Backup of entire C; Drive

[Paul Tholfsen]

I'd like to regularly make a full backup of my 60G C to a separate drive for
the purpose of a restore if my regular C; drive dies. My simple idea is to
buy a USB detachable drive, and do a copy from one to the other, then
removing the USB drive for safekeeping.

Is it that simple? I assume that if my original drive crashed, or my
computer caught fire, that I could either replace the crashed drive or
computer and copy the data on the USB drive back.

I see several possible problems:

1. Booting to a virgin C: drive
2. Problems with MS activation of the WinXP system
3. How best to do the initial backup.

Please advise.

--
Paul Tholfsen
Bellingham, WA

(e-mail address removed)
Please Delete XYZ

 

[Paul Tholfsen]

I read somewhere that using Norton Ghost interferes with setting or using
restore points. Correct? if so, would there be some workaround?

--
Paul Tholfsen
Bellingham, WA

(e-mail address removed)
Please Delete XYZ

 

[Gregg]

I have had absolutely NO trouble with Norton Ghost. Be
careful, only some versions will work with XP though.
Norton Ghost 2003 does. I think it works best to create a
boot disk, and running the program with NO OTHER PROGRAMS
OPEN. Instructions for this come with the program. But
it will create an image of your hard drive. I
have "ghosted" my hard drive to another hard drive, and
actually have booted up from the backup !!!