Backing Up the System

[bxf]

...Any comments or advise would be greatly appreciated.

As I've mentioned, I've not used Ghost 9. Although I have limited
experience with it, I CAN tell you that Trueimage is reasonably
user-friendly and performs its IMAGING function as expected, to either
an internal HDD or an external HDD or a DVD (3rd party software
required to format/erase DVD+-RW). That's the extent of my experience.

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

The above applies specifically to Ghost 2003, and I believe it to be a
moot point with Ghost V9, and certainly with Trueimage. I'm not going
to elaborate on this since you are not going with 2003. However, if you
find that that's what you need, get in touch and I will provide
details. FWIW, I understand that not all external devices have problems
with 2003.


Well, I am absolutely certain that Ghost 2003 and Trueimage 8
specifically ask you which partitions you want to image. Ah, but
perhaps that's the catch. What type of backup were you doing? I always
do IMAGE, but perhaps other options, like CLONE (which I haven't used),
don't provide the option.

===========================
As far as I know he backed up the entire HD, including D:\ . From what he
said there was no choice anyway. Now if this HD crashes and burns it's
supposed to reinstall itself just as it was the day we Ghosted it. Somehow
I don't believe that's gonna happen.... ;-)

FS~

 

[Guest]

I recently tried to do exactly wht you described above only to find
that when I tried to backup all of my files, and after being told that
Backup would create a boot disk, that I could not proceed. I received a
message that the boot files necessary to set up the floppy boot disk
could not be found!!! I checked the ReadMe file for the MS Backup
Utility and it told me that ASR (whatever that is) was not supported.
Is there something I should be doing differently?? I am tempted to use
Ghost 9, but i noted that this has received mixed evaluations by users
with XP Home. Any comments or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

ASR(Automated System Recovery) is not supported by WinXP Home, Only WinXP
Pro. For more information, visit

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320820

Read the first "NOTE" under "MORE INFORMATION".

 

[Guest]

=================================
We've considered that option already. However if the main HD crashes and
burns (dies) what good would the second one be? You couldn't get to it.
I'd rather have everything backed up and in a safe place outside the PC.

FS~

He is performing full backups. The WinXP Pro install disk(Even for OEMs)
allows you to use ASR to restore the WinXP environement, in the even of
something like Registry corruption. If the damage is worse, everything can
still be restored, as long as the physical HDD itself is undamaged. An ASR
repair of the OS gets you into Windows, where you can now restore a bkf to
get your datafiles back.

The only problem is what HillBillyBuddist is talking about. But I have a
problem with off-site backup storage. An event that can destroy one building
can destroy another, so data isn't save off-site either. What if we stored
data off-world...?

 

[Ron Martell]

------------- SNIP!

And how do you do that without actually "restoring the system?" The last
two times I tried a "system restore" the damn thing didn't work. It only
managed to restore the system one time. It's been defunct since then.

FS~

A simple way to test the System Restore:

1. Create a new desktop shortcut (to anything)
2. Create a new manual System Restore point.
3. Delete the desktop shortcut you created in step 1.
4. Reboot the computer.
5. Run System Restore and restore to the point created in step 2.

The deleted shortcut should reappear.

For more detailed information on using System Restore and solving
problems with it see MVP Bert Kinney's System Restore pages:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

The only problem is what HillBillyBuddist is talking about. But I have a
problem with off-site backup storage. An event that can destroy one
building
can destroy another, so data isn't save off-site either. What if we
stored
data off-world...?

============================
We feel safer with both our personal and business information stored OFF the
PCs. PCs are often stolen in break-ins for one thing. In that case you are
unlikely to ever see your PC again - or any backups you have on it!

FS~

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

A simple way to test the System Restore:

1. Create a new desktop shortcut (to anything)
2. Create a new manual System Restore point.
3. Delete the desktop shortcut you created in step 1.
4. Reboot the computer.
5. Run System Restore and restore to the point created in step 2.

The deleted shortcut should reappear.

For more detailed information on using System Restore and solving
problems with it see MVP Bert Kinney's System Restore pages:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

==================================
There is no information at this site about what to do when System Restore
starts, runs for awhile, then tells you it's DID NOT/COULD NOT successfully
restore the system. What do I do then?

FS~

 

[Ron Martell]

==================================
There is no information at this site about what to do when System Restore
starts, runs for awhile, then tells you it's DID NOT/COULD NOT successfully
restore the system. What do I do then?

FS~

Did you try the "System restore fails" link in the left side column on
that page?

Here is a direct link to that page. Bert has moved his site to a new
host.

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

Did you try the "System restore fails" link in the left side column on
that page?

$$ I did what it said to do and stopped it from monitoring D: partition.
But I have, and always had more than enough disk space, so I don't see how
that was the problem. ALSO: I can't install sr.inf because it says it
needs to have SP2 installed - and SP2 *IS* installed!!!! So now what?
It's asking me WHERE to copy the files from!!!! And no, I can't find that
information on the website below. So - where do I get these files from
since I already have SP2 on my PC???!?!?!?

FS~

 

[Ron Martell]

$$ I did what it said to do and stopped it from monitoring D: partition.
But I have, and always had more than enough disk space, so I don't see how
that was the problem. ALSO: I can't install sr.inf because it says it
needs to have SP2 installed - and SP2 *IS* installed!!!! So now what?
It's asking me WHERE to copy the files from!!!! And no, I can't find that
information on the website below. So - where do I get these files from
since I already have SP2 on my PC???!?!?!?

