How do I uninstall Office 2000 and install Office Pro 2000

"BAP" wrote in message

Rick, there is probably no doubt about the positive outcome of what you
are suggesting. My major concern is how to go about starting and getting
the task done successfully. I have the original W98 disks and a copy of
W98SE upgrade. About 3 years ago, my 4GB HD started giving me problems.
I replaced it with a 30GB Maxtor and used the supplied software to
re-install the OS. The upgrade to SE came later. What I might encounter,
if I were to start the suggested task, simply scares me. In spite of all

If you have never done it before and are relatively new to doing it, it can
seem like a daunting task since there's so much to cover yes, and since you
said it scares you - says just that. Naturally you would need to have All
drivers beforehand, and all windows & IE updates, and so on and so on, all
saved locally - and for someone who has never done it then again it can
seem like a as you said a scary task, especially if it's your only computer
and you have no other way out. Otherwise if you've done it before or feel
confident in your abilities, then it's the exact opposite of a feeling/task
and actually is sort of liberating to start afresh again - don't we all
wish we could do that with our lives sometimes. I have All the updates
and everything else you can possibly think of to do that either for
SE/2K/XP, and being pre-setup, then it all installs in the time it takes
for the install CD to run which is 20/30 minutes or so iirc. Granted, from
there you have to reinstall all your programs and set everything up to your
liking which takes much longer.

If as you said it scares you then don't do it I guess, however you have
spent more doing 'hard time' things trying to solve this issue than it
would of taken you to reinstall, we can all see that.

I can tell you this from experience, and all the experienced techs will
tell you the same thing, that all of these registry cleaners spoken of have
their places for observation and 'controlled use' of their uninstall and
cleanup features - I cannot stress this enough. Also many times! it's undo
file cannot undo the chain reaction they can cause from the changes they
make that shouldn't have.

its faults, the machine is running OK, although it has clearly lost the
speed that it had, a while back.
I appreciate your suggestion and will certainly think about It.

My best to you.
I feel for what you have gone through, but again I will say if you had
experienced tracking abilities in the first place, and/or backup imaging
capabilities in hand, then your current issue would be non-existent since
it would of literally taken you but seconds to undo; otherwise it's a
daunting endless hole of trial and errors.

I'm always glad to help where I can.

Rick

********










"Rick Chauvin" wrote:
"BAP" wrote in message

Your observation, MEB:
?"Note that BAP's registry is filled with old entrees which need
removed, and is likely too large for a successful /fix /opt using
scanreg unless they are removed [hence the need to clean the registry
first]".

?Currently, my USER.DAT is 1.57 MB. SYSTEM.DAT is 10.1 MB.

Yes that is correct it's the sum of the user.dat and system.dat
Many times scanreg /fix or /opt will fail when the registry reaches
8mb or more, however, some people have successfully ran a *.dat file
total over that and have ran scanreg with no apparent problems; I would
personally not want to though.
However, in the first place in no way will these /fix /opt features
remove your office installs now errant registry entries - that's not
what it was designed to do.

BAP,

In an effort and wanting to be of help to you which I know that I
could, I went back to read a few previous posts, but as I tried to read

back from October and follow the flow of discussions with All of these
many many many things that you did in the meantime to try and resolve
your problem, I can see at this point honestly it may be so much
quicker and take less time (than you've already spent for sure) for you
to just reinstall Windows itself - and going forward doing it with a
new mindset this time.

(before I say anything more though I would be remiss in not saying that
in the first place everyone should use backup partitioning imaging
software, and as well a professional registry/file tracking system to
keep track of each install or at least a timeperiod, which if done in
the first place* ...then the uninstall of your O2K would be a one click
in 30 seconds Simple! or, restoring the OS partition to your backup of
a time before would be a few clicks & few minutes simple..)

