Computer Backups

IF you are running Windows XP Pro or newer, simply plug in an external hard drive, let Windows find it, then tell it to back up your drive from the pop-up menu. Couldn't be simpler.

Plenty of software available.

http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://pcbackupreview.com/backupchoices.htm

Some operating systems have built-it backup and restore features.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/backup-and-restore.aspx

I prefer the "copy all to separate hard drive" option, and burning key data to DVDs using a DVD burner, both options are very cheap now days.

Thanks for the advise.

Actually i am going to replace my hard drive with bigger one, i want to cop every thing into my new hard drive (including my windows XP )

What is the best software to do that ?

Thanks

Jim

Are we dealing with a laptop or workstation? If it's a desktop machine, just slip the new drive into place and go on as if there were no changes. If however you are putting a new drive into a laptop, then your best bet is to acquire an USB external drive enclosure.

Now, assuming that you are getting a Seagate, Maxtor ( I think they still make 'em) or Western Digital, they have excellent down-load-able software for this exact purpose. Simply download and install their software. Slip the new drive into the enclosure, and then use the software to copy your C: drive to the new drive. Then, swap the new drive in in place of the old drive, and slip the old drive into the external enclosure for backups or moving big files, or whatever else your heart desires.

You can do similar in a desktop machine of course, but it's a little simpler, in that once the drive is cloned, all you have to do is go into the BIOS and tell the machine that the new drive is now the boot drive. No need to physically move the drive once it's installed.

Thanks i will try that.

Jim

Actually you might have a little trouble trying to transfer your operating system to another drive while using that operating system. To do the upgrade of my laptop's hard drive, I obtained also a program called Apricorn that came on a CD. I ended up installing a program on my C: drive first and using a USB chassis to make an external drive with the new larger blank drive. To copy the C: drive with no open files in a ready to boot configuration, rebooting with the CD in place caused my machine to run off of the primitive operating system found on the CD to copy the old hard drive files onto the new. This took awhile to copy so I let it run overnight and slept in the mean time. This worked flawlessly. I believe many aftermarket hard drives come with a CD to do this. If you don't have one, check your new hard drive web site for information.

Programmes like Norton Ghost will clone one drive to another. I've used this in the past to transfer the OS & all files to a larger drive within the same PC.

Agreed!

one of the older versions of Norton Ghost will clone your drive in a heart beat! (dont like the new ones..)

Plus the older versions allow you to write scripts that you can use to clone your hard drive through a network to a back up drives.

I have several computers here at work that are "mission critical" systems that I have set up this way. Just stuff a thumb drive in the USB port, reboot and it clones the drive to a external hard drive in the server room over night. cheap, fast, easy, efficient!

bill12780

Hi Jim,

I use click free, a device which backs up all my computers and works very well.

Rgds

Graham

You may also want to check out this site for lots of info, help and downloads.

http://majorgeeks.com/

Of the things which perturb me buying something I already have stands out and this can be done on your computer for free with this pro partition software available free for a limited time.

EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition is an ALL-IN-ONE partition solution and disk management utility. It allows you to extend partition, especially for system drive, settle low disk space problem, manage disk space easily under Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit). The most popular hard disk management functions are brought together with powerful data protection including: Partition Manager, Partition Recovery Wizard and Disk & Partition Copy Wizard. Moreover, you can create bootable CD/DVD in case of system boot failure.