Backup + restore options

[paulinnorway]

Using a bootable CD of a backup program you could save it to a network drive (which could be your laptop).

I'm not 100% sure what you mean (I'm not as good at computing as you guys ), but I understand the general concept. First I'll see how the free program works out.

 

[paulinnorway]

Using DriveImageXML:

My computers have a FAT32 sytem. When I tried to do a backup I realised I need a NTFS system. So I had to change my C: drive to NTFS:

Start > Run > cmd
At the prompt type convert C: /fs:ntfs
Restart PC when done.

After that, DriveImageXML completed the backup successfully. Now I'm going to try to figure out how to restore the image. Hopefully that will go as smoothly as the backup.

 

[TheMajor]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean (I'm not as good at computing as you guys ), but I understand the general concept. First I'll see how the free program works out.

Some CD's like Drive Image for example, are bootable. This means you do not have to install anything on the computer that your are making an image on. You just configure the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive (press DEL on startup to enter the settings; on some motherboards you can press F11 to open a quick boot selection menu). The backup program will then be loaded from the CD and you can select the partitions to backup and the location where you can save it to.

 

[paulinnorway]

Some CD's like Drive Image for example, are bootable. This means you do not have to install anything on the computer that your are making an image on. You just configure the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive (press DEL on startup to enter the settings; on some motherboards you can press F11 to open a quick boot selection menu). The backup program will then be loaded from the CD and you can select the partitions to backup and the location where you can save it to.

I think I get it now.
At the moment I'm in the middle of "trying" to restore my PC using the image I created earlier. To do that I had to create a BartPE CD (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/).
This allows me boot my PC from the BartPE CD. Since I installed a DriveImageXML plugin that was also burned on the CD, I can access the restore program without going into the Windows XP that is located on my hard drive.

Is that what you mean by a bootable CD?

 

[TheMajor]

I think I get it now.
At the moment I'm in the middle of "trying" to restore my PC using the image I created earlier. To do that I had to create a BartPE CD (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/).
This allows me boot my PC from the BartPE CD. Since I installed a DriveImageXML plugin that was also burned on the CD, I can access the restore program without going into the Windows XP that is located on my hard drive.

Is that what you mean by a bootable CD?

Yes, kinda. But for Drive Image/V2i Protector you don't need anything on the computer. Just the disc.

 

[paulinnorway]

Yes, kinda. But for Drive Image/V2i Protector you don't need anything on the computer. Just the disc.

I get it now.

I just finished a backup and a restore of one PC using DriveImageXML and it worked fine!! I'm delighted!!
I think I'm going to use this program until I come across problems. Thanks to everyone who offered their advice and opinions in this thread.....much appreciated