Now back to the subject at hand, looking at everything that you have
done since you first posted in Oct and putting it in perspective, with
the running of whatever third party cleanup programs, which, in no way
in heaven can ANY of them duplicate a true uninstall of all '''41,142'''
registry add/replace changes that the O2K makes! (that's right you read
that number correctly) as well as the hundreds of file changes where
many of them replace original OS file versions; not to mention now that
you've installed O2K pro on-top of that which now adds its own, and
registry rewrites the old differently, etc, etc, etc... now it's more
than anyone bargained for (without professional registry tracking or
backup partition imaging) to be able to set your aright 'in an accurate
true sense'.

IMHO at this point in time with all what you have subsequently done in
the meantime, to now come to any type of clean outcome that you will
not wonder about are there any negative impacts that was mistakenly
done to your OS's installation in the interim - is not so easily
possible.

My advice is that it's simpler and more efficient and in the long run
way, for your own piece of mind, is to reinstall the OS from scratch
giving you 'fresh opportunities' to make everything else the way you
always wanted and to have done it in a software-wise virgin way going
forward.

~~~~~~.

I do have the Office 2001 SR1 CD and All of the updates after it
(updates as of 11/2004 anyway)

I also do have an in-depth professional tracking results of all that the
File/Registry changes that are made from a complete install of it all,
of which its Registry changes are Substantial I must say @ 41+ thousand
entries that have been made!... ..it's actually many times more that any
known Symantec product ever/even makes sigh

I really wanted to be able to be of help to solve your issue which by
now has grown to more complicated than what you've bargained for. I
would of just lent you my CD to uninstall it in the first place if I
was there (iirc there is an easy way to trick that issue so you don't
need it anyway) Also as Don Phillipson eluded was to post to the
subjects group in the 'first place' but now after what's been done
might be asking too much of anyone to spend so much time needed to read
them all while retaining all information in one mind grasp.

It all should of and would of been easy* ..but at this point with so
much and all the many many things that you have done in the meantime
which some I agree with some I don't, but to now have a meaningful
successful outcome may be nearly humanly impossible, and for your own
piece of mind sake, and system wide successful outcome sake, may be to
reinstall from scratch.

Rick




BC's step-by-step suggestions:
?"I would make another backup of the existing system files before
reusing an older backup.
Once you've cleaned up things with CCleaner as best you can, you can
use a Microsoft trick to mildly optimize the registry:
a) Restart in DOS mode (the prompt doesn't matter)
b) Enter: smartdrv (optional, for speed)
c) Then enter: scanreg /fix /opt
This will rebuild your registry files.

***MEB, BC....this is what transpired:
?I followed the steps, as suggested, but the command scanreg /fix /opt
stopped at 89%, before it was interrupted by this error: "Windows
found an error in your System files and was unable to fix the
problem. Try deleting some files to free up disk space on your Window
Drive. If that doesn't
work, then you will need to install Windows to a new Directory."
Does "Window Drive" refer to Windows Folder?
I re-booted and explored the Windows folder. As one would expect,
there are plenty of folders and files, but not all readily
identifiable as to their source, need or purpose.
For my Windows Folder, its Properties shows its size at 3.18GB,
containing 11,361 Files and 985 Folders. Among them, are several
entries that appear to be related to installed games. In addition,
there are several Folders named Wcm and Wcm001 thru Wcm007. I
explored each with these results:
Wcm: 27 files - 3.11MB - 09/30/2001.
Wcm.001: 9 files - 1.43MB - 01/07/2004
Wcm.002: 1 files - 24KB - 01/19/2004
Wcm.003: 89 files - 14.2MB - 02/21/2004
Wcm.004: 89 files - 14.2MB - 02/24/2004
Wcm.005: 7 files - 1.82 - 05/20/2004
Wcm.006: 1 file - 24KB - 05/20/2004
Wcm.007: 89 files - 15.5MB - 05/24/2004
Is there a reason for keeping these Folders?
There are familiar Applications that I could possibly delete, but I
have no idea about what else I could do to satisfy the need expressed
by scanreg /fix /opt.
I am currently reviewing Gary's, Glee's and Badour's views on the
subject, posted in late November of 2006. My inclination, at this
point, is not to start a new thread within your Recap and proceed with
caution with further activities on the subject matter.
Thank you, MEB,BC and all for any additional suggestion!
***

Oops! Sorry, BC! Shortly after my last reply to you, I thought that, perhaps,
no backup of the Registry would take place if the Folder/Files that
RegBack.bat was supposed to create were in existence, already. Sure enough,
