Full Drive Backup

[MariaL]

I bought a 160 GB external drive for backing up my files. I want to
make a full backup of my entire PC. I have Nero installed and I also
have the Windows Backup program that comes with XP. I didn't try the
windows utility because it read it will make a bootable floppy, I
don't have a floppy drive on my new laptop. I used the Nero Backit
up program. My harddrive has 38gb used space, the backup came out to
30gb..any idea why?

Also, anyone have any personal experience between these two backup
programs or any advice on any others available that are better.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[DL]

If you wish to *Image* your sys so that it could be recovered then an
Imaging App eg Ghost or True Image is the simplest way to go.
True Image can also be used with data files, eg to recover a specific file.
You can also boot with the True Image cd to recover an Image
There is a fully functioning trial at Acronis site.

 

[Rock]

I bought a 160 GB external drive for backing up my files. I want to
make a full backup of my entire PC. I have Nero installed and I also
have the Windows Backup program that comes with XP. I didn't try the
windows utility because it read it will make a bootable floppy, I
don't have a floppy drive on my new laptop. I used the Nero Backit
up program. My harddrive has 38gb used space, the backup came out to
30gb..any idea why?

Also, anyone have any personal experience between these two backup
programs or any advice on any others available that are better.

Thanks for any and all help.

You can use ntbackup, which is the backup utility in XP, to backup files
without using the ASR backup wizard which creates and must have a floppy
drive. This is a file backup, however, and will not restore the system to a
running state. I also found the ASR process cumbersome to restore the
system.

Years ago I moved to a drive imaging program. I currently use Acronis True
Image Home, version 10 which is compatible with Vista and XP. It can create
a compressed image of a partition or drive. Images can be full, incremental
or differential. Saving these to an external drive as you have is a good
backup/recovery solution. It can also do file backup, and clone drives.
Restores can be done on a file, partition or drive basis. I recommend it.

I set up ATI to do a full image once a week and a differential image each
night. I alternate weekly between two different external USB drives.

 

[FreeComputerConsultant.com]

I bought a 160 GB external drive for backing up my files. I want to
make a full backup of my entire PC. I have Nero installed and I also
have the Windows Backup program that comes with XP. I didn't try the
windows utility because it read it will make a bootable floppy, I
don't have a floppy drive on my new laptop. I used the Nero Backit
up program. My harddrive has 38gb used space, the backup came out to
30gb..any idea why?

Also, anyone have any personal experience between these two backup
programs or any advice on any others available that are better.

Thanks for any and all help.

I LOVE Acronis True Image:

http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/acronis-true-image.html

and

http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/computer-backup.html

 

[Isaac Hunt]

I bought a 160 GB external drive for backing up my files. I want to
make a full backup of my entire PC. I have Nero installed and I also
have the Windows Backup program that comes with XP. I didn't try the
windows utility because it read it will make a bootable floppy, I
don't have a floppy drive on my new laptop. I used the Nero Backit
up program. My harddrive has 38gb used space, the backup came out to
30gb..any idea why?

Also, anyone have any personal experience between these two backup
programs or any advice on any others available that are better.

Thanks for any and all help.

Make your life easier & get a copy of True Image Home v10 at www.acronis.com

 

[MariaL]

You can use ntbackup, which is the backup utility in XP, to backup files
without using the ASR backup wizard which creates and must have a floppy
drive. This is a file backup, however, and will not restore the system to a
running state. I also found the ASR process cumbersome to restore the
system.

Years ago I moved to a drive imaging program. I currently use Acronis True
Image Home, version 10 which is compatible with Vista and XP. It can create
a compressed image of a partition or drive. Images can be full, incremental
or differential. Saving these to an external drive as you have is a good
backup/recovery solution. It can also do file backup, and clone drives.
Restores can be done on a file, partition or drive basis. I recommend it.

I set up ATI to do a full image once a week and a differential image each
night. I alternate weekly between two different external USB drives.

How do I access the Ntbackup? Also am I correct that your saying
with that program you can't do a full system restore to how the pc was
before a crash or lost files. Doing an Image backup with something
like Ghost or this Acronis, is much better, is that correct?

 

[MariaL]

How do I access the Ntbackup? Also am I correct that your saying
with that program you can't do a full system restore to how the pc was
before a crash or lost files. Doing an Image backup with something
like Ghost or this Acronis, is much better, is that correct?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

My Nero backit up will also do an image backup. Would that be
comparible to the Acronis?

 

[Anna]

(...and Maria later adds...)

How do I access the Ntbackup? Also am I correct that your saying
with that program you can't do a full system restore to how the pc
was before a crash or lost files. Doing an Image backup with
something like Ghost or this Acronis, is much better, is that correct?

Maria:
As Rock & others have suggested, you may be better served by using a disk
imaging program such as Acronis True Image to completely back up your
system.

The advantage of these disk imaging programs is that they are comprehensive
in nature - not only do they back up your user-created data, but also the
operating system and all your programs & applications - in short everything
that's on your day-to-day working hard drive (HDD).

So through the use of a disk imaging program if and when for one reason or
another your working HDD becomes dysfunctional you can restore the drive to
its previous state.

A program such as Acronis can either create a "clone" of your working HDD
(the so-called "source" disk) on your "destination" disk, i.e., your
external USB (I assume it's a USB device) HDD or it can create a "disk
image" - in effect, a "snapshot" of your system - which you can store on
your external HDD. There are advantages/disadvantages to each, but in either
case the backup/recovery process is straightforward and should pose no
difficulty for you.

You probably should avail yourself of the opportunity to download a 15-day
trial version of the Acronis program (http://www.acronis.com) and try it
out.

I've posted to this newsgroup on a number of occasions step-by-step
instructions on using the Acronis program both for disk cloning & disk
imaging and the recovery process. If you're interested I can post them
again.
Anna

 

[Rock]

How do I access the Ntbackup? Also am I correct that your saying
with that program you can't do a full system restore to how the pc was
before a crash or lost files. Doing an Image backup with something
like Ghost or this Acronis, is much better, is that correct?

You stated you had the backup program that came with XP, the filename is
actually ntbackup. For XP Pro, it will do file backup or a system backup
using the ASR wizard. The ASR does not backup all data. I believe it only
backs up the drive where XP is installed.

As I said, the few times I tested a restore using ASR, it did not restore
the system to a fully working state for that particular system. Several
programs would not run after the restore. It was for that reason and
because the ASR restore process is slow and cumbersome, and because there
are limitations in ntbackup on the media on which the backup can be made -
ntbackup cannot backup to DVD; it can backup to a single CD if 3rd party
packet writing software is installed but it cannot span CDs.

Originally in XP I used Drive Image from Powerquest, version 7. I liked it
very much. However Powerquest was bought out some time ago by Symantec. DI
was killed. They took some of it's technology and incorporated it in their
Ghost program. Since that time I moved to Acronis True Image Home,
currently at version 10, which runs in both Vista and XP. I am very
satisfied with it.

I have no experience with Nero's backup program. Whatever program you
choose, make sure you test it under real circumstances to make sure it will
backup and restore as you expect.