how to properly back up my user profile

[hupjack]

This thread mentioned 2 ways of backing up the user profile hive.

The emergency floppy disk method through ntbackup.exe doesn't work for
me, becasue I'm on an ultraportable and I don't have the pcmcia floppy
drive. The utility does not appear inclined to allow me to redirect
the backup location to the hard drive instead of a floppy.

I was wondering if just selecting the backup wizard, and "only backup
system data" would be a sufficient backup that it would get my entire
user profile? I'm not sure if it would include my user folder from
documents and setting. Obviously some things in there are very much
system related while others are personal documents. Does it backup
that entire directory? The entire user profile?

I need a reliable backup because I'm troubleshooting a wifi card
sw/bios/win2000 compatibility, or possible laptop hardware issue that
has twice blue screened my computer and corrupted my profile. Now I've
set things such that it won't auto restart on BSOD, so hopefully I'll
see something informative when it posts its BSOD error.

-Ethan

 

[Dave Patrick]

Copy/ backup the profile while logged on as local administrator.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

| This thread mentioned 2 ways of backing up the user profile hive.
|
| The emergency floppy disk method through ntbackup.exe doesn't work for
| me, becasue I'm on an ultraportable and I don't have the pcmcia floppy
| drive. The utility does not appear inclined to allow me to redirect
| the backup location to the hard drive instead of a floppy.
|
| I was wondering if just selecting the backup wizard, and "only backup
| system data" would be a sufficient backup that it would get my entire
| user profile? I'm not sure if it would include my user folder from
| documents and setting. Obviously some things in there are very much
| system related while others are personal documents. Does it backup
| that entire directory? The entire user profile?
|
| I need a reliable backup because I'm troubleshooting a wifi card
| sw/bios/win2000 compatibility, or possible laptop hardware issue that
| has twice blue screened my computer and corrupted my profile. Now I've
| set things such that it won't auto restart on BSOD, so hopefully I'll
| see something informative when it posts its BSOD error.
|
| -Ethan
|