Whats best way to back up a system?

[Guest]

I want a means of backing up my whole system, applications, data, and
everything including the operating system to a separate hard drive. If my
hard disk dies I don't want to have to reload the operating system and all
its updates, reload all my software and their updates, recreate users, and
etc, etc, etc. This literally takes days. I want to be able to put in a new
hard drive and completely recreate my entire system from my backup drive and
be back up and running in a couple hours.

Will the backup utility supplied with XP do this?

 

[dev]

/2dogs/ said:

I want a means of backing up my whole system, applications, data, and
everything including the operating system to a separate hard drive. If my
hard disk dies I don't want to have to reload the operating system and all
its updates, reload all my software and their updates, recreate users, and
etc, etc, etc. This literally takes days. I want to be able to put in a new
hard drive and completely recreate my entire system from my backup drive and
be back up and running in a couple hours.

Will the backup utility supplied with XP do this?

No.

But an imaging utility will, provided that you keep current back ups. The
one I use here restores 3+ gigs in less than 4 minutes - every file, every
setting.

There are several good tools for this purpose. Check out...
http://terabyteunlimited.com (Image for Windows)
http://ghost.com
http://www.acronis.com/

 

[Rock]

I want a means of backing up my whole system, applications, data, and
everything including the operating system to a separate hard drive. If my
hard disk dies I don't want to have to reload the operating system and all
its updates, reload all my software and their updates, recreate users, and
etc, etc, etc. This literally takes days. I want to be able to put in a new
hard drive and completely recreate my entire system from my backup drive and
be back up and running in a couple hours.

Will the backup utility supplied with XP do this?

As dev said, use a disk imaging program. Store the images on external
media such as a USB/firewire external hard drive DVD or on another
networked PC. Restores can be done of the complete partition or
individual files and folders.

Programs that do this are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, and Terabyte
Unlimited's Image for Windows and BootitNG.

 

[Guest]

When recreating the system on a new drive using an image utility is it
necessary to format, partition and install the operating system on the new
drive before restoring from the backup drive?

 

[peterk]

I use Acronis True Image.
I connected my removable HD.
Opened True Image and Imaged my C drive to the removable HD......True Image
did the rest
True Image lets you put a Start Up recovery manager in the boot
process.This shows up on your screen before XP loads and tells you if you
wish to start the Manager to push F?.When you do this True Image Starts and
you can restore a saved image without being in XP.
By Imaging my C drive to a removable HD I can and have removed my C drive
and booted with the removable HD.It is an exact copy af the drive at that
point in time.By saving Images of various Partitions onto another drive you
can restore that partition to the point in time that you imaged it.Images
will need to be updated when you have changes.
I was worth what I paid for it.
peterk

 

[Alpha]

When recreating the system on a new drive using an image utility is it
necessary to format, partition and install the operating system on the new
drive before restoring from the backup drive?

No.

 

[Alpha]

However, the new drive better be in the same system or it won't work.

 

[Guest]

Will the process you described also work if the image drive is not a
removable drive but is instead a second system hard drive used only for the
image?

 

[Paul W]

Ghost

 

[Z]

I want a means of backing up my whole system, applications, data, and
everything including the operating system to a separate hard drive. If my
hard disk dies I don't want to have to reload the operating system and all
its updates, reload all my software and their updates, recreate users, and
etc, etc, etc. This literally takes days. I want to be able to put in a new
hard drive and completely recreate my entire system from my backup drive and
be back up and running in a couple hours.

Will the backup utility supplied with XP do this?

Yup.

That's what I use. I do once a week fulls, daily differentials and I
keep 4 weeks' worth of backups.

I've had to restore from a backup after my system device failed. Worked
fine. I've also pulled individual files and folders out of backup files
when I've brainfarted and deleted the wrong tree.

 

[Guest]

please tell me more. so far averyone else has disagreed.

Were you able to install a new drive and completely restore the backup to it
without formatting, partitioning, or installing the operating system first?

 

[Blair]

However, the new drive better be in the same system or it won't work.

Could you expand on that statement please.
I have a PC with XP networked with a P.C. with 98Se and I use True Image to
copy the XP to the 98SE.
Are you saying it won't work unless the 98SE is changed to XP?
Blair

 

[Rock]

please tell me more. so far averyone else has disagreed.

Were you able to install a new drive and completely restore the backup to it
without formatting, partitioning, or installing the operating system first?

Yes that can be done.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

please tell me more. so far averyone else has disagreed.

Were you able to install a new drive and completely restore the backup to
it
without formatting, partitioning, or installing the operating system
first?

Before you restore/install anything the media/drive needs to be prepared
that is formatted. Partitioning can take place after you have restored
provided you have suitable software for the task (partition manger et al).

 

[Alpha]

Could you expand on that statement please.
I have a PC with XP networked with a P.C. with 98Se and I use True Image
to
copy the XP to the 98SE.
Are you saying it won't work unless the 98SE is changed to XP?
Blair

The images are complete backups, including system files and drivers. No,
you cannot copy XP to another computer...even XP if it is not identical in
every single way.

 

[Z]

please tell me more. so far averyone else has disagreed.

Were you able to install a new drive and completely restore the backup to it
without formatting, partitioning, or installing the operating system first?

Ahh, sorry, I missed that. To restore from a Windows backup you must
first format and install the O/S on the new drive (a bare installation
is all you need) then you can restore the backup over the top of that.

 

[Guest]

if you have a second hdd in the machine, you can ghost a bootable image to
that drive, all that needs to be done in the event of failure is to change
the jumper on the drive to become the master and boot 2 minute job, do this
on a regular basis myself

 

[Guest]

sorry this can also be done with removable drives, again just change to
master insert drive in the pc and boot again 2 minute job, no need to install
windows format or anything else ghost takes care of the full process
been a lifesaver for me on a number of occasions

 

[Lil' Dave]

Windows backup will NOT work to meet all your demands.

The most obvious solution is a RAID 0 configuration which I doubt you have
RAID on your PC. So, will not continue on that.

CLONING
This copies the partition, filesystem, and all the files to another hard
drive. There's no formatting or installing to do afterwards. It will act
just like your current hard drive if made active for booting. The SID
should be identical though. Remove the clone after the cloning operation.
Do not leave connected to your PC.

IMAGING
This makes a copy of your partition, your filesystem, and all your files
with the exception of the paging file and hibernation settings file. This
is compressed into one or more files. It cannot be used for the original
XP. Rather, the file or files must be restored using another hard drive as
the target. After completion of restoration, the target hard drive will be
a duplicate of the original hard drive.

Many imaging type softwares also can perform cloning as an alternative.
This is usually a selection called copying a drive.

The target hard drive (where the copy is made to) should be the same size or
larger for cloning.

The target hard drive or partition for imaging may be smaller than the
original. This is due to lack of copying the paging and hibernation
settings files, compression, and only copies data not empty space. C:
cannot be saved to C:, must be an alternate partition, hard drive, or DVD/CD
writer. The two files mentioned are recreated by XP upon booting XP.

 

[Leythos]

I want a means of backing up my whole system, applications, data, and
everything including the operating system to a separate hard drive. If my
hard disk dies I don't want to have to reload the operating system and all
its updates, reload all my software and their updates, recreate users, and
etc, etc, etc. This literally takes days. I want to be able to put in a new
hard drive and completely recreate my entire system from my backup drive and
be back up and running in a couple hours.

Will the backup utility supplied with XP do this?

You want to make a GHOST Image of your entire drive to a file on a
external drive so that you have a PERFECT Image of the system at the
time of the image - you can then restore the image as needed, even
resizing drive partitions, and it will work perfectly.