System backup

Little House on Unaka | November 4, 2006 | don-o

[don-o]

Soliciting advice and instructions on what is the best way to backup a PC. I have two computers and two hard drives on each.Yes, I have done a Google, but I would like the advice from Freepers who have helped many of us with out computer questions over the years.

Is there a way to make an exact copy of my OS, including programs and all data, and "paste" it onto the other hard drive? I read about backing up data; what about backing up everyting?

Apologizing in advance for asking a stupid question. But, the weekend is when I try to do simples maintaince; I have had too many experiences of HD crashes and need to finally do the right thing.

[Glenn]

Use a "ghost" program and a USB drive. I won't suggest a program because that would start an argument, but google the terms "ghost backup" and you'll find what you need. I use a 400gb USB drive and partition it for 3 different OSes.

[dinodino]

Use Acronis TrueImage with a hard drive in an external USB enclosure. You can make a full image of the drive. I find that Acronis works better than Norton. You can buy and download TrueImage for $50 at http://www.acronis.com .

[Riley]

Norton Ghost will image the whole drive. You'll need to create a Ghost boot disk and have something to back it up onto- say a second drive that is slaved into the system and is of equal or larger size.

[delacoert]

Radified Guide to Norton Ghost (Symantec) - A Tutorial on How to Create, Save & Restore Hard Drive Back-up Ghost Images

[don-o]

Use a "ghost" program and a USB drive. I won't suggest a program because that would start an argument, but google the terms "ghost backup" and you'll find what you need. I use a 400gb USB drive and partition it for 3 different OSes.

I have two internal HD's already. Will that work if I reformat the slaves?

[Glenn]

have two internal HD's already.

A USB drive is external and plugs into your USB port. Handy for multiple computers. I couldn't live without it.

[azhenfud]

GHOST

[don-o]

That was quick and to the point - A Ghosting I shall go!

Thanks!!!

[azhenfud]

BOO!

[longjack]

Windows OS ?

Acronis True Image

Advantages of True Image include backups of live data from within windows. It can be scheduled to do backups in the background.

If your OS gets hosed, boot with an Acronis CD and point it to your backup for a restore. I have a 6 GB OS (Win 2000) which Acronis can wipe and rewrite in under 10 minutes.

Norton Ghost

is another common backup app

HTH

[Lokibob]

bump

[Fresh Wind]

You want your backup drive to be physically and electrically separate from your computer. Depending on how critical your data is, you might want to store it in a fire safe or in another building.

[DB]

The reason to use an external USB or Firewire drive for backup is that if you get a virus or other destructive program, it can wipe out data on all the hard drives currently running on your computer - back ups and all.

Because the backup device is off line normally (disconnected or powered down) it is unaffected and can be used to recover everything regardless of what happened.

Another reason is that since it is normally not powered up it is much less likely to fail and therefore more likely to be around when you need it.

[Jaxter]

Bump!

[KoRn]

Ghost works well for an entire system backup. If you are only interested in backing up files, go to start>run and type ntbackup .

[raybbr]

Off topic. I am running W2000 Pro. I have tried to do the updates but it always gives me the error "Your computer's date and time appear to be out of sync with an update certificate. To fix this:"

Two of the solutions are easy and work. The third:

Resolutions 1. Register the following files Click Start. Choose Run. In the Run box, type regsvr32 Softpub.dll. Click OK.

Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the following files: Wintrust.dll, Initpki.dll, Mssip32.dll.

This doens't help me because on of the .dlls actually does anything. Any suggestions?

[KoRn]

Wow I'm at a loss on that one. =(

[raybbr]

Thanks anyway. They want $100 just to email the problem to them.

[KoRn]

"They want $100 just to email the problem to them."

Never! I would reinstall the OS before I would pay them a dime.