Hi

I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP Home
on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not installed by Dell
and since they don't give you a OS disk when you buy you can't install it
that way. I have made numerous attempts to contact the appropriate dept.
there but to no avail so far. I read in this newsgroup of a site from where
I can download the XP Upgrade utility and this I did yesterday.
Unfortunately it won't install unless you allow it to make a start up floppy
disk at the same time. I can't, because there is no floppy disk drive on my
laptop!

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Jay.

I received an OS CD with my Dell, but I have WinXP Pro. Don't know if this
makes a difference or not

--
---------------------
Bob E.




"JGGS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:AgbSg.14121$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP Home
> on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not installed by
> Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you buy you can't
> install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to contact the
> appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in this newsgroup
> of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade utility and this I did
> yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install unless you allow it to make a
> start up floppy disk at the same time. I can't, because there is no floppy
> disk drive on my laptop!
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay.
>

JGGS wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP
> Home on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not
> installed by Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you
> buy you can't install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to
> contact the appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in
> this newsgroup of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade
> utility and this I did yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install
> unless you allow it to make a start up floppy disk at the same time.
> I can't, because there is no floppy disk drive on my laptop!
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay.

It can be downloaded from the 'net. If no one jumps in with a URL for you,
try a new post asking where to download it from.
It's pathetic that some OEMs actually remove it; MS shouldn't allow that
but they do.

Pop`

I jumped in.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootlist/148.htm#5
--
> Ayush [ Be ''?'' Happy ]
"Pop`" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uh$(E-Mail Removed)...
| JGGS wrote:
| > Hi
| >
| > I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP
| > Home on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not
| > installed by Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you
| > buy you can't install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to
| > contact the appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in
| > this newsgroup of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade
| > utility and this I did yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install
| > unless you allow it to make a start up floppy disk at the same time.
| > I can't, because there is no floppy disk drive on my laptop!
| >
| > Can anyone help?
| >
| > Thanks,
| >
| > Jay.
|
| It can be downloaded from the 'net. If no one jumps in with a URL for
you,
| try a new post asking where to download it from.
| It's pathetic that some OEMs actually remove it; MS shouldn't allow that
| but they do.
|
| Pop`
|
|

"JGGS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:AgbSg.14121$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP Home
> on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not installed by
> Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you buy you can't
> install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to contact the
> appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in this newsgroup
> of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade utility and this I did
> yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install unless you allow it to make a
> start up floppy disk at the same time. I can't, because there is no floppy
> disk drive on my laptop!
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay.

Your post talks about XP's native backup program (ntbackup) but then you
mention this XP upgrade utility. What exactly is that? Here is a link
where you can download ntbackup.

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/window...tm#backup_home

Ntbackup is a legacy app ported from widows NT. There are other, better
backup solutions. It's one advantage is that it's free. Ntbackup cannot
backup to DVD and will only backup to CD if other 3rd party CD burning
software is available and even with that it will not span CDs, i.e. one CD
is the limit, which is not very practical. It is geared toward tape drives
or other hard drives. It will work ok in backing up to an external hard
drive (or network drive) and restoring individual files / folders is ok, but
if you need to restore the complete drive it's cumbersome. XP must be
installed first. If you have XP Pro, Ntbackup has an ASR feature (Automated
System Recovery) which makes this restore of a boot/system drive easier but
still it takes much longer than an imaging program, and I never got it to
restore my system to full functionality as it was when the backup was made.
It also mandates that a floppy drive be available. One floppy disk is
created in the ASR process and there is no way around that. ASR is not
available on XP Home addition.

There are several other approaches for backup. One is to use an imaging
program. This makes an exact image of the partition which can be saved on
CD/DVD or to another drive - internal or external. Imaging to an external
USB 2.0 / Firewire drive works well. Then occasionally burning an image to
DVD gives you redundancy. Restores can be done of the entire partition or
individual files / folders. These work well and make it easy to recover from
a drive crash. Examples of this are:

Norton Ghost 10
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
CasperXP

The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
BackUP, Sonic's Backup MyPC or SecondCopy from www.centered.com. There are
other backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete backup or
backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.

Another is simply copying data files to a CD. Zip them up to make them
smaller if you want.

--
Rock [ MVP User/Shell]

Rock, that was very helpful and informative. One thing, though, what's the
difference between backing up and imaging?

Thanks.

Jay.


