O
OhioGuy
A few days ago I installed a new SATA hard drive on my Dad's PC,
reinstalled Windows, reinstalled all of his favorite programs, set them up,
etc. It was about 7 hours of work. Over the past couple of years, I've had
to go back up there probably 6 times and do a fresh install of Windows,
mostly because he downloads junk, installs stuff, and runs everything
possible in memory. Then he typically gets spyware or other things on the
PC, and it takes less time to wipe the drive, then reinstall.
This time, I remembered long ago using a program called "Veritas Simple
Backup". It allowed me to set a system up just the way I wanted, then back
everything up to 3 or 4 CD-R's. The first one was bootable, and so I was
able to use them as recovery disks. If anything happened, I could just
restore by rebooting the system, then following the restore wizard. Within
half an hour, my system would be back to the way it was when I did the
backup. No wiping the drive, no reinstallind Windows, drivers, software,
etc. You get the idea.
So naturally, I got online to see if this was still available. I saw that
a newer version HAD been released once upon a time, version 4.85, which
supported burning to DVD drives, as well as the original CD drives.
However, then I saw that it had been bought out by Sonic, and then Roxio.
Roxio still has a version on their website for sale, version 5:
http://www.sonic.com/products/Consumer/SimpleBackup/quicklook.aspx
I bought it for the $30, only to find after downloading and installing it
that it no longer seems to have the capability of creating a bootable
recovery disk. Now their idea of a recovery disk seems to be one where you
have to manually reinstall Windows, reinstall the Simple Backup program, and
THEN you can run a recovery from inside the program. Heck, that is what I
was trying to avoid in the first place!!!!!!
Evidently the newer version I bought has been crippled, and won't do what
I need.
So, either I need to somehow find an old copy of Veritas Simple Backup
4.85 (yeah, right!)
Or else I need to shell out some more money and buy another program.
Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Very Simple. Most of the time I want to do a complete system backup, and
I don't want screen clutter with lots of options and sub-menus
2) Needs to make a bootable recovery Disk (DVD)
3) Said recovery disk needs to reset everything to the exact condition the
PC was in when I made the recovery. That means no reinstalling Windows,
drivers or software.
4) needs to be able to span disks if needed
5) Would be cool if I could make a backup on the hard drive itself, in
another partition, and have that as a backup to restore from as well. Or
perhaps some sort of image file to restore from. No biggie, but would be a
plus.
Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
reinstalled Windows, reinstalled all of his favorite programs, set them up,
etc. It was about 7 hours of work. Over the past couple of years, I've had
to go back up there probably 6 times and do a fresh install of Windows,
mostly because he downloads junk, installs stuff, and runs everything
possible in memory. Then he typically gets spyware or other things on the
PC, and it takes less time to wipe the drive, then reinstall.
This time, I remembered long ago using a program called "Veritas Simple
Backup". It allowed me to set a system up just the way I wanted, then back
everything up to 3 or 4 CD-R's. The first one was bootable, and so I was
able to use them as recovery disks. If anything happened, I could just
restore by rebooting the system, then following the restore wizard. Within
half an hour, my system would be back to the way it was when I did the
backup. No wiping the drive, no reinstallind Windows, drivers, software,
etc. You get the idea.
So naturally, I got online to see if this was still available. I saw that
a newer version HAD been released once upon a time, version 4.85, which
supported burning to DVD drives, as well as the original CD drives.
However, then I saw that it had been bought out by Sonic, and then Roxio.
Roxio still has a version on their website for sale, version 5:
http://www.sonic.com/products/Consumer/SimpleBackup/quicklook.aspx
I bought it for the $30, only to find after downloading and installing it
that it no longer seems to have the capability of creating a bootable
recovery disk. Now their idea of a recovery disk seems to be one where you
have to manually reinstall Windows, reinstall the Simple Backup program, and
THEN you can run a recovery from inside the program. Heck, that is what I
was trying to avoid in the first place!!!!!!
Evidently the newer version I bought has been crippled, and won't do what
I need.
So, either I need to somehow find an old copy of Veritas Simple Backup
4.85 (yeah, right!)
Or else I need to shell out some more money and buy another program.
Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Very Simple. Most of the time I want to do a complete system backup, and
I don't want screen clutter with lots of options and sub-menus
2) Needs to make a bootable recovery Disk (DVD)
3) Said recovery disk needs to reset everything to the exact condition the
PC was in when I made the recovery. That means no reinstalling Windows,
drivers or software.
4) needs to be able to span disks if needed
5) Would be cool if I could make a backup on the hard drive itself, in
another partition, and have that as a backup to restore from as well. Or
perhaps some sort of image file to restore from. No biggie, but would be a
plus.
Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!