after renaming the existent one, the BAT files did its job.
Clumsy, again!
Sorry!
***
"BAP" wrote:

BC, as I mention to Rick, my system is slow, especially when fist booted up.
Initially, an unusual amount of time elapses before any opening of an
application or files occurs. There are some exceptions, however, such as
WordPerfect, Power Point, Excel, but, in general, the wait is sort of
annoying, but I can live with it. MS Office Applications appear to be
working. I did find that, once the application remains active, file loading
is much faster. Aside the fact that User and System DAT files are rather
large, I can live with that. I do have RegSeeker and I sense its potential,
by seeing what it seems to be able to do, but I have not really taken serious
steps to get going with it.
Strangely, I had been successful in creating a Registry backup using
regback.dat, but yesterday, I ran it 3 times and it seems that it failed to
create a copy of the backup. At least it was nowhere to be found. I copied
the Bat file in the C:\ Folder and ran it from there, but no registry back up
appeared. Yet, it was run successfully few days back.
What am I doing wrong?
Thank you, BC!
***

"BC" wrote:


BAP wrote:
Your observation, MEB:
"Note that BAP's registry is filled with old entrees which need removed,
and is likely too large for a successful /fix /opt using scanreg unless they
are removed [hence the need to clean the registry first]".

Currently, my USER.DAT is 1.57 MB. SYSTEM.DAT is 10.1 MB.

BC's step-by-step suggestions:
"I would make another backup of the existing system files before reusing an
older backup.
Once you've cleaned up things with CCleaner as best you can, you can use a
Microsoft trick to mildly optimize the registry:
a) Restart in DOS mode (the prompt doesn't matter)
b) Enter: smartdrv (optional, for speed)
c) Then enter: scanreg /fix /opt
This will rebuild your registry files.

***MEB, BC....this is what transpired:
I followed the steps, as suggested, but the command scanreg /fix /opt
stopped at 89%, before it was interrupted by this error: “Windows found an
error in your System files and was unable to fix the problem. Try deleting
some files to free up disk space on your Window Drive. If that doesn’t
work, then you will need to install Windows to a new Directory.�
....

That's a poorly written error message -- what is
actually the case is that your registry, System.dat
to be precise, is currently too large for Scanreg to
fix and rebuild it.

The only way to fix this, aside from just freshly
reinstalling everything on your PC from scratch,
including the OS, is to reduce the size of the
registry enough so that Scanreg won't choke on
it. As another poster has noted, Microsoft Office
is notorious for adding an insane amount of entries
to the registry.

If you've already installed your Office 2K Pro, uninstall
it, run CCleaner, and then see if you run Scanreg
/opt /fix. If that works, then reinstall Office 2K.

If this doesn't work or you hadn't yet installed Office
2K, you can try using a more aggressive registry
cleaner, but be sure to make a backup of the
registry before doing this. I've heard that RegSeeker
is the best of the "aggressive" free registry cleaners,
but I can't personally vouch for it. I also heard you
may have to run it a few times for a more thorough
cleaning. Here is a link to it:
http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Then again, if your PC is otherwise working OK,
it may not be worth worrying about having a huge
registry filled with garbage entries -- it may be
aethetically bothersome, but if you don't really see
while using your PC, well...

-BC

Rick, in my reply to you, I forgot to add that when I replaced the HD with
Maxtor and used the Maxtor software to transfer my OS from the old HD to the
new one, that software created what Gary S. Terhune and Bill Blanton, back in
March, referred to as 'Drive Overlay'. Both of those fellows helped me out,
at that time, to cope with some unexpected responses I was experiencing from
my machine, but never did get rid of that overlay 'stuf'. This is an
additional item that worries me about going ahead with the OS
re-installation. I am sure that most of you would not have any reason to fear
the outcome of doing it.
Thanks, again!
*****

"Rick Chauvin" wrote:



"BAP" wrote in message

Rick, there is probably no doubt about the positive outcome of what you
are suggesting. My major concern is how to go about starting and getting
the task done successfully. I have the original W98 disks and a copy of
W98SE upgrade. About 3 years ago, my 4GB HD started giving me problems.
I replaced it with a 30GB Maxtor and used the supplied software to
re-install the OS. The upgrade to SE came later. What I might encounter,
if I were to start the suggested task, simply scares me. In spite of all

If you have never done it before and are relatively new to doing it, it can
seem like a daunting task since there's so much to cover yes, and since you
said it scares you - says just that. Naturally you would need to have All
drivers beforehand, and all windows & IE updates, and so on and so on, all
