Backup and restore hardware and software for your whole computer?

Question

I use Microsoft XP. I am aware that hardware and software exists (sometimes sold together, sometimes separately) with which I can back up my entire computer -- OS, registries, bookmarks, docs, etc. This interests me because I'd rather not have to restore it program by program from original disks-- first the operating system, then all the applications I run. I have dozens of applications that I use regularly, and it would take days to restore everything and troubleshoot until I have them all working together.

I am very careful with security and have firewalls, spybot stoppers, anti-virus, etc. Still, you never know when it will crash and you have to restore from scratch. I probably need > 100 GB.

Please tell me what you use and what you like about it. I don't care if it's a little slow; I want something that is fairly seamless and straightforward. I am willing to work awhile with the setup, but after that's established I want the backup and restore to be easy.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I have Phoenix First Ware Recover Pro.
It cost me $40 for a 1 year subscription, and it has more than paid for itself.
It provides automatic daily restore points, and you can create your own restore points as well.
If you get a virus, lose files, whatever, you just open the program and restore your computer to the desired time and date.
The only con about this program is that you will lose any work created after the chosen restore point, so I recommend setting a restore point after generating every important file or download.

http://www.phoenix.com

Answer 2

Windows XP has a built in tool called NTBACKUP which would help you in Backing up and Restoring your computer.

When you think your system is in Best working condition you create a Backup and later when something goes wrong you can restore it to the Best Working Condition.

Or you can schedule Backup to run every week and keep the last 4 weeks backup so that you can go back to the desired weeks backup.

To access NT Backup click Start > Run > Type NTBACKUP and click Enter.

Select Backup Wizard and select Backup everything and Full Backup.

You can schedule the same backup in the next page.

If you have a second or external hard disk place the backup file on the second hard disk.

So when something goes wrong come back to NTBACKUP select restore and point to the Backup File .

If you still need further clarifications please get back to me.

Answer 3

I use Acronis True Image home + 12g external drive. I backed up my entire PC once with True Image and every evening it makes an incremental backup by only capturing changes since the last backup. I think True Image + external drive is the most secure and effective backup solution. Follow the link to learn more about True Image: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Answer 4

Oh, 100 GB!
Make backup only for personal files, not for the full computer or things you can recover/download from the internet.

I use Mozy at 6+ months, a free online backup service:
https://mozy.com/?code=94HW8M

Will be suitable for you backup important files, but not for 100 GB.

Sukhoi

Answer 5

Why not invest in an external hard drive and transfer everything to it. You will, of course, have to continually backup to it to keep it up-to-date.

To Transfer Files from one PC to Another:

Do not try this with an ordinary USB cable; it can damage one or both computers. You’ll need to buy what is called a “USB transfer cable.”
Source: James Coates, Computer Q &A, local newspaper

Answer 6

nicely in case you probably did get a pandemic and mandatory to re-format you will would desire to re-deploy all your classes which contain homestead windows. The archives you will prefer to lower back up are the saved archives that the classes run so as that as quickly as you re-put in this methodology you wouldnt lose any information. you may no longer save your equipment archives from the applying and reformat then anticipate the classes to paintings like they did in the previous reason they'd paintings in any respect. wish this helps.