.
>
> I see internal floppy drives for maybe $12, but then you have to open the PC
> case.
>
> > so,
> >
> > What is the magic for backing up without a Floppy Drive in Windows?
>
> IIRC, you don't need a floppy to backup your data, only the system state if
> you are using ASR.
>
> > How do I make a Floppy Image so I can finish my Backup in Windows?
> >
> > Thank you
>
> Well, a starting point mught well be choosing a backup program or method
> that does not require a floppy drive.
>
> For example, Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost don't require floppies at
> any point in the process, and you will get a complete, quickly restorable
> system image. And from what I observe here, these images are *much* more
> reliable than the results of ntbackup.
>
> And it's very easy to mount the image file and verify the files. After
> all, backups are less than worthless if they failed. Verification is
> essential.
>
> However, this may require that you purchase multiple copies of software,
> which, as it happens, will be somewhat more than the price of the single USB
> floppy you can move from system to system as needed.
>
> Ultimately, it's up to you, and what you consider the value of your time and
> data to be. I personally use Acronis True Image, and there's a free
> trial, so you can check it out for two weeks.
>
> HTH
> -pk
>
>
>
>
>