question on restore process

[bill allemann]

I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
about using the Automated System Recovery method.
The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
recorded on a bootable floppy.
I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
failure of the machine?
Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the size
of the backup considerably.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Leonard Grey]

You're asking a 'what is your opinion' question, so here's mine:

The best way to backup your hard disk (or your system partition, if you
have partitioned your hard disk) is with disk imaging software. You end
up with a single file that you can use for a bare-metal restore, if need
be. This is faster and more convenient than ASR, and doesn't call for a
floppy disk.

As a backup destination, DVDs are slow and unreliable. And if your
backup needs more than one DVD, you have to be present to swap DVDs.
Backing up to an external hard drive or network share is significantly
faster, more reliable and has the significant advantage that it can run
unattended, so you can schedule backups every day. (Which you should be
doing anyway.)

Backing up is an absolute no-brainer, yet so few people do it. So many
people post here in absolute panic, looking at losing everything on
their computer. With an up-to-date backup, computer disasters are merely
an inconvenience.

 

[SC Tom]

I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
about using the Automated System Recovery method.
The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
recorded on a bootable floppy.
I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
failure of the machine?
Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the
size of the backup considerably.

Thanks,
Bill

You could use one of the many back-up programs on the market to back up to
your external drives, and most of them have the ability to boot from a CD
and restore your hard drive. My personal favorite is Acronis True Image.
I've used it with great success on both XP and Vista systems. If you have a
Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive or external hard drive, you
can get the free version from the drive's web site. I use the freebie from
WD, and have no problems with it. My external drive is a WD, and even though
none of my internal drives are WD, the boot CD recognizes the external drive
and allowed me to restore the data from my Hitachi drive to a new Samsung
(the Hitachi went belly up). Others will have other suggestions, and they're
all good, but I like this one.

SC Tom

 

[bill a]

I have Seagate Cheetah hard drives and Seagate has a DiscWizard free
download. Do you suppose their DiscWizard maybe really the Acronis product?
I couldn't find anything on their site with the Acronis name.
Thanks,
Bill

 

[SC Tom]

From what I read online, the downloadable version of Disc Wizard is the
unnamed version of True Image, but the version on the disc that came with
the drive is not.

SC Tom

 

[bill a]

I just started installing DiscWizard, and the logo page does in fact show
Acronis as the publisher.

Bill