"Rock" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "JGGS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:AgbSg.14121$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi
>>
>> I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP
>> Home on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not installed
>> by Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you buy you can't
>> install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to contact the
>> appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in this newsgroup
>> of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade utility and this I did
>> yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install unless you allow it to make a
>> start up floppy disk at the same time. I can't, because there is no
>> floppy disk drive on my laptop!
>>
>> Can anyone help?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jay.
>
> Your post talks about XP's native backup program (ntbackup) but then you
> mention this XP upgrade utility. What exactly is that? Here is a link
> where you can download ntbackup.
>
> http://www.onecomputerguy.com/window...tm#backup_home
>
> Ntbackup is a legacy app ported from widows NT. There are other, better
> backup solutions. It's one advantage is that it's free. Ntbackup cannot
> backup to DVD and will only backup to CD if other 3rd party CD burning
> software is available and even with that it will not span CDs, i.e. one CD
> is the limit, which is not very practical. It is geared toward tape
> drives or other hard drives. It will work ok in backing up to an external
> hard drive (or network drive) and restoring individual files / folders is
> ok, but if you need to restore the complete drive it's cumbersome. XP
> must be installed first. If you have XP Pro, Ntbackup has an ASR feature
> (Automated System Recovery) which makes this restore of a boot/system
> drive easier but still it takes much longer than an imaging program, and I
> never got it to restore my system to full functionality as it was when the
> backup was made. It also mandates that a floppy drive be available. One
> floppy disk is created in the ASR process and there is no way around that.
> ASR is not available on XP Home addition.
>
> There are several other approaches for backup. One is to use an imaging
> program. This makes an exact image of the partition which can be saved on
> CD/DVD or to another drive - internal or external. Imaging to an external
> USB 2.0 / Firewire drive works well. Then occasionally burning an image
> to DVD gives you redundancy. Restores can be done of the entire partition
> or individual files / folders. These work well and make it easy to recover
> from a drive crash. Examples of this are:
>
> Norton Ghost 10
> Acronis True Image
> Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
> CasperXP
>
> The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
> BackUP, Sonic's Backup MyPC or SecondCopy from www.centered.com. There
> are other backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete
> backup or backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.
>
> Another is simply copying data files to a CD. Zip them up to make them
> smaller if you want.
>
> --
> Rock [ MVP User/Shell]

"jjss" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A2uSg.14157$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Rock, that was very helpful and informative. One thing, though, what's the
> difference between backing up and imaging?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jay.
>
>
> "Rock" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> "JGGS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:AgbSg.14121$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I have a Dell laptop, which has a pre-installed version of Windows XP
>>> Home on it. The Backup utility available in this edition is not
>>> installed by Dell and since they don't give you a OS disk when you buy
>>> you can't install it that way. I have made numerous attempts to contact
>>> the appropriate dept. there but to no avail so far. I read in this
>>> newsgroup of a site from where I can download the XP Upgrade utility and
>>> this I did yesterday. Unfortunately it won't install unless you allow it
>>> to make a start up floppy disk at the same time. I can't, because there
>>> is no floppy disk drive on my laptop!
>>>
>>> Can anyone help?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Jay.
>>
>> Your post talks about XP's native backup program (ntbackup) but then you
>> mention this XP upgrade utility. What exactly is that? Here is a link
>> where you can download ntbackup.
>>
>> http://www.onecomputerguy.com/window...tm#backup_home
>>
>> Ntbackup is a legacy app ported from widows NT. There are other, better
>> backup solutions. It's one advantage is that it's free. Ntbackup cannot
>> backup to DVD and will only backup to CD if other 3rd party CD burning
>> software is available and even with that it will not span CDs, i.e. one
>> CD is the limit, which is not very practical. It is geared toward tape
>> drives or other hard drives. It will work ok in backing up to an
>> external hard drive (or network drive) and restoring individual files /
>> folders is ok, but if you need to restore the complete drive it's
>> cumbersome. XP must be installed first. If you have XP Pro, Ntbackup
>> has an ASR feature (Automated System Recovery) which makes this restore
>> of a boot/system drive easier but still it takes much longer than an
>> imaging program, and I never got it to restore my system to full
>> functionality as it was when the backup was made. It also mandates that a
>> floppy drive be available. One floppy disk is created in the ASR process
>> and there is no way around that. ASR is not available on XP Home
>> addition.
>>
>> There are several other approaches for backup. One is to use an imaging
>> program. This makes an exact image of the partition which can be saved
>> on CD/DVD or to another drive - internal or external. Imaging to an
>> external USB 2.0 / Firewire drive works well. Then occasionally burning
>> an image to DVD gives you redundancy. Restores can be done of the entire
>> partition or individual files / folders. These work well and make it easy
>> to recover from a drive crash. Examples of this are:
>>
>> Norton Ghost 10
>> Acronis True Image
>> Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
>> CasperXP
>>
>> The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's PC
>> BackUP, Sonic's Backup MyPC or SecondCopy from www.centered.com. There
>> are other backup programs out there as well. This can do a complete
>> backup or backup individual files and folders to DVD/CD and other drives.
>>
>> Another is simply copying data files to a CD. Zip them up to make them
>> smaller if you want.
>>
>> --
>> Rock [ MVP User/Shell]

You're welcome. An imaging program saves the whole volume or disk. It can
do this either by compressing an image of the volume, or by cloning the
volume/drive to another hard drive so it's exactly the same as the original.
A backup, traditionally, means to copy individual files. But it's semantics
in a sense. An image can be considered a backup. In it's broader sense a
backup just means having a copy of the data in some form in another
location.

--
Rock [ MVP User/Shell]