Backing it all up

Baby steps, Joan, baby steps...

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Joan Archer" wrote in message
...
Hey I've only just been able to get my first external never mind getting
two g although saying that it would be nice to have another and it would
have been nice to get one with a bigger capacity, it's 80 GB but as it was
a birthday present I can't complain g I use it with Acronis TI 10.
Joan


Gary S. Terhune wrote:
May as well add that an even more perfect solution is to have TWO
external drives dedicated to backup, swapping them every week and
storing the disconnected one offsite. This can either be two complete
external drives, or two drives using one external enclosure (former
is easier, latter is cheaper.)

I am not familiar with BootIt NG, but I have been using the /clone
feature of xxcopy (www.xxcopy.com), also free, to periodically make a
bootable copy of my hard drive onto one of my normally not installed
hard drives. It seems to work well and can even be run while your are
working on the computer. You just have to run it again to copy any
files/folders that were changed while the first xxcopy /clone was being run.

Assuming you want to copy from the active C: drive to a backup D: drive
the command run from an MS-DOS window would be xxcopy c:\ d:\ /clone .

The xxcopy website has instructions on cloning a Windows ME hard drive.

Tom


Gary S. Terhune wrote:
BootIt NG will do what you want for free. www.bootitng.com. Download the
executable, run it to create a bootable installation floppy or CD, boot to
that (after installing the drive), CANCEL the installation, then use
Partition Work to Copy your C:\ partition to the backup drive.

Joan Archer wrote:
|| Hey I've only just been able to get my first external..
|| capacity, it's 80 GB but as it was a birthday present I can't
|| complain g I use it with Acronis TI 10.

TI 10 works in ME???!!! I thought v10 only supported XP.

You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.
Heirloom, old and so do I

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Joan Archer wrote:
|| Hey I've only just been able to get my first external..
|| capacity, it's 80 GB but as it was a birthday present I can't
|| complain g I use it with Acronis TI 10.

TI 10 works in ME???!!! I thought v10 only supported XP.

Heirloom wrote:
|| You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.

Ah... ok, so I am not the only ex-ME lurker here. Well.. I still have my
ME machine in use, but I don't use it as much as I do my recently acquired
used Thinkpad (arrived with XPp). I just love the portability of the darn
thing. But I digress. Speaking of backups and cloning - for ME then - what
do the majority of folks here recommend that might still be
available/compatible for ME? I'm still debating on TeraByteunlimited's
ImageForDOS/Windows, or the free xxcopy.

I don't know what the recommended app is, however, on my Me machine, I used
the disk image app that came with the Maxtor drives I installed. I would
simply boot from the image app disk, copy the primary to the slave and that
was my backup. It did come in handy a few times. I know it is not the best
arrangement, if the box had been stolen or a fire, etc. the backup would
have gone with it. I would have been better with a removeable drive (much
faster and less expensive than tape).
The plan at present, is to get a big enough USB external HD for my wife's
laptop (if it ever gets here!), partition it and I will use the same drive
to backup her laptop and my desktop. She will keep the drive in her office
safe. Plus, I have Acronis TI and mulitiple backups on my multiple drives
in the desktop.
Heirloom, old and gotta mow again

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Heirloom wrote:
|| You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.

Ah... ok, so I am not the only ex-ME lurker here. Well.. I still have
my ME machine in use, but I don't use it as much as I do my recently
acquired used Thinkpad (arrived with XPp). I just love the portability of
the darn thing. But I digress. Speaking of backups and cloning - for ME
then - what do the majority of folks here recommend that might still be
available/compatible for ME? I'm still debating on TeraByteunlimited's
ImageForDOS/Windows, or the free xxcopy.

I'll be damned. Wasn't aware of that v. 10 limitation. Gotta revise my
standard advice.

Terabyte Unlimited's is generally good stuff. Been a while since I used
Image for Windows, so I can't recall how easy it is to manage and schedule.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Heirloom wrote:
|| You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.

