Info:
Windows XP Home
60GB HD partitioned to 50/10
System is ABS computer
1.4Ghz Athlon XP....

The computer came w/ some software to backup, but it makes an "image" on the HD partition.  That's great and dandy, as I used it to fix the system a few times.

But I want software to make a 'backup' on CD-RW's.  I've seen software that can do that (some are provied w/ the CDRW player sometimes), but I don't have any of them loaded.  Can anyone suggest any?  I want to have a copy on CD-RW's just incase the HD goes bad and I have to put a new one in I can load it my current system on to the new HD.

Once you have the image on the 10 gig partition, you can simply copy that file to a CD. Most imaging software can be booted up with a floppy, then you just restore the image file off the CD...simple. I do it almost everyday.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

I still see a problem.  If the compressed image size is larger than the CD's capacity, you're going to need something that will span a couple cd's.  For the price of some backup software, you might consider buying another hard drive, and make your backup image on that drive.  It depends on how often you wish to back up, you can remove power from the secondary drive to prevent wear and tear on it when not in use.

Nice try...but, DriveImage allows you to span the image file...heehee!! I believe Ghost does too for 'those' guys.[;)] Hell, DriveImage will burn the image right to CD's on the fly. Sweet!

A second hard drive doesn't sound like a bad idea either!


ByteTheBullet  (-:

A friend suggested to get Dantz Retrospect Backup.  Comments?

If you are interested in buying a product to make a copy of your whole hard drive to restore in the event of failure, DriveImage is $69.95, [url]http://www.powerquest.com/driveimage/[/url]. Norton Ghost is another fine product. If you want to make incremental backups of your Data you will want to go with a 'Backup' software. The Dantz product looks fine, from their website. I can go into more detail on options if you wish. Lemme know.

As reference, I have an image of my system drive(c:) on another hard drive in the pc (e:). I will loose stuff that I save since the last image. I usually re-image every few months. Again, this is the System files, important data should be backed up as often as you don't want to spend regenerating the data.

Hope this helps.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

The manufacturer, Magnell, provided Powerquest.  It's on a 3.5" floppy that I boot to when I want to image my C drive.  The main HD is partitioned and the image to restore is on the partition.

But I guess what I'm looking for is software that can image onto a CD-RW.  That way, if I ever loose my HD, I still have all the info... just reinstall the image on the new HD.

Maybe I'm just paranoid about HD crashes and data loss....