saved locally - and for someone who has never done it then again it can
seem like a as you said a scary task, especially if it's your only computer
and you have no other way out. Otherwise if you've done it before or feel
confident in your abilities, then it's the exact opposite of a feeling/task
and actually is sort of liberating to start afresh again - don't we all
wish we could do that with our lives sometimes. I have All the updates
and everything else you can possibly think of to do that either for
SE/2K/XP, and being pre-setup, then it all installs in the time it takes
for the install CD to run which is 20/30 minutes or so iirc. Granted, from
there you have to reinstall all your programs and set everything up to your
liking which takes much longer.

If as you said it scares you then don't do it I guess, however you have
spent more doing 'hard time' things trying to solve this issue than it
would of taken you to reinstall, we can all see that.

I can tell you this from experience, and all the experienced techs will
tell you the same thing, that all of these registry cleaners spoken of have
their places for observation and 'controlled use' of their uninstall and
cleanup features - I cannot stress this enough. Also many times! it's undo
file cannot undo the chain reaction they can cause from the changes they
make that shouldn't have.

its faults, the machine is running OK, although it has clearly lost the
speed that it had, a while back.
I appreciate your suggestion and will certainly think about It.

My best to you.
I feel for what you have gone through, but again I will say if you had
experienced tracking abilities in the first place, and/or backup imaging
capabilities in hand, then your current issue would be non-existent since
it would of literally taken you but seconds to undo; otherwise it's a
daunting endless hole of trial and errors.

I'm always glad to help where I can.

Rick

********










"Rick Chauvin" wrote:
"BAP" wrote in message

Your observation, MEB:
?"Note that BAP's registry is filled with old entrees which need
removed, and is likely too large for a successful /fix /opt using
scanreg unless they are removed [hence the need to clean the registry
first]".

?Currently, my USER.DAT is 1.57 MB. SYSTEM.DAT is 10.1 MB.

Yes that is correct it's the sum of the user.dat and system.dat
Many times scanreg /fix or /opt will fail when the registry reaches
8mb or more, however, some people have successfully ran a *.dat file
total over that and have ran scanreg with no apparent problems; I would
personally not want to though.
However, in the first place in no way will these /fix /opt features
remove your office installs now errant registry entries - that's not
what it was designed to do.

BAP,

In an effort and wanting to be of help to you which I know that I
could, I went back to read a few previous posts, but as I tried to read

back from October and follow the flow of discussions with All of these
many many many things that you did in the meantime to try and resolve
your problem, I can see at this point honestly it may be so much
quicker and take less time (than you've already spent for sure) for you
to just reinstall Windows itself - and going forward doing it with a
new mindset this time.

(before I say anything more though I would be remiss in not saying that
in the first place everyone should use backup partitioning imaging
software, and as well a professional registry/file tracking system to
keep track of each install or at least a timeperiod, which if done in
the first place* ...then the uninstall of your O2K would be a one click
in 30 seconds Simple! or, restoring the OS partition to your backup of
a time before would be a few clicks & few minutes simple..)

Now back to the subject at hand, looking at everything that you have
done since you first posted in Oct and putting it in perspective, with
the running of whatever third party cleanup programs, which, in no way
in heaven can ANY of them duplicate a true uninstall of all '''41,142'''
registry add/replace changes that the O2K makes! (that's right you read
that number correctly) as well as the hundreds of file changes where
many of them replace original OS file versions; not to mention now that
you've installed O2K pro on-top of that which now adds its own, and
registry rewrites the old differently, etc, etc, etc... now it's more
than anyone bargained for (without professional registry tracking or
backup partition imaging) to be able to set your aright 'in an accurate
true sense'.

IMHO at this point in time with all what you have subsequently done in
the meantime, to now come to any type of clean outcome that you will
not wonder about are there any negative impacts that was mistakenly
done to your OS's installation in the interim - is not so easily
possible.

My advice is that it's simpler and more efficient and in the long run
way, for your own piece of mind, is to reinstall the OS from scratch
giving you 'fresh opportunities' to make everything else the way you
always wanted and to have done it in a software-wise virgin way going
forward.

