XP Home backup

[Chuck]

I'm using Nero BackItUp for my backups, doing a full drive copy (i.e.
the option that lets you backup by partition, not by folders). My
question is this. If I enable the "Verify backup" option, it never
verifies because things are changing while the backup is running. Is
there anything to worry about here? Should I be booting in safe mode
before backing up? And if I do, will Nero still be able to access the
DVD driver to backup to DVD's?

Thanks

 

[R. McCarty]

Great question - That's one aspect to backing up or imaging that gets
overlooked. Just because a backup/image completes is no guarantee
that when called on, the restoration will work.
I can't begin to recall how many times I've worked with data backups
that are unusable. Either the dreaded CRC error on Optical media or
the "Unable to access the data store" type of message with Image sets.
I still do Imaging from a DOS style boot and not the "Hot" imaging that
predominates today. Whenever I do a direct burn to CD/DVD, I will
copy the data BACK from the media to a temp folder on the drive just
to verify it.
One thing to consider is the "Explorer" feature that many imaging apps
provide. It allows you to explore into the image and view folder/files.
While not 100% foolproof - it does provide a quick way to verify that
the image holds the content you expect.

 

[Chuck]

Great question - That's one aspect to backing up or imaging that gets
overlooked. Just because a backup/image completes is no guarantee
that when called on, the restoration will work.
I can't begin to recall how many times I've worked with data backups
that are unusable. Either the dreaded CRC error on Optical media or
the "Unable to access the data store" type of message with Image sets.
I still do Imaging from a DOS style boot and not the "Hot" imaging that
predominates today. Whenever I do a direct burn to CD/DVD, I will
copy the data BACK from the media to a temp folder on the drive just
to verify it.
One thing to consider is the "Explorer" feature that many imaging apps
provide. It allows you to explore into the image and view folder/files.
While not 100% foolproof - it does provide a quick way to verify that
the image holds the content you expect.

But will booting into safe mode help? I've never used safe mode for
anything but I recall reading somewhere that not all of your hardware
drivers load in safe mode. If that's the case, I'm wondering whether a
DVD drive will even be accessible in safe mode.

And also, what's updating the partition while I back it up? Before
starting, I make sure to shut down all user applications, including
logging off any other users that are logged in. I'm guessing it's the
background services that are changing the disk contents (event logging
maybe). Will running in safe mode prevent services from running?

TIA again.