Back up operating system

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Guest

Help, I have lost all of the original software copies for my Dell computer.
Is there anyway to back up Windows XP Home, Microsoft Office 2003 ect ? I
also have other software that came loaded on the computer is there anyway to
back those up? I have searched my house and cannot find the discs. Any advice
will be greatly appreciated.
Denise
 
Denise said:
Help, I have lost all of the original software copies for my Dell
computer. Is there anyway to back up Windows XP Home, Microsoft Office
2003 ect ? I also have other software that came loaded on the computer
is there anyway to back those up? I have searched my house and cannot
find the discs. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Denise
Click to expand...

No, I'm sorry but there is no way to reproduce those programs from what
is on your hard drive. Try contacting Dell and perhaps they can send
you replacements. Otherwise, you'll have to buy replacements.

Malke
 
Try Acronis True Image......
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/
It will let you "image" your present drive/partition onto another drive or a
partition on another drive or a DVD/CD and make that drive bootable.

When trouble strikes you just "restore" the image or change HD,whichever way
you decided to go.

Dell would of course let you repurchase everything that came with you system
originally.

peterk
 
Denise said:
Help, I have lost all of the original software copies for my Dell computer.
Is there anyway to back up Windows XP Home, Microsoft Office 2003 ect ? I
also have other software that came loaded on the computer is there anyway to
back those up? I have searched my house and cannot find the discs. Any advice
will be greatly appreciated.
Denise
Click to expand...

If you mean is there a way to extract programs and the OS from the
current installation so it can be reinstalled as if you had the original
media, then no. It is possible, however, to backup your system as it is
so you have it in case something goes wrong. One should always have a
complete backup, data loss is a matter of when not if.

There are several approaches for backup. One is to use an imaging
program. This makes an exact image of the drive or partition(s) which
can be saved on CD/DVD or to another drive - internal or external.
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.
I recommend storing the images on an external drive or CD/DVD rather
than an internal drive. Examples of this type of program are:

Norton Ghost 9.0
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
Terabyte Unlimited's BootItNg

The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's
Backup My PC. This is an excellent tool. It is the evolution of
ntbackup. There are other good 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 choice is ntbackup which is installed by default in XP Pro but
not Home [note some OEMs do not install ntbackup even on the Pro
version]. If it's not installed check the XP installation CD in the
\MSFT\ValueADD\Ntbackup folder as ntbackup.msi or download it from here:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#backup_home

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.
 
Without leading you down the road to imaging, which is NOT what you asked
for, the answer is no period.

Since you got a Dell, believe you have to go to them for XP. Office depends
where you got it from. Etc. could be almost anything.

Store the install CDs in a safe place from prying hands. Some may be
sharing your stuff with friends.
 
Thank you for the info. I supose I will just try to backup the sytem and hope
for the best. It would not be very cost effective to try and re-purchase from
Dell. If I have to buy XP again I am sure I could find a better deal
elsewhere.
Denise
 
Thank you so much for your help. I now have several options to consider.
Thanks again
Denise
 
Thank you so much for your help. All you guys and girls out there are great.
Denise

Rock said:
Denise said:
Help, I have lost all of the original software copies for my Dell computer.
Is there anyway to back up Windows XP Home, Microsoft Office 2003 ect ? I
also have other software that came loaded on the computer is there anyway to
back those up? I have searched my house and cannot find the discs. Any advice
will be greatly appreciated.
Denise
Click to expand...

If you mean is there a way to extract programs and the OS from the
current installation so it can be reinstalled as if you had the original
media, then no. It is possible, however, to backup your system as it is
so you have it in case something goes wrong. One should always have a
complete backup, data loss is a matter of when not if.

There are several approaches for backup. One is to use an imaging
program. This makes an exact image of the drive or partition(s) which
can be saved on CD/DVD or to another drive - internal or external.
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.
I recommend storing the images on an external drive or CD/DVD rather
than an internal drive. Examples of this type of program are:

Norton Ghost 9.0
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
Terabyte Unlimited's BootItNg

The second option is a traditional backup program such as Stompsoft's
Backup My PC. This is an excellent tool. It is the evolution of
ntbackup. There are other good 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 choice is ntbackup which is installed by default in XP Pro but
not Home [note some OEMs do not install ntbackup even on the Pro
version]. If it's not installed check the XP installation CD in the
\MSFT\ValueADD\Ntbackup folder as ntbackup.msi or download it from here:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#backup_home

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.
Click to expand...
 
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