~~~~~~.

I do have the Office 2001 SR1 CD and All of the updates after it
(updates as of 11/2004 anyway)

I also do have an in-depth professional tracking results of all that the
File/Registry changes that are made from a complete install of it all,
of which its Registry changes are Substantial I must say @ 41+ thousand
entries that have been made!... ..it's actually many times more that any
known Symantec product ever/even makes sigh

I really wanted to be able to be of help to solve your issue which by
now has grown to more complicated than what you've bargained for. I
would of just lent you my CD to uninstall it in the first place if I
was there (iirc there is an easy way to trick that issue so you don't
need it anyway) Also as Don Phillipson eluded was to post to the
subjects group in the 'first place' but now after what's been done
might be asking too much of anyone to spend so much time needed to read
them all while retaining all information in one mind grasp.

It all should of and would of been easy* ..but at this point with so
much and all the many many things that you have done in the meantime
which some I agree with some I don't, but to now have a meaningful
successful outcome may be nearly humanly impossible, and for your own
piece of mind sake, and system wide successful outcome sake, may be to
reinstall from scratch.

Rick




BC's step-by-step suggestions:
?"I would make another backup of the existing system files before
reusing an older backup.
Once you've cleaned up things with CCleaner as best you can, you can
use a Microsoft trick to mildly optimize the registry:
a) Restart in DOS mode (the prompt doesn't matter)
b) Enter: smartdrv (optional, for speed)
c) Then enter: scanreg /fix /opt
This will rebuild your registry files.

***MEB, BC....this is what transpired:
?I followed the steps, as suggested, but the command scanreg /fix /opt
stopped at 89%, before it was interrupted by this error: "Windows
found an error in your System files and was unable to fix the
problem. Try deleting some files to free up disk space on your Window
Drive. If that doesn't
work, then you will need to install Windows to a new Directory."
Does "Window Drive" refer to Windows Folder?
I re-booted and explored the Windows folder. As one would expect,
there are plenty of folders and files, but not all readily
identifiable as to their source, need or purpose.
For my Windows Folder, its Properties shows its size at 3.18GB,
containing 11,361 Files and 985 Folders. Among them, are several
entries that appear to be related to installed games. In addition,
there are several Folders named Wcm and Wcm001 thru Wcm007. I
explored each with these results:
Wcm: 27 files - 3.11MB - 09/30/2001.
Wcm.001: 9 files - 1.43MB - 01/07/2004
Wcm.002: 1 files - 24KB - 01/19/2004
Wcm.003: 89 files - 14.2MB - 02/21/2004
Wcm.004: 89 files - 14.2MB - 02/24/2004
Wcm.005: 7 files - 1.82 - 05/20/2004
Wcm.006: 1 file - 24KB - 05/20/2004
Wcm.007: 89 files - 15.5MB - 05/24/2004
Is there a reason for keeping these Folders?
There are familiar Applications that I could possibly delete, but I
have no idea about what else I could do to satisfy the need expressed
by scanreg /fix /opt.
I am currently reviewing Gary's, Glee's and Badour's views on the
subject, posted in late November of 2006. My inclination, at this
point, is not to start a new thread within your Recap and proceed with
caution with further activities on the subject matter.
Thank you, MEB,BC and all for any additional suggestion!
***

