This is from Woody's (
http://www.woodyswatch.com/winxp/) XP Watch #2.05;
Last week I promised you that I would tell you about backup techniques for
Windows XP/Home. If you'll recall, I told you that Windows XP/Pro has a
downright decent backup and restore wizard, which runs as part of Automated
System Recovery, accessible by clicking Start | All Programs | Accessories |
System Tools | Backup. I also told you about the way Microsoft decided to
include the backup half of the wizard in Windows XP/Home but, uh, neglected
to include the restore part. In my WinXP book, I say "that makes XP/Home's
backup just about as useful as a Ferrari Testarossa with no wheels."
If you really, really want to use the ASR backup routine in XP/Home (it's
the NTBackup program that Windows 2000 users have come to know and love),
you can install it from the Windows XP/Home CD. To do so, put the XP/Home CD
in your CD drive. When the installer asks, "What do you want to do?" click
"Perform additional tasks" then "Browse this CD", navigate to
VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP and double-click NTBACKUP.MSI.
But don't bother installing the program until you've the rest of this
newsletter. It should send a chill down your spine.
I tried a few experiments and learned a few surprising things about XP/Home
backup. There's an MS Knowledge Base article that's supposed to tell you
what you need to do in order to perform an XP/Home restore, but I tried and
tried and couldn't make heads from tails out of the article. The boot
diskette generated by the backup program, following the description in the
KB article, doesn't work on any of my systems. The steps detailed there for
creating a backup file do work - you have to manually override the wizard's
settings - but in the end, the backup isn't much use.
Microsoft outright lies in their Knowledge Base article Q309340 where it
says the restore feature "applies to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" when
it most assuredly does not - any backup that you make in XP/Home is
essentially worthless. Even if you tell the XP/Home "Backup or Restore
Wizard" to restore the entire contents of the c: drive, it misses parts.
The only way I found to restore the c: drive, after using NTBACKUP to create
a backup file was to boot from the Windows XP/Home CD, completely delete the
partition that held Windows, re-install WinXP/Home, re-install NTBACKUP
using the steps I outlined above, and immediately run the restore using the
Advanced settings in the wizard.
You know the worst part of it all? At every turn, it appears as if
everything is working correctly, No error message. No warnings. No nothing.
The Knowledge Base articles occasionally warn you that the procedures don't
work with XP/Home - then go ahead and give you specific steps for performing
the procedures that don't work! Unless somebody's clued you in, you'll only
get heartburn over XP/Home's clueless backup when you need it - and find out
that it didn't do what it was supposed to do.
Trustworthy computing, eh?
So now I've spoiled all your illusions about Backups in Windows XP what can
you do? In the next issue I'll tell you what I do and what options you can
try.
And from #2.06
There are a million ways to back up your system, and at least a half million
of them work.
I've been playing the backup game for a long time, and I've only bumped into
three basic scenarios where I really needed a backup. Mind you, I'm not a
major multinational corporation, and I don't have a server farm. Although I
do have an orchid farm. But that's another story.
I need backups for three reasons.
First, sometimes my c: drive dies. When that happens, I need to stick a new
drive in the machine, boot, restore the hard drive, restore my data, and get
going. I also lose at least two hanks of hair and at least one night of
sleep.
Second, sometimes I screw up a file so badly I need to go back and retrieve
an earlier copy. When that happens, I know about it right away: I shout and
kick the computer and swear a few times, then go spelunking to look for an
old copy of the file.
Third, on rare occasions, I'll make a change that needs to be undone and not
catch it right away. I can only think of a couple of times I've done that,
and it usually involves dial-up networking settings - I get the wrong
password typed in, or I forget the name of a mail server, or something else
equally obscure, and it's a couple of days later before I realize that I
changed something I shouldn't have.
The technique I use for backup works very well for the second kind of
problem, and pretty well for the first kind. It doesn't do beans for the
third type.
My method is really simple. I like it that way.
1. All my PCs have two hard drives. The second one is primarily for backups,
but I'll also stick device drivers and Service Packs and other
not-critical-but-a-pain-to-download files on the second drive. The second
drive also has copies of my old Outlook files, which I cycle manually once a
month.
2. Every week or two (or whenever I'm going to do something fun like install
new software) I run PowerQuest's Drive Image and create a full backup image
of my main boot drive on the secondary drive. Drive Image generates boot
disks and all the other goodies necessary to recovery from a crashed c:
drive.
3. Every day - usually at the end of the day, I run a little batch file that
copies all of my important data files from the main hard drive onto the
backup drive. This is really a bailing wire 'n chewing gum approach, but it
works fine for me. To make your own batch file that copies your data files
from the c: drive to the d: drive, just do this:
a.. Right-click on the desktop, pick New | Text document
b.. Immediately type the name backup.bat and hit Enter. Windows will warn
you not to change the file name extension. Which is really weird because
Windows doesn't bother to show you file name extensions in the first place,
but such is the Wonder of Windows. What you have is an old-fashioned batch
file.
c.. Right-click on the new backup.bat file and pick Edit
d.. Type in this line:
xcopy "c:\Documents and Settings\*.*" "d:\Backup" /d /e /c /h /y
a.. Close backup.bat.
b.. When you want to run a backup, double-click on backup.bat. The first
time you run it, Windows will ask if you're trying to create a file or
directory. Type "d" for directory. After the first time, it'll run without a
hitch.
Hate to disappoint you, but that's my entire backup strategy.
That strategy might not suit you, not all of us have to install beta
versions of Office and Windows from time to time.
XP/Home users have some other options. For example, Microsoft has a set of
six (six!) setup boot diskettes that you can download. Those diskettes will
let you boot from your floppy drive, so you can run Windows XP setup from
the CD, if your computer won't boot from the CD.
Hopefully this will give you some ideas.
--
Just my ¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________
Hi mrtee,
Thanks your message.
Hace looked at all links but these assume ntbackup is
already running. Problem is - it isn't ! I have tried
uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail.
Problem still exists.
-----Original Message-----
Take a look at these links;
Windows Backup Does Not Back Up to CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-R
Devices
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;en-us;315255
Backup Utility to Back Up Files and Folders in Windows
XP Home Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;en-us;320820
An Error Message Is Displayed When You Attempt to Use
the Automated System Recovery Wizard
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;Q302700
--
Just my ¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| Hi,
| I have installed ntbackup on Windows XP Home Edition.
| Upon running ntbackup a dialogue box eventually appears
| appears saying that it is 'looking for backup devices'
| Nothing else happens. NTBackup does not get any further
| than this. It has never worked at all due to this problem.
| This process has to be stoppped manually or the PC
| rebooted to rectify the situation.
|
| Can anyone help/advise?
|
| Thanks
|
| Dave
You will be pleased to know there is a freeware, DrvImagerXP, which is based
on the WinXP native NTBackup. It works well for me.
http://tinyurl.com/nns1 (Click the floppy disk icon for download.)
The [Help] button will show you how to use it, and use it effectively. This
version is for a single hard disk drive. If you have a second drive,
DrvClonerXP;
http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/13/2/13-2-43.shtml
I have not tried this version. Both run on the .NET framework, downloadable
off the MS Windows Update site.
