I need the following application(s)

[Mike Henley]

Here's what I need, and it does *not* have to be freeware.

I need an application that'll backup my system to a bootable DVD so
that I can, in the event i have a catastrophic failture, just insert a
DVD into my drive and let it restore my system.

I am running windows XP and using SATA drives, so it'll have to make a
bootable DVD that'll recognize the SATA drives, which my installed
system currently does, of course, but a plain windows installation CD
won't without the floppy that contains the drives. I've been having
problems with floppies though so I'd really rather do without. In a
nutshell, i want a standalone DVD that won't need a floppy. I also
need it to be as easy to use as possible, so that it'll just use a
wizard and that its recovery is automatic, but if not, would still be
somewhat easy.

I considered the following, norton ghost, acronis true image,
powerquest drive image, norton rollback... etc. Unfortunately, i don't
have the time to try them all or research them adequately, so in case
someone has already been through this, which would would you recommend
will meet my needs please?

Thanks ever so much.

 

[Britney Spears]

Hi,

Try both the Norton Ghost and True Image and choose the favorite one.

They are the best.

Regards,

Britney,

 

[Kenneth]

Here's what I need, and it does *not* have to be freeware.

I need an application that'll backup my system to a bootable DVD so
that I can, in the event i have a catastrophic failture, just insert a
DVD into my drive and let it restore my system.

I am running windows XP and using SATA drives, so it'll have to make a
bootable DVD that'll recognize the SATA drives, which my installed
system currently does, of course, but a plain windows installation CD
won't without the floppy that contains the drives. I've been having
problems with floppies though so I'd really rather do without. In a
nutshell, i want a standalone DVD that won't need a floppy. I also
need it to be as easy to use as possible, so that it'll just use a
wizard and that its recovery is automatic, but if not, would still be
somewhat easy.

I considered the following, norton ghost, acronis true image,
powerquest drive image, norton rollback... etc. Unfortunately, i don't
have the time to try them all or research them adequately, so in case
someone has already been through this, which would would you recommend
will meet my needs please?

Thanks ever so much.

Howdy,

I will mention that I have used Drive Image happily, but have been
even more satisfied with V2i Protector. It is essentially the same,
but also has incremental backup available.

Also, these products are now owned by Symantec.

One difficulty is that the Powerquest support was free, and excellent.

The Symantec support is nearly $30 per incident, and is, shall we say,
something less than of the same standard in my opinion.

All the best,

 

[Howard Kaikow]

If you have a CD drive as well as a DVD drive, I believe that you could use
Retrospect as follows:

1. Create a disaster recovery CD with Retrospect; and
2. Create disk backup set on the DVD media.

You would then boot from the CD and restore from the DVD.

Check at www.datz.com to learn whether this works for you.