"BAP" wrote in message

Rick, in my reply to you, I forgot to add that when I replaced the HD
with Maxtor and used the Maxtor software to transfer my OS from the old
HD to the new one, that software created what Gary S. Terhune and Bill
Blanton, back in March, referred to as 'Drive Overlay'. Both of those
fellows helped me out, at that time, to cope with some unexpected
responses I was experiencing from my machine, but never did get rid of
that overlay 'stuf'. This is an additional item that worries me about

I do understand that you say it worries you in context of what we discussed
before, and so above all you should only proceeded with what is comfortable
to you.

imho though the Drive Overlay issue would have to be resolved first. While
I use Maxtor hard drives myself, I never use their transfer software since
TrueImage or BING (by a million to one) going forward is a far superior way
to transfer disk to disk procedures since it also gives you partition
backup capability that would of paid for itself already when it solved your
current problem in minutes flat. I would have never, ever, created a drive
overlay, and instead would solved the LBA issue properly with the right
bios, or leaps and bounds ahead of anything else would be to use a pci
controller card to solve any and all possible issues, and more, all in one
swoop. Just like you said though BAP things can get complicated and is why
you have reservations to proceed since you do not currently have the
experience to be able to 'on the spot' solve any issues that would arise -
and things do come up.

The best way for you and many people to learn about a fresh install
procedures and get experiences from A to Z about it, is if you had a second
computer to play/learn on without the worry of not having a working one in
from of you to rebound with.

going ahead with the OS re-installation. I am sure that most of you
would not have any reason to fear the outcome of doing it.

Again BAP, above all you should only proceeded with what is comfortable to
you, and I really do respect that no matter what.

Rick

Thanks, again!
*****

"BAP" wrote in message
...
| Rick, in my reply to you, I forgot to add that when I replaced the HD with
| Maxtor and used the Maxtor software to transfer my OS from the old HD to
the
| new one, that software created what Gary S. Terhune and Bill Blanton, back
in
| March, referred to as 'Drive Overlay'. Both of those fellows helped me
out,
| at that time, to cope with some unexpected responses I was experiencing
from
| my machine, but never did get rid of that overlay 'stuf'. This is an
| additional item that worries me about going ahead with the OS
| re-installation. I am sure that most of you would not have any reason to
fear
| the outcome of doing it.
| Thanks, again!
| *****
|
| "Rick Chauvin" wrote:
|

BAP, I've tried to remember the various poster's issues [in this News
Group] as well as I can.
This is one of those issues, as was your prior suggestions that you had the
system like you wanted it, except for a few issues, one of which is Office
which we are attempting to address.

Your personal COMFORT ZONE is what determines how you wish to proceed.
Don't mistake a post suggesting something which doesn't adhere to your own
desires and needs, as what must be done. A wipe and re-install is an easy
way ONLY if you have ALL the programs and updates your presently using, ALL
the drivers, have saved ALL the saved or downloaded files [including perhaps
email messages and News Group messages], and remember any tweaks or settings
you now have, in addition to ALL the time necessary to re-establish the
system as it presently is.

For instance, from a fresh install here [not using an image or backup] it
takes approximately two solid weeks to get my system [and its several
hundred programs] back to this point, with all updates installed, all
programs installed and tweaked, and a STABLE system.
Moreover, this only accomplishable due to a check list/installation order
which came from years of trial and error. Change the order, and I can expect
errors.

