How to Back Up - No Floppy!

[J-Man]

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..

 

[Gordon]

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?

 

[John Barnett MVP]

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.

 

[JMSinLA]

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.

 

[Alex Nichol]

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

 

[JMSinLA]

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.)

 

[Guest]

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!

 

[R. McCarty]

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.

 

[Guest]

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

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

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

 

[Guest]

Actually, I did manage to restore my computer via ASR using a USB FDD. I had
to try a couple of them before I found one that would work - gotta get one
that doesn't require a driver. But yes - there is no way around needing a
FDD for the ASR restore to work. Can't use a CD - no way no how.

 

[Paul Knudsen]

Actually, I did manage to restore my computer via ASR using a USB FDD. I had
to try a couple of them before I found one that would work - gotta get one
that doesn't require a driver. But yes - there is no way around needing a
FDD for the ASR restore to work.

I don' tknow what ASR is but restores can be done without a floppy.

Can't use a CD - no way no how.

Yes, you can, if you have Acronis True Image. It makes a bootable CD
which can detect network drives or load your backup in from CD's.
Probably other backup apps can do this also.

 

[Guest]

I meant you must have a floppy (CD won't work) if you are using the windows
ASR (Automatic System Recovery) feature of the Windows Back Up utility. Of
course, other programs will allow the use of CD. I use Norton Ghost.

 

[NukerSoMD]

I have done this successfully - ASR laptop backup and restoring to an extra hard drive (good move for those who have kids in college, hint - get the backup before they touch the laptop) that way they can have the drive swapped if really in a crisis.

BACKUP

• Use Microsoft XP Backup Utility: go to advanced mode - automated system recovery wizard - next, file, next, finish (need USB floppy drive and an external USB hard drive) I have never heard of anyone doing this without a floppy, don’t know why but it locks you into using a floppy, just go get a USB floppy drive, and the rest is cake. No need to pay for some expensive backup utility.
• This advanced mode option will backup this computer only, otherwise the simple wizard option recursively copies everything on E: into your new backup image. Don’t want to do that if you got a ton of stuff on E:

Special Notes:
• On creating the backup ASR floppy, there was no problem seeing the USB floppy drive.
• On Restoring from the ASR floppy my laptop (HP6000) did not see the floppy drive. So I went into the BIOS and clicked a setting to ENABLE USB legacy support. This had the USB Floppy fired up on my next boot and all went fine!!!
RESTORE

• When you restore to the new hard drive you need to install the new hard drive, connect the USB floppy, do not connect the backup disk drive E: otherwise windows install will examine this drive for format potential, boot from the windows XP install CD, hit F2 which asks for the ASR floppy first, insert the floppy, then tell it to format the c: drive, then it loads a windows kernel before is does a glitch boot.
• While it is down: remove the floppy, leave the CD in, and plug in the external drive E: go back into BIOS and clicked a setting to DISABLE USB legacy support and when it comes back XP setup looks like it is continuing with the typical T+39 minute message, but at about T+30 minutes the Backup Utility pops up and said E: is not a valid drive and no access. I typed OK then the ASR wizard asks where to load the full-backup image, I still had to diddle with this some by browsing to E: and unplugged/replugged in the Eternal backup disk until it could find it, but eventually it did allow me to access the E drive. That was the most uncertain part of this evolution.

And this process is relatively quick. I can backup 5 gig in less than 20 minutes on USB2 and restore is mostly hands free.

 

[pceast]

My own choice would be to install a fresh copy of Windows and then run
restore using that. I've found many first-hand claims online that this
works.

Alternatively, you can try using freeware software called "virtual floppy",
or try burning an image of the ASR floppy to CD (fooling windows into thinking
you've got floppy).