How can i back up the whole operating system?

[Shenan Stanley]

I asked the guy at Best Buy that and he said no. To restore the
entire image it has to be to the same computer that crasehd. He
said it would "try" (to restore to another computer) but give you
"error" messages.

In XP - to accomplish such things you had to perform a repair installation
after you applied the image - so the correct Hardware Abstraction Layer
(HAL) could be loaded and thus - identify all the hardware components in the
new machine properly.

I have not yet tried it in Windows Vista - but I bet such a thing exists.

 

[Leo]

As I understand in Acronis, when migrating to another machine, you use
'Clone' instead of 'Backup."

--
Leo

It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end,
someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them.

 

[Ken Blake]

I asked the guy at Best Buy that and he said no.

"The guy at Best Buy," or any similar big nationwide chain of stores, is
among the *worst* possible sources of computer information.

Most of these people are chosen, not for their computer skills, but for
their willingness to accept something close to minimum wage. Most people
with real skills are capable of getting much better jobs than selling in
such stores. That of course doesn't mean that no employee of such a store
knows anything, but it certainly means that few of them do.

To restore the
entire image it has to be to the same computer that crasehd. He said
it would "try" (to restore to another computer) but give you "error"
messages.

You didn't quote anything of the post you replied to, so I'm not sure what
this is about, but in general, you *can* restore an image to another
computer. You normally have to do a repair installation afterward
(occasionally that's not good enough and a clean reinstallation is
required).

At least the above is true of Windows XP. I'm less sure about Vista, but I
expect that it's the same.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Thanks for the information Ken. Clearly the "Best Buy" dude was wrong.
But that is why I'm here... trying to get better information - which I
have from people like you who resond. Thanks for doing so... I don't
want pass along something I've heard that is incorrect.

Sandy

Acronis True Image have a package that does better than usual at
restoring to a different machine, however the cost for a one off restore
might not make sense.