Restoring to a new computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank
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Frank

Have my life on a desktop replacement notebook computer.
Very concerned about how I would get back in business
quickly if it were stolen or smashed. Dell might not
have an exact replacement model, so my PowerQuest image
and ASR backups probably won't work on the new hardware.
I keep my data files in a separate partition and use a
file-by-file backup for them, so they wouldn't be lost,
but I might still have to rebuild Win XP and all my
settings. Can anyone give me suggestions about restoring
the system if the original hardware is gone?
 
Frank said:
Have my life on a desktop replacement notebook computer.
Very concerned about how I would get back in business
quickly if it were stolen or smashed. Dell might not
have an exact replacement model, so my PowerQuest image
and ASR backups probably won't work on the new hardware.
I keep my data files in a separate partition and use a
file-by-file backup for them, so they wouldn't be lost,
but I might still have to rebuild Win XP and all my
settings. Can anyone give me suggestions about restoring
the system if the original hardware is gone?
Click to expand...

Best bet is to keep everything that you need to install all in one handy
place. There's going to be no way around it if you end up with a different
model of computer. It will probably come with Windows on it already, so you
just need to worry about the programs you need.

You probably have a few programs that are essential, and those are the ones
you need to worry about first. That gets you back in business, at a minimum.
Then have the programs that you use, but aren't critical. Those can be
installed after you're up and running with the critical apps. Maybe the same
day, maybe over a few days, as you have time. You probably also have a few
other things that are handy, but not really essential. Those can be
installed at your leisure, if you decide you really need them.

It's also nice to have ONE disk with any patches, updates, etc. that you may
have downloaded, as well as any handy utilities that you use.

You might also consider running the Files & Settings Transfer Wizard in XP
and see if that might suit you. It doesn't save programs, but it does save
files and personalized settings, and other things that you might not think
about backing up. Like your email and address books. Most people want that
recovered, but have no idea how to save it or how to transfer it.

I wouldn't use the FAST backup as my only one, but it might come in handy
for you as an additional way to save things and might recover better for you
than just a data transfer.
 
You could alwasy use the 'files and setting tranfer wizard' on the start menu
(under system tools I think). This should let you copy any important info to
CDRs, including settings and documents etc.
 
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