Need good backup software to reformat and reinstall Windows XP

[msmdacci]

I need to backup many files on my Windows XP os because I'm having my hard
drive reformatted and Windows XP reinstalled.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

 

[David B.]

What are you backing up to? If an external hard drive, a copy & paste of the
files you want to save works well.

 

[Joe Grover]

Seconded. If you're not careful with backup software you may wind up
backing up Windows and all your programs, then restoring it over the top of
the nice fresh Windows install you just had done and putting you right back
where you started in the first place

You can cheaply get external USB hard drives, then copy your files onto it.
Common things I copy:

- Contents of My Documents (My Pictures, My Music, etc)
- Contents of my Desktop (not including program shortcuts, just folders and
files that have accumulated there instead of putting them where they belong)
- Favorites folder (by default in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user
name>\
- Outlook PST file (by default in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user
name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook)
- Outlook auto-complete NK2 cache file (by default in C:\Documents and
Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\Microsoft Outlook)
- Contents of the folder I save my downloads to
- I also keep a copy of the most recent drivers for my system hardware
(sound card, video card, motherboard chipset drivers, etc) on a USB stick.

Joe

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I agree,
no special software is necessary. Just copy the data over to an external
drive...then make sure it's good.

While I agree that no special software is required, the Windows copy
utilities have a very annoying habit of just giving up when errors are
encountered, leaving you with the sometimes daunting task of figuring out
just where things failed.

I personally often use an older shareware utility named FileSync, which
still works pretty well (there are some issues on large file sets where it
will go past 100%, but still completes properly). In the event of
failure, you can just retry and it won't attempt to copy the files that have
already been moved. And I find that it is faster.

I understand that RoboCopy works well for this, too.

Finally, this is an excellent use for the free demo versions of imaging
software, like TrueImage.

HTH
-pk

 

[msmdacci]

I plan on backing up to external hard drive but I have many (friends) telling
me about online backup which makes me worried.

 

[msmdacci]

Thanks for the advice. I feel more confident with using external USB hard
drives.

 

[williamreynaud]

Thanks for the advice. I feel more confident with using external USB hard
drives.

Good idea also to make this process easier you can use Dmailer Backup
it will help you copy software from your pc to your device by finding
everything you need. It wont cost you anythin either

get it here:
http://www.dmailer.com