Backing up a Windows Installation

[Guest]

Can I back up my whole harddrive to a USB harddrive E: with Windows XP
Home Edition ? I could use Nero 6.6 , and then if I want a fresh copy of my
whole new installation could I copy the backup on the drive E: ?

 

[Guest]

....er , and I am a bit worried about what to do about backing up because of
the end of the Windows XP Home Edition support .

 

[Jonny]

Can I back up my whole harddrive to a USB harddrive E: with Windows XP
Home Edition ? I could use Nero 6.6 , and then if I want a fresh copy of
my
whole new installation could I copy the backup on the drive E: ?

Windows won't allow copying over system files in use. That's always been an
obstacle in all versions of windows.

Then there's the access requirement to USB and the USB hard drive using
another OS environment in order to access the backup.

Many solutions out there, but that ain't one em.

 

[Guest]

I'm not really worried but I don't want to throw Windows XP just yet .

 

[Guest]

I read I would have to clone a harddrive with software .

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You would have to image the hard drive using third party software such as
Acronis or Paragon or even Ghost. Depending upon the amount of disk space
your current XP installation takes the imaging software - acronis and ghost
in particular - can compress the data to fit onto a DVD. If the software
cannot shrink the image to fit on a DVD it will usually offer to 'span' the
image file over a number of CD's or DVD. This is by far the simlest method
of backing up the whole drive.

In my case i have a triple boot system, XP Home, XP Pro and Vista. Each
system is imaged and stored on DVD. However, XP Pro (because this is the
operating system i use from day to day) is also backed up to a seperate
partition on my hard drive. If i need to re-install XP Pro (via an Image)
then i usually boot up to Windows XP Home, run Acronis or Ghost and then
re-image the XP Pro drive back. You would be able to do a similar thing with
your USB drive 'if' you had a dual boot system. As you don't have a dual
boot system you would have to rely upon the imaging software's DOS based
recovery CD. In this instance i'm not sure if the USB drive would be
accessible. If this is the case you would not be able to access the image
file. You would, however, be able to access an image from a DVD or CD.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..

 

[Jyeshta]

You would have to image the hard drive using third party software such as
Acronis or Paragon or even Ghost. Depending upon the amount of disk space
your current XP installation takes the imaging software - acronis and ghost
in particular - can compress the data to fit onto a DVD. If the software
cannot shrink the image to fit on a DVD it will usually offer to 'span' the
image file over a number of CD's or DVD. This is by far the simlest method
of backing up the whole drive.

In my case i have a triple boot system, XP Home, XP Pro and Vista. Each
system is imaged and stored on DVD. However, XP Pro (because this is the
operating system i use from day to day) is also backed up to a seperate
partition on my hard drive. If i need to re-install XP Pro (via an Image)
then i usually boot up to Windows XP Home, run Acronis or Ghost and then
re-image the XP Pro drive back. You would be able to do a similar thing with
your USB drive 'if' you had a dual boot system. As you don't have a dual
boot system you would have to rely upon the imaging software's DOS based
recovery CD. In this instance i'm not sure if the USB drive would be
accessible. If this is the case you would not be able to access the image
file. You would, however, be able to access an image from a DVD or CD.

What if my hard drive has nearly 160 gigs filled up? That's too many
DVDs! Are you saying it's not possible to back up my hard drive via
Ghost to an external USB hard drive and then copy it back to a new
internal hard drive? Thanks.

Gail

 

[Guest]

thankyou jonny

 

[Guest]

thankyou John Barnett , you have described exactly what I shall try .

 

[Jonny]

What if my hard drive has nearly 160 gigs filled up? That's too many
DVDs! Are you saying it's not possible to back up my hard drive via
Ghost to an external USB hard drive and then copy it back to a new
internal hard drive? Thanks.

Gail

In a case of an entire hard drive, I would clone (not image). CDs or DVDs
beyond 2 or 3 enter a higher risk of restoration problems with imaging.

If you have all your data in the XP partition, you're putting all in one
basket. There's a higher risk of data loss during an image restore. That
said, yes, one can image a partition that takes up an entire hard drive even
if that partition is almost full to capacity with data. And, it can be
backed up to an external hard drive. If forced in this position, I would
use the NTFS filesystem on the external hard drive to avoid many, many image
files. FAT32 would limit the image file sizes to 4GB.

I avoid like the plague, placing my personal data and similar on the same
partition as the XP operating system. So, this would only happen on someone
elses' PC.

 

[Jonny]

Most image boot recovery CDs made in the last few years do not contain the
DOS operating system. Rather, another like Windows CE for instance. Most
can access USB and Firewire connected hard drives, and if setup properly,
LAN connected hard drives for image recovery purposes.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Thanks for that update, Jonny. A lot of the imaging software i use uses
Caldera DOS. However, i don't use USB external hard drives, so i am not in a
position to say whether the USB drive is recognised by Caldera DOS or any
other version of DOS.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Gail, not having used a USB external hard drive i can't say whether or not
the imaging software recovery disks would 'see' the drive once booted. Know
doubt someone who has used the USB drives with imaging software can comment
on this one. If the USB external drive 'is' visible once booted via a image
recovery CD then there is no reason why you can't image to your USB drive
and then image back to you internal hard drive should any problems occur
with your system. Some recvoery disks can use Linux and this may be able to
see the USB device.

