CHAS45 said:
I used the windows xp backup program to back up all my files to an external
hard drive. it ran for several hours, which i expected because this was my
first backup.
properties shows used disk space equal to what was copied.
just to check i did an explore on the directory of hte backup external
hard
drive. a backup file shows up but i cannnot see what is in the file. it
asks
for the correct program to open it.
i then tried a restore and it stops with the message backup file could not
be found. i checked and the bkf file is on the external hard drive.
can anyone advise me as to how to correct this situation?
CHAS45
First, I don't think that there's any really good reason to back up all
files in this way. The only good reason to do that is if you are creating
a bootable image of the drive, and MS Backup just can't do that. For the
most part, time spent waiting for a backup like that is simply wasted.
You need to be selective in what you back up - just your data files,
including the stuff MS helpfully puts in hidden folders, like Outlook and
Outlook Express mail files and the Windows Address book.
You do not need to back up programs or the Windows structures. For those,
you should either have the set of install disks collected and re-install, or
you should consider an imaging program.
And you absolutely must verify the integrity of the backup; after backing
up, restore some files to another location and be sure that they work.
After a crash is not the time to discover that the backups are corrupt.
Second, I would suggest that you not use MS Backup. There are many, far
better, easy to use, and inexpensive backup programs. I've had good
results with Backup Plus, about US$30. It produces files with a .BAC
extension which are really ordinary ZIP files. That means that there are
many reader, recovery and repair utilities should things go wrong; the
format is well understood and not proprietary. For example, simply
renaming the file to .ZIP will let it be opened in WinZip.
http://www.backupplus.net/
You can back up several machines on a small network with one copy. Simply
share folders and point Backup Plus to them. However, there is a file size
limitation, so you may need to create multiple backup tasks. Test with a
backup to a hard disk location before you back up to DVD or CD.
Backup Plus, like MS Backup, cannot create bootable images. For that, you
need a real imaging program like Acronis True Image, Ghost, or Drive Image.
These can produce a full image in a remarkably short period of time; forget
the hours you waited for MS Backup. Bear in mind that you do have to have
sufficient space *on another disk* to back up a drive.
www.acronis.com
HTH
-pk
