Backup desination please

[Ruby]

The only drive I have for backup is CD Drive E.
Using the backup wizard, when I select this drive and enter a file name as
simply "backup", I receive error message:

"The backup file name could not be used "E:\Backup.bkf" Please
ensure it is a valid path, and that you have sufficient access.

I am not able to backup my computer and I do not understand
the error message. Can anyone help me??
Thanks!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

The only drive I have for backup is CD Drive E.
Using the backup wizard, when I select this drive and enter a file name as
simply "backup", I receive error message:

"The backup file name could not be used "E:\Backup.bkf" Please
ensure it is a valid path, and that you have sufficient access.

I am not able to backup my computer and I do not understand
the error message. Can anyone help me??

You need to either backup to your hard disk drive (and copy it off manually
to external media like CD/DVD) or connect an external drive or map a network
share. You cannot back (natively) to CD/DVD in Windows XP.

 

[Twayne]

The only drive I have for backup is CD Drive E.
Using the backup wizard, when I select this drive and enter a file
name as simply "backup", I receive error message:

"The backup file name could not be used "E:\Backup.bkf" Please
ensure it is a valid path, and that you have sufficient access.

I am not able to backup my computer and I do not understand
the error message. Can anyone help me??
Thanks!

You cannot backup to a cd/dvd drive with XP's backup utility; it's
designed that way for some reason. You have to save it to a drive first
and then copy/burn it to the CD/DVD as the case may be.

Regardless of what you have availalbe for backup media, occsaionally
writing a backup to DVDs is a good practice as it's permanent storage.
The most convenient backup would be to an external hard drive but even
then whenever any substantial changes happen, new DVD backups are a good
idea because they aren't subject to the many sources of damage as any
hard drive is. Searching for "backup" on wikipedia will reveal a wealth
of information to you. Try this page for several choices:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=backup+strategy


HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Rick Merrill]

You cannot backup to a cd/dvd drive with XP's backup utility; it's
designed that way for some reason. You have to save it to a drive first
and then copy/burn it to the CD/DVD as the case may be.

Regardless of what you have availalbe for backup media, occsaionally
writing a backup to DVDs is a good practice as it's permanent storage.
The most convenient backup would be to an external hard drive ...

Whenever I try to 'backup all information on this computer' to an
external hard drive it INCLUDES that hard drive too! If I say "let me
choose" then NTBACKUP does not write the system info on the floppy disk.


Is there a way to backup just the C drive AND get the boot floppy too?


but even

 

[Twayne]

Whenever I try to 'backup all information on this computer' to an
external hard drive it INCLUDES that hard drive too!

Umm, I'd forgotten it backed up the drive you're storing the .bkf to
too. I -think- that's one of the "features" of using the Wizard, right?
It's been quite awhile since I used ntbackup so I might be off a bit
here, but even with the wizard, there should be an opportunity to see
what files are being backed up, and deselect (untick) the backup drive.
I seldom used the wizards, preferring to back up each drive separately
for ease of identification, separation of data from OS, and faster
Restores in general if all I wanted was say the C drive.

... If I say "let me
choose" then NTBACKUP does not write the system info on the floppy
disk.

I don't understand that sentence: See below please and I think you'll
see why.
Maybe it's because I used the Backup tab instead of the wizard to do
backups; I never learned a lot about how the wizards worked. I tried
the wizards, but I didn't think they allowed me enough control of
things, like NOT backing up hyberfil.sys, restore points, things like
that which to me don't make sense to back up.

Is there a way to backup just the C drive AND get the boot floppy too?

"Boot Floppy" I assume means the ASR floppy? You choose to make that on
your own, actually. Or so I thought. Here's what Help has to say
about it when I did a Search for "asr":

----------
To create an Automated System Recovery set using Backup
Open Backup.
The Backup Utility Wizard starts by default, unless it is disabled.
Click the Advanced Mode button in the Backup Utility Wizard.
On the Tools menu, click ASR Wizard.
Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
Important
You will need a blank 1.44 megabyte (MB) floppy disk to save your system
settings and media to contain the backup files.
Notes
To start Backup, click Start, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.
Only those system files necessary for starting up your system will be
backed up by this procedure. To backup your data, see Backing up files
and folders.
----------

The list of topics also includes how to use it for Restoring the OS.
The ASR is specific for recreating your operating system drive when it's
crashed or you install a new disk, etc..
Obviously you can't boot on C and then change the OS on C, so the ASR
gives a way to boot without depending on C so the Restore can work
right.

The ntbackup's Help is actually fairly good, unlike many of MS's Helps.
It's worth spending a few minutes reading thru it to get the nuances of
the program.

KUDOS for taking the time to learn and employ a backup strategy. It's
amazing how many people just don't/won't bother and then scream they've
lost invaluable data it took them x years to collect! And that's
ignoring the fact that a good backup can have a totally crashed drive or
a new drive up and running in less than an hour vs the two days plus
possibly weeks of getting all the customizations set again.

HTH,

Twayne`

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