I will ask Bert to join this discussion. He has far more expertise
with System Restore than I do.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi FS,

Go to Start - Run and type eventvwr.msc and press enter.
Click on System in the left pane.
Click the gray title "Source" at the top of the source name column in the right pane to
sort by source name, look for "sr" and "srservice".
Double click on each of these events, then click on the button below the two arrows in the
upper right corner. This will copy the event information to the clipboard. Paste the
information for each of the two event here. Duplicate events need not be posted here.

I am assuming you followed all the suggestions on the page Ron pointed out up to the point
of reinstalling System Restore.

To reinstall System Restore with SP2 installed, browse and point to the
C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder.

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

Hi FS,

Go to Start - Run and type eventvwr.msc and press enter.
Click on System in the left pane.
Click the gray title "Source" at the top of the source name column in the
right pane to sort by source name, look for "sr" and "srservice".

## OK, I found one. There is only one there:

Event Source: SRService
Event Category: None
Event ID: 114
Date: 8/7/2005
Time: 12:25:48 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CAROL
Description:
System Restore monitoring was disabled on drive D:\.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

NOTE: I disabled that per one of the MS websites covering Proboems with
system-restore.
Clicking on the button below the arrows did nothing. The above is from the
"description" window.

Double click on each of these events, then click on the button below the
two arrows in the upper right corner. This will copy the event information
to the clipboard. Paste the information for each of the two event here.
Duplicate events need not be posted here. I am assuming you followed all
the suggestions on the page Ron pointed out up to the point of
reinstalling System Restore.

## I can't reinstall it because it asked for a dll I don't have. I have 6
CDs from HP and am clueless as to which one would contain the DLL. It asked
for the path to that DLL - or where to copy it from.

To reinstall System Restore with SP2 installed, browse and point to the
C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder.

## And what do I do in that folder? There are loads of things in there. I
don't see anything called system or system-restore.

FS ~

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

Hi FS,

Go to Start - Run and type eventvwr.msc and press enter.
Click on System in the left pane.
Click the gray title "Source" at the top of the source name column in the
right pane to sort by source name, look for "sr" and "srservice".
Double click on each of these events, then click on the button below the
two arrows in the upper right corner. This will copy the event information
to the clipboard. Paste the information for each of the two event here.
Duplicate events need not be posted here.

I am assuming you followed all the suggestions on the page Ron pointed out
up to the point of reinstalling System Restore.

To reinstall System Restore with SP2 installed, browse and point to the
C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder.

==========================='
Oh, BTW.... sr.inf is not in that folder. I'm using XP-HOME/Sp2. Maybe
like so many other things HOME doesn't have what PRO has.

FS~

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

To reinstall System Restore with SP2 installed, browse and point to the
C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder.

=================================
Not on my XP-HOME addition. They were finally located (by AgentRansack) in
windows\system32\restore. I reinstalled SystemRestore once I found what it
was asking for.

FS~

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

=================================
Not on my XP-HOME addition. They were finally located (by AgentRansack)
in windows\system32\restore. I reinstalled SystemRestore once I found
what it was asking for.

FS~

=============================
OK... it worked! It restored everything. )) I feel a bit safer now.

FS~

 

[Bert Kinney]

## OK, I found one. There is only one there:

Event Source: SRService
Event Category: None
Event ID: 114
Date: 8/7/2005
Time: 12:25:48 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CAROL
Description:
System Restore monitoring was disabled on drive D:\.

NOTE: I disabled that per one of the MS websites covering
Proboems with system-restore.
Clicking on the button below the arrows did nothing. The
above is from the "description" window.

This event just states that SR has stopped monitoring D:\

## I can't reinstall it because it asked for a dll I
don't have. I have 6 CDs from HP and am clueless as to
which one would contain the DLL. It asked for the path
to that DLL - or where to copy it from.

Do these disks include SP1 or SP2?

## And what do I do in that folder? There are loads of
things in there. I don't see anything called system or
system-restore.

When reinstalling SR and are asked to Browse to located the needed files, you would point
to this folder. C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386. This install would be looking for sr.sy_
or sr.sys and should continue the install.

 

[Bert Kinney]

==========================='
Oh, BTW.... sr.inf is not in that folder. I'm using
XP-HOME/Sp2. Maybe like so many other things HOME
doesn't have what PRO has.

That's correct. The install process is looking for Sr.sys or Sr.sy_

 

[Bert Kinney]

=================================
Not on my XP-HOME addition. They were finally located
(by AgentRansack) in windows\system32\restore. I
reinstalled SystemRestore once I found what it was asking for.

Sr.sys was located in windows\system32\restore ?

 

[Bert Kinney]

=============================
OK... it worked! It restored everything. )) I feel a bit safer now.

Good work FS. To confirm that the latest version (SP2) of System Restore is installed.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore and right click on rstrui.exe and select Properties.
On the Version tab you should see File version: 5.1.2600.2180

You may want to take a look at these tips for keeping System Restore Healthy
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

 

[~ FreeSpirit ~]

Good work FS. To confirm that the latest version (SP2) of System Restore
is installed.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore and right click on rstrui.exe and
select Properties.
On the Version tab you should see File version: 5.1.2600.2180

$$ I have this version: 5.1.2600.2180 so that's it!

You may want to take a look at these tips for keeping System Restore
Healthy
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

$$ Thanks, and I'm going to start saving this information in a folder......

FS~