Choosing the right backup method

[Guest]

In preparation to replace the mother board in my XP pro pc, I needed to back
up as completely as possible. I chose to us the XP backup utility that
offers the restore utility. I think this method presents some problems I've
yet to face. And, it brings up the question:

What is the best way to preserve your data in a situation like this?

What route would you have choosen?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Malke]

In preparation to replace the mother board in my XP pro pc, I needed
to back
up as completely as possible. I chose to us the XP backup utility
that
offers the restore utility. I think this method presents some
problems I've
yet to face. And, it brings up the question:

What is the best way to preserve your data in a situation like this?

What route would you have choosen?

Thank you in advance.

I can't comment on NTBackup since I've never used it. I always keep all
my data on a separate hard drive, no matter what operating system. I
don't have the ability to stick a second hard drive in the laptops so I
make separate partitions. Then I back up my data to CD/DVD-R on a
regular basis.

Making an image won't help you now because the hardware will be
different on the new motherboard. You might want to image the system
drive on the new hardware though. Ghost and TrueImage are two examples
of the software used for this.

If you aren't planning to do a new clean install once you get the new
m/b, you'll need to do a repair install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html - for changing
motherboard

Malke

 

[Guest]

Quote: I always keep all

my data on a separate hard drive, no matter what operating system.

A wise decision from many standpoints, I'm sure. Trying to imagine the
plumbing used to do this, I might expect to find a hd the right size to hold
the operating system and no more. The other storage would hold everthing
else. And a question as to how to design this: For instance, when trying to
load Office 2003 to the data drive, how would you force it to load anywhere
but the c: drive? When accomplished, it would mean your resulting emails,
word or excel documents would reside on other than c:?

In trying to get set up for a safer pc existance, your decision to separate
system and data holds much promise.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Jonny]

You don't put application on a separate drive or folder, put them with XP.
Whatever files you make with those applications that you won't to keep, keep
elsewhere.

 

[Malke]

Quote: I always keep all

A wise decision from many standpoints, I'm sure. Trying to imagine
the plumbing used to do this, I might expect to find a hd the right
size to hold
the operating system and no more. The other storage would hold
everthing
else. And a question as to how to design this: For instance, when
trying to load Office 2003 to the data drive, how would you force it
to load anywhere
but the c: drive? When accomplished, it would mean your resulting
emails, word or excel documents would reside on other than c:?

No, you don't buy a hard drive that is tiny. You buy a decent-sized hard
drive (40-60GB or so) and install your operating system and programs on
it. You're going to have to reinstall the programs anyway if you
reinstall Windows. Then you have a nice big hard drive for all your
data. On computers where you can't put a second hard drive in easily,
an external hard drive works nicely. Then you make sure you burn a
CD/DVD-R regularly and move the backup away from the computer. I like
layered lines of defense for backups.

You can either move your My Documents to the slave drive or just don't
save there. You can change the default saving location in all the MS
Office programs. Or save in My Documents as usual and run a backup
program like SecondCopy from www.centered.com. I do this for a lot of
my clients:

1. Let them use the My Documents folder for all their data.
2. Run SecondCopy and have it back up to a folder cleverly named
"SecondCopy Backup" on the second hard drive (either internal or
external).
3. Have them back up the SecondCopy Backup folder onto a CD or DVD-R on
a regular basis.

For small offices, I have all data saved on a server (not necessarily
running a server operating system) and nothing saved locally. Then do
the same sort of backup setup so the person doing the CD/DVD burning
only has to burn one folder. You want to make backing up easy and
seamless or people won't do it.

You have to do what works for you, as long as you back up regularly and
effectively.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your ideas.

John Blanding

No, you don't buy a hard drive that is tiny. You buy a decent-sized hard
drive (40-60GB or so) and install your operating system and programs on
it. You're going to have to reinstall the programs anyway if you
reinstall Windows. Then you have a nice big hard drive for all your
data. On computers where you can't put a second hard drive in easily,
an external hard drive works nicely. Then you make sure you burn a
CD/DVD-R regularly and move the backup away from the computer. I like
layered lines of defense for backups.

You can either move your My Documents to the slave drive or just don't
save there. You can change the default saving location in all the MS
Office programs. Or save in My Documents as usual and run a backup
program like SecondCopy from www.centered.com. I do this for a lot of
my clients:

1. Let them use the My Documents folder for all their data.
2. Run SecondCopy and have it back up to a folder cleverly named
"SecondCopy Backup" on the second hard drive (either internal or
external).
3. Have them back up the SecondCopy Backup folder onto a CD or DVD-R on
a regular basis.

For small offices, I have all data saved on a server (not necessarily
running a server operating system) and nothing saved locally. Then do
the same sort of backup setup so the person doing the CD/DVD burning
only has to burn one folder. You want to make backing up easy and
seamless or people won't do it.

You have to do what works for you, as long as you back up regularly and
effectively.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Thank you, Jonny.

You don't put application on a separate drive or folder, put them with XP.
Whatever files you make with those applications that you won't to keep, keep
elsewhere.