Follow the old advise to install the OS and its updates first, then the
programs and updates, and I WILL be in trouble. But I have already discussed
this several times in this News Group, so I won't do so again.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com/
BLOG - http://peoplescounsel.spaces.live.com/ Public Notice or the "real
world"

"Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth.
Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if
nothing had happen." Winston Churchill
Or to put it another way:
Morpheus can offer you the two pills;
but only you can choose whether you take the red pill or the blue one.
_______________

"MEB" meb@not wrote in message

[...]

Your personal COMFORT ZONE is what determines how you wish to proceed.
Don't mistake a post suggesting something which doesn't adhere to your
own desires and needs, as what must be done. A wipe and re-install is an
easy way ONLY if you have ALL the programs and updates your presently
using, ALL the drivers, have saved ALL the saved or downloaded files
[including perhaps email messages and News Group messages], and remember
any tweaks or settings you now have, in addition to ALL the time
necessary to re-establish the system as it presently is.

Agreed much, but going forward it's a value of long lasting good news
to that which is...*

For instance, from a fresh install here [not using an image or backup]
it takes approximately two solid weeks to get my system [and its several
hundred programs] back to this point, with all updates installed, all
programs installed and tweaked, and a STABLE system.
Moreover, this only accomplishable due to a check list/installation
order which came from years of trial and error.

Agreed, but in the end it can be a value of long lasting value which is...*

....like I have always done, and one of the two keys here is, keep a running
partition image backup collection as you go (I can't tell you how valuable
that is unless you know first hand) ..and as you said detail it as you go,
even make your own install notes of the order of how you do it,
and whatever else it takes to keep your computer and your head in order
...and when you're all done however long it takes to get it just like you
want, the good news now is * you will never have to do it again for that
particular computer, since no matter what happens, you can always simply
restore to any point, or to just the last current partition image backup,
in minutes. The second key point for advanced users is to also use
professional file/registry tracking software of which I can't begin to
explain how valuable that is unless you know first hand. Also naturally
always besides saving your backup partition images to D:\ (or whatever the
storage letter) ..one step further is the Ultimate backup system is a save
of your final images to any external source not always connected your
setup, or better yet having a second exact duplicate hard drive of the
first is the best (disconnected and stored in another room even) ..or a
complete set of duplicate computers like I have networked via LAN ..in any
of these ways you will never lose your hard drive image for whatever
machine, and with that insurance you will now have the ultimate 100% backup
ability and you'll never have to install from scratch again for that setup.

...and you will be in total command of your own computers destiny, rather
than it having control over you - like most peoples situation is in now.

Rick




Follow the old advise to install the OS and its updates first, then the
programs and updates, and I WILL be in trouble. But I have already
discussed this several times in this News Group, so I won't do so again.

--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com/
BLOG - http://peoplescounsel.spaces.live.com/ Public Notice or the "real
world"

"Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth.
Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as
if nothing had happen." Winston Churchill
Or to put it another way:
Morpheus can offer you the two pills;
but only you can choose whether you take the red pill or the blue one.
_______________

Rick Chauvin wrote:
"MEB" meb@not wrote in message

[...]

Your personal COMFORT ZONE is what determines how you wish to proceed.

snip

For instance, from a fresh install here [not using an image or backup]
it takes approximately two solid weeks to get my system [and its several
hundred programs] back to this point, with all updates installed, all
programs installed and tweaked, and a STABLE system.
Moreover, this only accomplishable due to a check list/installation
order which came from years of trial and error.

