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Software to backup harddrive on laptop running Windows XP

shmoore

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I have terrible luck with computers. :doh: :doh: :doh: I bought a new Dell laptop in July and it is already crashing. According to Dell I am going to have to wipe the harddrive clean and reinstall everything. I want to back up my stuff to an external harddrive. Does any one have a suggestion for me? Apparently my computer did not come with a backup software.

I would like have a program that will occassionally back up any changes that I have made without having to back up the whole harddrive.

Thanks guys. I know you will have good suggestions for me.:wave:
 
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I use Norton Ghost. You can schedule full and incremental backups. The CD it comes on can be used to boot the system to recover files or everything. If you buy it via download, you create (and test) the recovery CD by trying to boot from it.

-David
 
I too was going to suggest Ghost.

Also, you can pick up a USB prt Scandisk which come in handy, usually 2GB. Or use some writeable cds tosave some of your info.

It will depend on how much data you have, and how many programs you have.

Did you get cd s with the original programs or was everything already loaded when you got the computer?
 
Everything was loaded except fpr Microsoft Office. I have added some other programs, too.

I have read about Acronis True Image version 11.0. It is available for a free trial. Is Ghost available for trial? I would like to try it out before buying.
 
I have used Ghost for a number of years then switched to Acronis after running them both side-by-side. Given the horrible way Norton takes total control of the entire system I did not want any Symantec product on my machine.

I've been using Acronis for over a year and I like it much more than Ghost. I make incremental back-ups of all drives on a weekly basis and use SyncBack for daily backups of various key file folders.
 
I too switched to Acronis after using Norton Ghost. Norton required me to boot into DOS to image the drive and Acronis ran from Windows. I think Norton has updated since then, so that they too can image the disk from Windows.

I've been using Acronis for several years and recommend it. I lost a hard drive once and was able to restore from the Acronis image to a new drive without any electronic indigestion.
 
Having backup files is a very important first step, but there are a number of other elements to be included in a good "disaster plan".

First off it is important to have at least two hard drives with each drive having at least two partitions. That way the operating system can be on one partition and program and data files on a different partition. If the operating system fails it can easily be restored without impacting programs or data files.

If back-up involves use of a program to make a complete mirror of the partition (e.g. Acronis or equivalent) then you need another drive with sufficient capacity to store the partition back-up. Management of the back-up files can become a real challenge.

One must think thru the specific steps and problems if the back up is needed to recover from a disaster. You've got to have the back-up software working (or reinstalled) so you can access the back-up files. If the partitition with the Operating System is toast none of the software will function. There are various sound work arounds, but everything must be in place and accessible to react. An example is having a bootable method to reinstall the OS.

Finally, don't think a hard drive will last forever. A good rule-of-thumb is every hard drive will fail on or before it's three years old. That includes the hard drives where the back-ups are stored!
 
I too switched to Acronis after using Norton Ghost. Norton required me to boot into DOS to image the drive and Acronis ran from Windows. I think Norton has updated since then, so that they too can image the disk from Windows.

I'm running Ghost 9.0. They are up to 12.0 now, I think. Even with 9.0, it's all done from windows and everything can be fully automated. I think even 8.x was all done from windows. Somewhere along the line I got an automatic update to 9.0.

Ghost isn't too intrusive, but I agree that their other stuff is, especially Norton A/V and their security suites. I don't run any of them either.

-David
 
Every few months I run "Belarc Advisors" and then make a printout - it tells you everything that is on your computer - programs, operating systems, printers. check it out!.

http://www.download.com/Belarc-Advisor/3000-2094_4-10716621.html

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

Hiring a professional computer-security consultant is out of reach for most home PC users, but Belarc Advisor can fill part of that gap.

The app analyzes a machine's weak points, looking at elements such as whether antivirus software is up to date, or whether all the security flaws in Windows have been patched. It uses the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark test to give the computer a score showing its overall security level, and produces a report that can be viewed in a Web browser.

Not only does it analyze software and operating system components and tell you where problems are, but in its comprehensive report it tells you what your computer's physical components are: not just how much RAM you have, for example, but what kind of RAM and which slots are occupied.

This program doesn't fix the problems itself, but gives clear advice on how to address each issue. This download is free for personal use; we recommend it to home users as a first step in securing their home systems, or for those considering a hardware upgrade who want to see what's in their current system.
 
If you are just looking for a way to backup your "My Documents" folder, I prefer to create a zip file then copy to a CD. Provided you have a CD burner.

I also use a USB flash drive. They come as big as 16 GB .

The key is to have at least two (CD's or USB flash drives) with the same information. I had an experience where a CD was unreadable once. Redundancy is my motto now.


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