backing up windows xp home and others

[Guest]

Hi

When I first bought my pc about 2.5 yrs ago i did not have any backup disks
with xp operating system. I was told i have to make them myself with the
installed facility. however this keeps crashing when i try to backup the OS.
I have been told you can only use this facility once. how do I get a backup
incase my system messes up?

I am slightly worried as i have a large amount of data to backup. windows
update tells me i need to install SP2.i currently have sp1. i am reluctant
to do this however as many of the questions here suggest major software
programs are not compatible with it like power dvd etc. If I buy a larger
internal hard drive (currently have 40Gb) is there an easy way to action a
full system backup including all installed software packages, images,
documents etc?

Hope someone can help

Thanks

 

[jonah]

Hi

When I first bought my pc about 2.5 yrs ago i did not have any backup disks
with xp operating system. I was told i have to make them myself with the
installed facility. however this keeps crashing when i try to backup the OS.
I have been told you can only use this facility once. how do I get a backup
incase my system messes up?

I am slightly worried as i have a large amount of data to backup. windows
update tells me i need to install SP2.i currently have sp1. i am reluctant
to do this however as many of the questions here suggest major software
programs are not compatible with it like power dvd etc. If I buy a larger
internal hard drive (currently have 40Gb) is there an easy way to action a
full system backup including all installed software packages, images,
documents etc?

Hope someone can help

Thanks

The best way to do this is buy a portable USB HDD, Plug it in and away
you go.

http://www.iomega.com/direct/produc...&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=63191&bmUID=1130803148695

These generally come with Norton Ghost ( but Acronis True Image is far
better)

Alternatively you can buy another 40Gb HDD and install it as a slave
then backup to it. Very easy to install and set up.

Or if you have a very fast BBd connection you can buy space to backup
on line.

Then back up your PC to the desired storage using Ghost or Acronis. As
a bonus you get a lot more general purpose storage space as well.

There are a great many backup programs out there of varying quality /
ease of use. Windows own version is OK but you need to know exactly
what you are doing and it is limited in where it will back up /
restore

Acronis is the best home / small commercial backup software I have
ever used, I use it extensively. Fast, does not whine on endlessly
about what it can't do, it just does what it says on the tin.

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATI/true-image-003.html?type=true+image9

Don't be tempted to back up to DVD RWs or CDRWs, they never work when
you really need them, too delicate and prone to error especially
DVD-RWs. Cheap yes - but how valueable is your data to you?

Jonah

 

[Phillips]

On the cheap, get a harddrive and install it as slave; copy files that you
need to save (vids, pics etc) on the slave drive. Download an imaging
program - there's one free, not brilliant, that can create an image of your
40GB on the slave drive; you'll be OK as long as you can load XP from the
40GB drive.
Otherwise, you need to create XP boot CD or floppies - don't know if MS XP
downloadable floppies would work w/ your OEM XP setup.
Michael

 

[Guest]

Actually the best "back up" utility in xp is the file transfer wizard,even
microsoft
techs use it instead of "back up" utility.Just set the wizard as old
computer,
edit the files,folders,settings you want it to save,save the data in a new
folder
that you create,once the data is completed,move the folder to a cd.

 

[Guest]

Jonah,
If I was to buy a new harddrive, then is there a command i could use in DOS
to transfer ALL of this data in one go eg copy *.* or something? Or does
this software do everything automatically for me? Sorry don't mean to be a
nuisance. Just don't want to have to go searching my whole PC for things i
think i may or may not need.

Also, if i was to buy an internal drive then how would i set my current HD
to slave so my new drive would be the master?I know i would need more cables
but don't know what type



Thanks for your help

 

[Leythos]

Jonah,
If I was to buy a new harddrive, then is there a command i could use in DOS
to transfer ALL of this data in one go eg copy *.* or something? Or does
this software do everything automatically for me? Sorry don't mean to be a
nuisance. Just don't want to have to go searching my whole PC for things i
think i may or may not need.

If you purchase a Retail packaged drive from Maxtor or Western Digital,
most of them come with a diskette that will clone your old drive to the
new one - making an exact copy of the old one on the new one.

If you don't get this, then you can purchase and use Ghost or another
drive cloning product to clone the old disk to the new disk.

Also, if i was to buy an internal drive then how would i set my current HD
to slave so my new drive would be the master?I know i would need more cables
but don't know what type

Many cables for connecting drives (IDE) have dual connectors on the
drive end - so you can connect two drives to a single cable. SATA cables
are single ended, only one drive per cable. If you have SCSI, then you
could have as many as 15 devices connected to one cable, but it sounds
like you might have IDE or SATA.

What this means is that you may not need any additional cables, you may
already have what you need:

You can see different pictures of IDE cables in this link:
http://images.google.com/images?
q=ide+cable&hl=en&hs=FNg&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-
USfficial&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest

SATA cables of different types can be seen here:
http://images.google.com/images?q=sata cable&sourceid=mozilla-
search&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-
USfficial&sa=N&tab=wi

Typically, you can connect your old drive as it is, then connect the new
drive to the CD-ROM cable (at the same connector, just unplug the CD),
reboot, run the cloning software, then shutdown (don't let it boot back
up yet). Now, remove the old drive, connect the new one in exactly the
same place/connector and reconnect the CD drive. Power on and it should
be good to go.

 

[Bob I]

HD manufacturers have such a utility for just that purpose. Visit the
website of Seagate or WesternDigital for instance. Harddrives come with
installation instructions, copies of these can also be found on the hd
manufacturers web site.

 

[jonah]

Jonah,
If I was to buy a new harddrive, then is there a command i could use in DOS
to transfer ALL of this data in one go eg copy *.* or something? Or does
this software do everything automatically for me? Sorry don't mean to be a
nuisance. Just don't want to have to go searching my whole PC for things i
think i may or may not need.

No, Ghost or Acronis make an exact copy of your HDD onto the slave HDD
and you can restore direct from Windows or you can use the boot CD the
program prompts you to make in case windows fails. Its automatic just
click and go. There is a difference between an Image and a Clone for
your purposes use an Image.

An image is a snapshot of whats on the partition wheras a clone is an
exact copy of the partition blank space and all, you don't need to
clone for backup purposes you need an image.

Also, if i was to buy an internal drive then how would i set my current HD
to slave so my new drive would be the master?I know i would need more cables
but don't know what type

For an internal HDD set up assuming you are on an IDE drive - (2.5
years old seems likely) you will already have a spare connector on the
HDD cable, this is the big flat one with the red stripe. One connector
will be plugged into your existing HDD which is your master the other
will be on the same cable loose. When you get a new HDD you will see
on the pin slots a section with 9 pins and a shorting connector. Above
this will be a diagram of the 9 pins - you are looking for the
configuration marked "slave" or "sla" or similar, set the shorting
block to match this then plumb the drive in and connect it up. You now
have 2 HDDs on one cable 1 is the original master and the other is the
new slave.

Start up windows then right click "My Computer" select "Manage" and
click "Disk Management" to see your drives. You need to initialise the
new disk so windows can see it and then format it, use the help button
in this management window to see how.

After that load up Ghost or Acronis or whatever and you are good to
go.

OTOH USB drives just plug straight in and fire up without needing any
fiddling, perhaps you should use one of the many USB HDDs around. I
have a Iomega 120 Gb USB drive for just that purpose.

Sorry don't mean to be a nuisance

We all were once, most of us still are its just the questions we ask
are much more complicated, don't worry about it, you learn by trying
things, breaking things and asking questions. When you can you help
others out.



Jonah