Backup solutions

Question

Dear DCF members,   I am considering backup options and have been overwelmed by a combination of information overload and lack of information on key items.    I would like to be able to:   1) restore the entire hard drive (to a new drive) in the event of a HD crash 2) restore individual files, as needed (due to accidental overwriting) 3) use my Maxtor 80 GB external USB HD drive to back up on.   I tried the XP backup utility backing up to the Maxtor external HD, but it stopped after 4 GB were backed up with the message '4 GB is the maximum file size for devices formatted with FAT32.'  Does this external HD need reformatting?  If so, how?   My needs would seem to suggest either disk imaging software or mirroring software.  Is there any software that could mirror the C: drive to the the external HD and then revert to the the external HD (in short order) in case of a crash, without the need of a lengthy restore as in the case of imaging software.  The next step would be the need to image the external HD back onto a new C: drive.   As for conventional backup software - it usually cannot restore an entire HD, can it?  It seems to me that one could do a lot of what the convential backup software does with automating XCOPY commands or just using the MS explorer and dragging and dropping or burning to CDs/DVDs. (Comments?)   Any advice on solutions is *greatly* appreciated.   Thanks so much.

jmwills · Answer

First of all, format that external drive using NTFS. If you have files you can not afford to lose on that drive, Google "Change FAT 32 to NTFS". Microsoft has a good step by step.

For the image of your OS, I would recommend Ghost or Acronis imaging software. XP has a built in backup utility for the normal documents and the such.

gudgeon · Answer

Also look at Casper XP 3.0 - I've used this many times to copy to a drive in a USB enclosure, then taken the drive from the enclosure and fitted it in the source PC to give a perfect bootable system. Also has an incremental backup facility.

Windows General

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