Backup of WinXp

[drybones]

Using Drive Image 2002, Had made three (3) DVD+ backups of my
primary drive, "C". In the past Drive has done it's job with excellent
results in restoring Windows. As I restored to pristine install a couple
of times.
These backup DVD dicks were made at 3 month intervals. The last
on 06 Feb 2006.
Note that all three Backup copies contents were verified.

Feburary 8 2006 Windows refused to boot in any method what so ever.
After many attempts to salvage WinXP I used Partition Magic ver 8.0 to
wipe the Primary Partition (C) and re-create it as a Fat 32 primary
partition.

Then, using Drive Image Floppys, I attempted to re-insatll windows XP.
You guessed it.
Not a single one of thje backup DVDs were readable. (sigh)

Question here is really: What other method of backing up is considered
a solid program?

OR, perhaps someone may know what I may have done to cause Drive
Image to corrupt these last three seperate DVD disks?

Thank you for reading and hopefully replying.
drybones

 

[PopS]

See ===> :
: Using Drive Image 2002, Had made three (3) DVD+ backups of my
: primary drive, "C". In the past Drive has done it's job with
excellent
: results in restoring Windows. As I restored to pristine install
a couple
: of times.
: These backup DVD dicks were made at 3 month intervals. The
last
: on 06 Feb 2006.
: Note that all three Backup copies contents were verified.
===> I presume you were backing up NTFS formatted drives, right?
:
: Feburary 8 2006 Windows refused to boot in any method what so
ever.
: After many attempts to salvage WinXP I used Partition Magic ver
8.0 to
: wipe the Primary Partition (C) and re-create it as a Fat 32
primary
: partition.
===> Why FAT?
:
: Then, using Drive Image Floppys, I attempted to re-insatll
windows XP.
: You guessed it.
: Not a single one of thje backup DVDs were readable. (sigh)
===> If the floppies are NTFS formatted, and the drive is FAT, I
don't think they can see each other or communicate. XP can use
FAT32, but it's also an NTFS sysem.
Are you in trouble because of multiple operating systems? If
you didn't/don't plan to use multiple os's, then there is no need
to have a FAT partition and I -think-, am not sure, XP must live
on an NTFS partition.
I'm no expert, but I feel that's where the mixup is.
:
: Question here is really: What other method of backing up is
considered
: a solid program?
===> Vs what? Datakeeper? NTbackup? Sorry.
:
: OR, perhaps someone may know what I may have done to cause
Drive
: Image to corrupt these last three seperate DVD disks?
===> I think it's a format mismatch. Try formatting to NTFS and
isee what happens.
:
: Thank you for reading and hopefully replying.
: drybones
:
:

 

[drybones]

See ===> :
: Using Drive Image 2002, Had made three (3) DVD+ backups of my
: primary drive, "C". In the past Drive has done it's job with
excellent: results in restoring Windows. As I restored to pristine install
a couple: of times.
: These backup DVD disks were made at 3 month intervals. The
last on 06 Feb 2006.

: Note that all three Backup copies contents were verified.
===> I presume you were backing up NTFS formatted drives, right?

No I have always used Fat 32.

:
: Feburary 8 2006 Windows refused to boot in any method what so
ever.
: After many attempts to salvage WinXP I used Partition Magic ver
8.0 to wipe the Primary Partition (C) and re-create it as a Fat 32
primary: partition.

===> Why FAT?

Simply put that is MY choice. I see no reason why you would challenger this.

:
: Then, using Drive Image Floppys, I attempted to re-insatll
windows XP.
: You guessed it.
: Not a single one of thje backup DVDs were readable. (sigh)

===> If the floppies are NTFS formatted, and the drive is FAT, I
don't think they can see each other or communicate. XP can use
FAT32, but it's also an NTFS sysem.

Floppys are created by Drive Image program!

Are you in trouble because of multiple operating systems? If
you didn't/don't plan to use multiple os's, then there is no need
to have a FAT partition and I -think-, am not sure, XP must live
on an NTFS partition.

No mutiple operating system.

I'm no expert, but I feel that's where the mixup is.
:
: Question here is really: What other method of backing up is
considered : a solid program?
===> Vs what? Datakeeper? NTbackup? Sorry.
???????

:
: OR, perhaps someone may know what I may have done to cause
Drive Image to corrupt these last three seperate DVD disks?

===> I think it's a format mismatch. Try formatting to NTFS and
isee what happens.

No format mismatch. (sigh)

 

[Guest]

Hello drybones,

I use Acronis True Image 9.0 to take an image of my Hard Drive. However,
instead of using DVDs as the storage media, I simply back up each partition
to another hard drive installed on my ststem. I have 1 80 GB SATA drive with
a System partiton and a Documents partition. I also have a 160 GB SATA drive
which is used to store the drive images of the System and Documents partition.

Acronis allows you to create a bootable CD that will allow you to run True
Image outside of Windows...you can do everything - make back ups, restore
backups, manage the "Acronis Secure Zone", etc....

When I first installed the program, I tested it with a spare hard drive I
had (120 GB IDE). I removed my 80 GB SATA drive and proceeded to restore the
System and Documents paritions onto the test drive. Everything worked very
well...I was able to create a new partition (and manually set the size!) all
within True Image and I didn't neet any other tools to restore my data. It
worked very well...once I was done Windows was able to boot off the 120 GB
IDE drive and everything was there exactly as I left it.

Although my images were stored on an SATA hard drive formatted in NTFS, true
imaged was able to read the disk and restore the data with no problem. Of
course, you can also store the images on a DVD, CD, network drive, etc....

Anyhow...that what I use and I really like it. Hope this was helpful to
you. Just post back if you have any more questions.

 

[drybones]

Many Thanks, Francis,
I have visited the site and bookmarked it. I t looks like a program that
just might do the job.
8^))
drybones