160 GB is a lot of data. At most, with other applications, you are only
probably looking at 20GB or so for operating system and software
applications so the remainder, i can only assume, of the space is taken by
files/audio/video that you have created yourself. I would much prefer to see
these on DVD - at least as a backup - rather than stored on an alternative
hard drive. You've got a hell of a lot of data to loose if anything goes
wrong.


--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..

 

[Jyeshta]

In a case of an entire hard drive, I would clone (not image). CDs or DVDs
beyond 2 or 3 enter a higher risk of restoration problems with imaging.

If you have all your data in the XP partition, you're putting all in one
basket. There's a higher risk of data loss during an image restore. That
said, yes, one can image a partition that takes up an entire hard drive even
if that partition is almost full to capacity with data. And, it can be
backed up to an external hard drive. If forced in this position, I would
use the NTFS filesystem on the external hard drive to avoid many, many image
files. FAT32 would limit the image file sizes to 4GB.

I avoid like the plague, placing my personal data and similar on the same
partition as the XP operating system. So, this would only happen on someone
elses' PC.

Thanks, Jonny.

Gail

 

[Jyeshta]

Gail, not having used a USB external hard drive i can't say whether or not
the imaging software recovery disks would 'see' the drive once booted. Know
doubt someone who has used the USB drives with imaging software can comment
on this one. If the USB external drive 'is' visible once booted via a image
recovery CD then there is no reason why you can't image to your USB drive
and then image back to you internal hard drive should any problems occur
with your system. Some recvoery disks can use Linux and this may be able to
see the USB device.

160 GB is a lot of data. At most, with other applications, you are only
probably looking at 20GB or so for operating system and software
applications so the remainder, i can only assume, of the space is taken by
files/audio/video that you have created yourself. I would much prefer to see
these on DVD - at least as a backup - rather than stored on an alternative
hard drive. You've got a hell of a lot of data to loose if anything goes
wrong.

Thank you, John. I do have practically everything backed up on CDs
but after three moves, I'm not sure where they are. I have an
external drive that I bought for the sole purpose of backing up data
and so far so good. It is usually turned off and I have it covered
with a piece of plastic to protect it from dust, etc.

It sounds like cloning my hard drive back from an external clone would
be more difficult than I thought. Thanks again.

Gail

 

[Guest]

Well, you might try doing this.
On my PC I have my hard disk split out into virtual drives so that my boot
drive (C is just large enough to hold all of the OS and applications that I
run (typically less than 10GB).
I use my other virtual drives to store all of my volatile data (pictures,
graphics, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, ad nauseum).
In this way I have a minimal drive hosting the core application files, and
this is easily backed up onto 1 DVD using Norton Ghost and the high
compression option.

The volatile files (pictures, graphics, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets,
ad nauseum) are backed up onto seperate disks.
So if something corrupts my OS, or if I become infected by spyware, etc, I
can easily restore the core OS and applications without affecting the rest of
the stuff.

Been doing this for a long time, and it's saved my butt on several occasions.

No need to have a contiguous 100, 200, 250 or 300GB drive. Split it up. It
also decreases the data access time making your PC run faster.

Just my 2-1/2 cents.

 

[Jyeshta]

Hi, Kenny, Well this computer came from Dell with the physical hard
drive in 2 partitions. For some reason they made the C drive around
100 gigs and the D drive around 30 to 40 gigs. So I couldn't fit all
my data onto the D drive (I have a huge music library and some videos
I transferred from my old computer). I spent a day on the phone with
Dell trying to get them to help me back up the OS and Program Files
onto the D Drive with Norton Ghost and they couldn't do it. I would
need something like Partition Magic, wouldn't I? To make another
partition for the OS and Program Files? I'm not even sure this is
possible and I don't know how to use Partition Magic and I don't have
it anyway. Thanks.

Gail

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Partition Magic would be your best bet in this instance. It would be a case
of shrinking the C: partition and then extending the D: partition to make it
larger. The only snag is that, when using an operating system that comes on
a recovery disk or partition, should you wish to re-install using the
recovery disk/partition the partitions will be returned to factory
conditions. In other words on re-installing XP from the recovery CD you
would end up with the C: drive as 100 GB and the D: drive as 40/50GB.
I don't own a Dell machine but if i use my recovery CD to re-install my
operating system it takes up the full amount of the drive, so i have to use
Partition Magic to shrink the size so i can allocate other partitions to
allow me to run three operating systems. Nowadays i prefer to ignore the
recovery CD and simply install using my retail copy of XP. At least i have
more control over partitions.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..

 

[Jyeshta]

Thank you, John. I still am confused but that's OK.

Gail

 

[Guest]

I spend most of my time at home doing what I can for a 76 year old who
amuses himself reading and doing crosswords eternally and I use a computer
all day and to my growing concern too long at night time .
This is just to shed some light on who you are communicating with here - I
love your input - it helps me feel I too can be useful with a computer . I
have used a computer for 3 years .
*Hi*
Could Windows 98 dual boot with Windows XP Pro 64 bit Edition ?
--
scribble...scribble...scribble...aaaah

Thanks for that update, Jonny. A lot of the imaging software i use uses
Caldera DOS. However, i don't use USB external hard drives, so i am not in a
position to say whether the USB drive is recognised by Caldera DOS or any
other version of DOS.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..