Ah... ok, so I am not the only ex-ME lurker here. Well.. I still have
my ME machine in use, but I don't use it as much as I do my recently
acquired used Thinkpad (arrived with XPp). I just love the portability of
the darn thing. But I digress. Speaking of backups and cloning - for ME
then - what do the majority of folks here recommend that might still be
available/compatible for ME? I'm still debating on TeraByteunlimited's
ImageForDOS/Windows, or the free xxcopy.

Any advice on the laptops?
I think it will be a while yet before I have money to spare for a new
machine, but I'm thinking of getting a laptop.

The big reason to get a desktop used to be upgradeability, but now that you
practically have to get a whole new machine to upgrade one part anyhow with
all of the changing technology (faster CPU or RAM or even HD may require new
MB...), that doesn't seem as much a factor.

The next reason to get a desktop was that it's cheaper for equivalent
processing power, but since everything is so fast now that the slowest new
laptop should have plenty of power for what I'd likely do with it, that's
not as much a factor.

The last (in no particular order) reason for wanting a desktop would be the
larger viewable area. Can I plug a new big flat panel monitor into any new
laptop? If so, the only remaining question would be if it's worth (a
little?) extra price to get the portability (an even cooler feature if I can
get fast enough secure enough internet for it through a wireless router).

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Heirloom wrote:
|| You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.

Ah... ok, so I am not the only ex-ME lurker here. Well.. I still have
my ME machine in use, but I don't use it as much as I do my recently
acquired used Thinkpad (arrived with XPp). I just love the portability of
the darn thing. But I digress. Speaking of backups and cloning - for ME
then - what do the majority of folks here recommend that might still be
available/compatible for ME? I'm still debating on TeraByteunlimited's
ImageForDOS/Windows, or the free xxcopy.

My thanks to all for sharing ideas and experience, and especially to Gary
for the update CDs that made reinstalling Me SO much easier--I even have a
sane version of IE 6 going now :-)))) In truth, PhotoImpact is my very
worst reinstallation nightmare now because I vigorously customize its
toolbars and palettes and have been unable to root out the record it keeps
of my alterations/preferences in order to back them up.

I've downloaded both cloning programs suggested and will do the deed as soon
as I get a replacement for my failed drive which is only a year and half
old. I have an 80 GB external USB drive that I used to make backups of
backups but it was very slow--"was" meaning that the last time I attempted
to use it it suddenly started making clicking noises (past its warranty--no
RMA remedy for that).

Haven't I read here somewhere that putting a failed HD on ice might enable
salvaging some of its contents? I had a gut feeling to run SmartSync Pro
the night before the disk wouldn't boot (and I got the failure notice)--but
I was too tired to honor it (if only if only!) I actually lost a mere 14
days worth of mail/info/artwork--but some of it I'd really like to have.

carol


"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Having three C drive failures in just two and a half years requiring me to
reinstall and re-set up every program I use (which I'm doing now) makes me
wonder if it's possible to copy/backup my entire new C drive to a
comparable slave for switching out when this new primary master also goes
belly-up down the road.

I've replaced enough internal hard drives now to know how to switch them
and
their jumper pins so the mechanics aren't a problem. But will this
duplicating idea work to give me a fresh bootable functioning Windows et
al
with a minimum of trouble?

My thanks in advance for your experience and insight.

calamity carol

I see Heirloom has given you the answer Ogg, I think you'll find the
majority of the regulars in here run XP it's just that this is home to so
many of us that as well as helping out the people who still run WinME,
which my daughter does and it's part of my network, it's a meeting place
where we can still bounce ideas of each other without getting flamed for
going OT g
Joan

Ogg wrote:
Joan Archer wrote:
|| Hey I've only just been able to get my first external..
|| capacity, it's 80 GB but as it was a birthday present I can't
|| complain g I use it with Acronis TI 10.

TI 10 works in ME???!!! I thought v10 only supported XP.