Back Up

[Mary Jo]

From other posts I can see that the back up will not work with a cd. Is
backing it up to another drive (d) the only way to back up my files besides
buying an external hard drive. How do I back up to the d drive. And if I
have a system crash, wouldn't that drive also crash?

 

[Leonard Grey]

I have to guess at my answers since you asked your question in a vague
way. In future please try to be as specific as possible.

If "the backup" means the backup utility included with Windows XP,
sometimes known as Microsoft Backup, you are correct that it does not
backup directly to a CD. Instead, have the utility write the backup file
to a location on your hard disk and then use your CD burning software to
burn the backup file to CDs.

An external hard drive offers several advantages over CDs as a backup
destination. For one, you don't have to deal with the uncertainties of
CD burning software. Backing up to (and restoring from) an external
drive is much faster than backing up to/restoring from CDs. And backing
up to an external drive can be scheduled, which is usually impossible or
at least awkward with CDs.

"How do I back up to the d drive."
I don't know what your D drive is.

 

[Jim]

From other posts I can see that the back up will not work with a cd. Is
backing it up to another drive (d) the only way to back up my files
besides
buying an external hard drive. How do I back up to the d drive. And if I
have a system crash, wouldn't that drive also crash?

Ntbackup can create a file on a disk, and that is what you do. Be aware
that you must create a floppy disk, and you must restore the system with a
distribution CD and a floppy drive for the above mentioned disk.

If you have a system crash, the other drives still keep working.
Jim

 

[Mary Jo]

You guessed correctly as to what I was trying to ask. And thanks for the
prompt response.

When I referred to "d" drive I meant the other hard disk drive that I see
when I look at "My Computer".

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

From other posts I can see that the back up will not work with a cd. Is
backing it up to another drive (d) the only way to back up my files besides
buying an external hard drive. How do I back up to the d drive. And if I
have a system crash, wouldn't that drive also crash?

An external drive provides *much* more safety than an internal one.
That goes double if your second internal (d drive is really just a
second partition on your only physical drive (which it probably is).

You might be interested in reading this article I recently wrote about
backup: http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ntbackup can create a file on a disk, and that is what you do. Be aware
that you must create a floppy disk, and you must restore the system with a
distribution CD and a floppy drive for the above mentioned disk.

If you have a system crash, the other drives still keep working.

That depends.

If the other drives are really just partitions on a single physical
drive, if the drive crashes, *all* partitions crash with it.

And even if they are separate physical drives, they are still subject
to simultaneous loss along with the original to such problems as
severe power glitches (like a nearby lightning strike), virus attacks,
and theft of the computer.

If your data is important to you, you need to backup to external media
not stored within the computer.