back up in XP PRO

[Jeronimo]

I want to back up my XP PRO system. I suspect my hard
drive may go. If I choose anything but "All files on my
computer", will I have to reload all programs from the
original disks, and then restore from my backup file? I
have a 2GB disk for back up, which is fine for "Documents
and Settings", but what is included in this backup? Must
I store most files on CD's separately to replace on the
new drive later, then use the restore of the backup
of "Documents and Settings"?

 

[EOS]

I want to back up my XP PRO system. I suspect my hard
drive may go. If I choose anything but "All files on my
computer", will I have to reload all programs from the
original disks, and then restore from my backup file? I
have a 2GB disk for back up, which is fine for "Documents
and Settings", but what is included in this backup? Must
I store most files on CD's separately to replace on the
new drive later, then use the restore of the backup
of "Documents and Settings"?

Back up all your data to CD-Rs first, then remove them from the hard drive.
Get the remaining (program/system) files down to a minimum size and then
back these up as a disk image of your hard drive.
To do dthis, you would need something like Symantec Ghost, or Drive Image or
Partition Magic etc., but the program I recommend is True Image by Acronis.
HTH.
Eos.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Back up all your data to CD-Rs first, then remove them from the hard drive.
Get the remaining (program/system) files down to a minimum size and then
back these up as a disk image of your hard drive.
To do dthis, you would need something like Symantec Ghost, or Drive Image or
Partition Magic etc., but the program I recommend is True Image by Acronis.
HTH.
Eos.

With an imaging program such as Ghost, DriveImage or TrueImage you can
do this:

1. Install the new disk as a slave disk.
2. Use the imaging program to copy the whole failing disk to the new disk.

There is no need to trim anything down to size.

 

[Bob Harris]

I would avoid using the Microsoft program called Ntbackup.exe to backup
everything. It runs under XP, so ask yourself how you would use it to
restore files without XP running first?

Get some real backup software like Norton GHOST or Acronis TrueImage. The
latest version of both can backup to external USB hard drives, CDs, etc.