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Backing Up Windows & Entire Computer - HELP -

Discussion in 'Windows - General discussion' started by RedBurnn, Feb 11, 2007.

  1. RedBurnn

    RedBurnn Member

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    I reinstall a fresh Windows XP every couple months for various reasons. I'm kind of getting tired of going thru the reinstall of XP and all the apps I need, so I would like to do this.

    After installing a new Windows XP and apps, I would like to immediately backup the entire Fresh OS and hard drive so that all I would need to do next time is just copy it over to my formatted hard drive and voila everything is as good as a new install.

    Is there an easy way to do this?

    I've looked at Norton Ghost and Acronis, but they don't look all that good.

    It "seems" relatively simple what I would like to do, so I'm wondering if anyone knows an easy solution to this. I don't mind paying for a good software for this, but of course freeware is better.

    Maybe there is a simple dos command like xcopy that would do it?!
     
  2. ireland

    ireland Active member

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    i use Acronis,for years,and i never had a problem with any back up..i and we feel it much better then ghost..on xp..

    i also use ghost 2003 for years on another windows 2000 computer and i still have the orignal system since 1999.i back up every month.. and my back up drive is 350gb..and i have needed to use a back up on both computers..and the back up worked great on both computers..
     
  3. RedBurnn

    RedBurnn Member

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    Sorry, I should have clarified what I meant by "not all that good" regarding Norton Ghost and Acronis.

    Norton Ghost and Acronis have alot of 1 star reviews on Amazon when I was doing some research in that it had compatibility issues and poor tech support.

    But mostly, at least for my purposes, do you need to reinstall Windows XP again and these software in order to run their program recovery? That would defeat the purpose because I am trying to not have to reinstall XP again. If I had to do that I might as well just reinstall all the other apps as well on my own.

    What I would basically like to do is this:

    1) Start by having a freshly installed XP and apps on drive C. No documents or anything as they are all on another drive.
    2) Backup or create an image of this fresh drive/computer on drive D.
    3) Whenever I want a fresh new computer install, I just reformat drive C, and copy the backup/image that is on drive D over to drive C WITHOUT having to reinstall XP.
     
  4. Morph416

    Morph416 Active member

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    I personally wouldn't put too much faith into the reviews of Amazon.com.

    Ghost and Acronis work very well. I just used Acronis the other day to clone our older 80GB to a newer 160GB, and it worked flawlessly. They both have options to create images, but you'll have to create a boot disk from the program so you can boot from it, and use the program to restore the image from the second drive.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2007
  5. tranquash

    tranquash Regular member

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    This was posted by ireland in a different thread, and it looks like what you're looking for... See if this helps you.

    Cheers!!!


     
  6. ireland

    ireland Active member

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    read this,what this means ye copy ye operating system in real time.as as a back up.if ye system crashes ye can recover ye system with the back up.and with this you do not have to install the xp-system all over again.

    also if ye read my post i said i never had to reinstall a new windows install since 1999,on my win-2000 system.

    Acronis True Image 10 Home

    Backing up is easy to do!

    Acronis True Image 10 Home creates the exact copy of your hard disk and allows you to instantly restore the entire machine including operating system, applications, and all the data in the event of a fatal system crash or virus attack — no reinstallations required!


    With the new version you also can easily back up your music, video, and digital photos, as well as Outlook e-mails, contacts, calendar, tasks, and user settings with just a few mouse clicks!

    * Copy your entire PC, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data using our patented disk imaging technology.

    * Backup your music, video, and digital photos!
    * Backup your Outlook e-mails, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, signatures, news folders, e-mail rules and user settings with just a few mouse clicks!
    * Restore all the settings for Microsoft Office, iTunes, Windows Media Player and dozens of popular applications!

    New features introduced in version 10

    * Supports Microsoft Windows Vista — Ensure that you can protect your system if you upgrade to the latest version of Windows
    * Backup your music, video, and photos — Preserve your digital memories
    * Outlook backup — Preserve your emails, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, signatures, news folders, e-mail rules and user settings with just a few mouse clicks
    * Application protection — Protect your application settings and avoid the time consuming process of redoing your custom settings
    * Quick backup of specific files — Initiate backup of specific files without being in the Acronis True Image application
    * Restore application settings — Avoid the hassle of customizing your applications again in case of failure
    * Explore backups — Easily search and recover particular files in archives just like in Windows Explorer
    * Create backup rules — Ensure that you never run out of space by setting limits on the amount of space allocated for backups, the number of backups and the amount of time you keep backups
    * Email notifications — Peace of mind by obtaining notification that your backups have completed
    * Save to FTP — Flexibility to store your backups where you want to

    link

    http://www.acronis.com/
     

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