Agreed, but in the end it can be a value of long lasting value which
is...*

...like I have always done, and one of the two keys here is, keep a
running
partition image backup collection as you go (I can't tell you how valuable
that is unless you know first hand) ..and as you said detail it as you go,
even make your own install notes of the order of how you do it,
and whatever else it takes to keep your computer and your head in order
..and when you're all done however long it takes to get it just like you
want, the good news now is * you will never have to do it again for that
particular computer, since no matter what happens, you can always simply
restore to any point, or to just the last current partition image backup,
in minutes. The second key point for advanced users is to also use
professional file/registry tracking software of which I can't begin to
explain how valuable that is unless you know first hand. Also naturally
always besides saving your backup partition images to D:\ (or whatever the
storage letter) ..one step further is the Ultimate backup system is a save
of your final images to any external source not always connected your
setup, or better yet having a second exact duplicate hard drive of the
first is the best (disconnected and stored in another room even) ..or a
complete set of duplicate computers like I have networked via LAN ..in
any
of these ways you will never lose your hard drive image for whatever
machine, and with that insurance you will now have the ultimate 100%
backup
ability and you'll never have to install from scratch again for that
setup.

..and you will be in total command of your own computers destiny, rather
than it having control over you - like most peoples situation is in now.

Rick

I may be wrong on this (but I don't think so), but I think the absolute BEST
way to keep a HD backup is to keep a full HD partition backup on another HD
drive (using BING, or whatever), and THAT is even better than using any
"drive image" backups (which, as I recall, save the drive info in some
special data file(s)). At least I think that's right, right?

Of course, to do this, I have to periodically swap in and out the backup
drive for about an hour, which is a bit of a nuisance, not to mention the
wear on the connectors each time I do this.

"Bill in Co." wrote in message


[...]

I may be wrong on this (but I don't think so), but I think the absolute
BEST way to keep a HD backup is to keep a full HD partition backup on
another HD drive (using BING, or whatever), and THAT is even better than
using any "drive image" backups (which, as I recall, save the drive info

That's the same thing I said I don't know why you read different.

Duplicate HD's are ultimate yes.
Duplicate machines are one up on that even.

in some special data file(s)). At least I think that's right, right?

Of course, to do this, I have to periodically swap in and out the backup
drive for about an hour, which is a bit of a nuisance, not to mention the

And that's why for interim backups just the OS partition will do just fine
since that's the key information, and so keeping them lean at an efficient
7 GB you can whip a backup image off in mere minutes.

I got it all down, and do it almost every single day with the software
testing I do..

[...]

Rick

Rick Chauvin wrote:
"Bill in Co." wrote in message


[...]

I may be wrong on this (but I don't think so), but I think the absolute
BEST way to keep a HD backup is to keep a full HD partition backup on
another HD drive (using BING, or whatever), and THAT is even better than
using any "drive image" backups (which, as I recall, save the drive info

That's the same thing I said I don't know why you read different.

Duplicate HD's are ultimate yes.
Duplicate machines are one up on that even.

in some special data file(s)). At least I think that's right, right?

Of course, to do this, I have to periodically swap in and out the backup
drive for about an hour, which is a bit of a nuisance, not to mention the

And that's why for interim backups just the OS partition will do just fine
since that's the key information, and so keeping them lean at an efficient
7 GB you can whip a backup image off in mere minutes.

I got it all down, and do it almost every single day with the software
testing I do..

[...]

Rick

I was under the impression that there was another way of backing up a drive
called saving an IMAGE of the drive (in some proprietary, consolidated type
of data file), and that that was NOT the same as (for example) using BING to
copy the partition directly from one drive to another. ?????

"Bill in Co." wrote in message

[...]

I was under the impression that there was another way of backing up a
drive called saving an IMAGE of the drive (in some proprietary,
consolidated type of data file), and that that was NOT the same as (for
example) using BING to copy the partition directly from one drive to
another. ?????

There is two ways to copy on drive to another, the best way is called Disk
to Disk or Disk Cloning or whatever name ones imaging application gives to
the same procedure and is a matter of name semantics only. The second way
is less often done but may be desirable in certain situations, is to create
a complete backup image of the source drive, and then restore it to the
target drive. I exclusively use TrueImage these days, and (powerquest)
DriveImage less often. I know everyone here likes BING and that's fine and
I won't knock it and have used it at various times of testing, however for
my money and ease of all inclusive single application usage, TI beats all
brands hands down.

Rick