Backing up.

bass76

bass76

VIP Member
I'd like some advice regarding which program to use to back up. A friend recommended Norton Ghost.
 
Acronis, Amanda, and a few others can be mentioned here. But it also depends on the type of backups you are referring to. For retail softwares the top ten including Acronis and Norton are seen in the latest 2007 review at http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ Windows also has one of it's own backup tools. Vista will backup just about "everything" with the latest OS's tool seen there.
 
Essentially I want to create an 'image' of my hard drive, so I can just put it all back on if I have to format (which I've done a number of times). My mate said Ghost does this. Thanks for ur reply.
 
Acronis is another program for creating cloned images from one drive. When reinstalling Vista twice on the sama drive it actually saved everything including the users folder into one main folder called Windows.old. That allows you to retrieve files from either a previous version like XP or the prior Vista installation. If you have more then one drive Vista will grab everything and compress it for storage on a second drive for restoration later.

All ten programs seen in the review support full backups. The reason for naming the Acronis True Image software is having seen some favorable review on that recently. At least you now have some options other then Norton. Since I am currently multi booting Vista along with XP I will giving the backup feature a try to see how that goes.
 
I've had my PC since 2001 and believe it or not, I've never ever backed up anything, except photos, because they're priceless and not replacable. I've just not found the need to back anything up, but now that I'm learning more about the technical side of things I see there is a need for backing up, aside from saving the hassle of downloading all the microsoft updates incl SP2 AGAIN, and re-installing all my programs AGAIN. Actually I think the only original part of this PC (from when I first bought the parts and built it) is the floppy drive, oh wait, the speaker system is original too. Recently replaced my original CRT monitor with a Samsung LCD (940n SyncMaster) and yesterday bought a new tower, replacing the old funky beige one, its a Cooler Master Centurion CAC - T05 with a 430w PSU, got it for AU$125 which is about US$100 I think. 430w is plenty for me cuz I don't OC, only have one optical drive (DVD writer), 256mb GFX. I think I got a good deal, considering everything I've read about the case is absolute praise. The dude in the store said to me, when I asked about it "absolutely brilliant". Well I've blown this reply out quite nicely so thanks for ur help mate.
 
One thing you can do for SP2 is download the full service pack to save to disk in case you need it. I assume you have a first release or SP1 installation disk there. Instead of waiting for the download to open you simply double click on a full copy saved somewhere. You can download and save the full 266mb SP2 update found at http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Windows-XP-SP2-RTM.shtml

Any other files saved here like uitlities and freewares are stored in sub folders under a main title until needed. Once enough screenshots, wav files for assigning sounds, benchmark utilities, antivirus/antimalware freewares. driver updates, and a long list of other things collect I then burn them to data dvds. But the new backup feature in Vista will still need a try. That can save time fumbling around loading disk after disk if Windows needs to be reinstalled at some point.
 
Do like INTELCRAZY says, I have another hard drive as D: and my working Documents folder has been transferred to this drive as well as a ghost image of C:
I also periodically write my Documents to DVD in case the D: hard drive fails
 
Gee? And I could have bought that WD 500gb usb drive yesterday besides the 500gb sata and data dvds already used here. Who said anything about backing things up on the primary alone?
 
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