question on restore process

bill allemann · External Since: Feb 22, 2007 Posts: 3

I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
about using the Automated System Recovery method.
The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
recorded on a bootable floppy.
I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
failure of the machine?
Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the size
of the backup considerably.

Thanks,
Bill

Leonard Grey · External Since: Jan 12, 2009 Posts: 98

You're asking a 'what is your opinion' question, so here's mine:

The best way to backup your hard disk (or your system partition, if you
have partitioned your hard disk) is with disk imaging software. You end
up with a single file that you can use for a bare-metal restore, if need
be. This is faster and more convenient than ASR, and doesn't call for a
floppy disk.

As a backup destination, DVDs are slow and unreliable. And if your
backup needs more than one DVD, you have to be present to swap DVDs.
Backing up to an external hard drive or network share is significantly
faster, more reliable and has the significant advantage that it can run
unattended, so you can schedule backups every day. (Which you should be
doing anyway.)

Backing up is an absolute no-brainer, yet so few people do it. So many
people post here in absolute panic, looking at losing everything on
their computer. With an up-to-date backup, computer disasters are merely
an inconvenience.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

bill allemann wrote:
> I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
> about using the Automated System Recovery method.
> The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
> recorded on a bootable floppy.
> I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
> everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
> reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
> failure of the machine?
> Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
> DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the size
> of the backup considerably.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
>

SC Tom · External Since: Jan 27, 2009 Posts: 89

"bill allemann" <custom4173.TakeThisOut@sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
news:uY707ROTKHA.4592@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
>about using the Automated System Recovery method.
> The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
> recorded on a bootable floppy.
> I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
> everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
> reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
> failure of the machine?
> Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
> DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the
> size of the backup considerably.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
You could use one of the many back-up programs on the market to back up to
your external drives, and most of them have the ability to boot from a CD
and restore your hard drive. My personal favorite is Acronis True Image.
I've used it with great success on both XP and Vista systems. If you have a
Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive or external hard drive, you
can get the free version from the drive's web site. I use the freebie from
WD, and have no problems with it. My external drive is a WD, and even though
none of my internal drives are WD, the boot CD recognizes the external drive
and allowed me to restore the data from my Hitachi drive to a new Samsung
(the Hitachi went belly up). Others will have other suggestions, and they're
all good, but I like this one.

SC Tom

bill a · External Since: Oct 14, 2009 Posts: 2

I have Seagate Cheetah hard drives and Seagate has a DiscWizard free
download. Do you suppose their DiscWizard maybe really the Acronis product?
I couldn't find anything on their site with the Acronis name.
Thanks,
Bill

"SC Tom" <sc DeleteThis @tom.net> wrote in message
news:OmkbjnOTKHA.3540@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "bill allemann" <custom4173 DeleteThis @sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
> news:uY707ROTKHA.4592@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
>>about using the Automated System Recovery method.
>> The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
>> recorded on a bootable floppy.
>> I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily contain
>> everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will be able to
>> reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the event of a major
>> failure of the machine?
>> Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything on
>> DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce the
>> size of the backup considerably.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bill
>>
> You could use one of the many back-up programs on the market to back up to
> your external drives, and most of them have the ability to boot from a CD
> and restore your hard drive. My personal favorite is Acronis True Image.
> I've used it with great success on both XP and Vista systems. If you have
> a Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive or external hard drive,
> you can get the free version from the drive's web site. I use the freebie
> from WD, and have no problems with it. My external drive is a WD, and even
> though none of my internal drives are WD, the boot CD recognizes the
> external drive and allowed me to restore the data from my Hitachi drive to
> a new Samsung (the Hitachi went belly up). Others will have other
> suggestions, and they're all good, but I like this one.
>
> SC Tom
>

SC Tom · External Since: Jan 27, 2009 Posts: 89

From what I read online, the downloadable version of Disc Wizard is the
unnamed version of True Image, but the version on the disc that came with
the drive is not.

SC Tom

"bill a" <custom4173.TakeThisOut@sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
news:OflQrqPTKHA.3404@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I have Seagate Cheetah hard drives and Seagate has a DiscWizard free
>download. Do you suppose their DiscWizard maybe really the Acronis
>product?
> I couldn't find anything on their site with the Acronis name.
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
>
> "SC Tom" <sc.TakeThisOut@tom.net> wrote in message
> news:OmkbjnOTKHA.3540@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "bill allemann" <custom4173.TakeThisOut@sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
>> news:uY707ROTKHA.4592@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>>I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm wondering
>>>about using the Automated System Recovery method.
>>> The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
>>> recorded on a bootable floppy.
>>> I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily
>>> contain everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will
>>> be able to reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the
>>> event of a major failure of the machine?
>>> Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything
>>> on DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce
>>> the size of the backup considerably.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Bill
>>>
>> You could use one of the many back-up programs on the market to back up
>> to your external drives, and most of them have the ability to boot from a
>> CD and restore your hard drive. My personal favorite is Acronis True
>> Image. I've used it with great success on both XP and Vista systems. If
>> you have a Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive or external
>> hard drive, you can get the free version from the drive's web site. I use
>> the freebie from WD, and have no problems with it. My external drive is a
>> WD, and even though none of my internal drives are WD, the boot CD
>> recognizes the external drive and allowed me to restore the data from my
>> Hitachi drive to a new Samsung (the Hitachi went belly up). Others will
>> have other suggestions, and they're all good, but I like this one.
>>
>> SC Tom
>>
>
>

bill a · External Since: Oct 14, 2009 Posts: 2

I just started installing DiscWizard, and the logo page does in fact show
Acronis as the publisher.

Bill

"SC Tom" <sc.RemoveThis@tom.net> wrote in message
news:OjI8lPQTKHA.1232@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> From what I read online, the downloadable version of Disc Wizard is the
> unnamed version of True Image, but the version on the disc that came with
> the drive is not.
>
> SC Tom
>
> "bill a" <custom4173.RemoveThis@sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
> news:OflQrqPTKHA.3404@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>I have Seagate Cheetah hard drives and Seagate has a DiscWizard free
>>download. Do you suppose their DiscWizard maybe really the Acronis
>>product?
>> I couldn't find anything on their site with the Acronis name.
>> Thanks,
>> Bill
>>
>>
>> "SC Tom" <sc.RemoveThis@tom.net> wrote in message
>> news:OmkbjnOTKHA.3540@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>> "bill allemann" <custom4173.RemoveThis@sbcglobal.netINVALID> wrote in message
>>> news:uY707ROTKHA.4592@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>>>I was looking into doing a backup of my XP Pro desktop, and I'm
>>>>wondering about using the Automated System Recovery method.
>>>> The desktop has an A drive, and it appears that system files will be
>>>> recorded on a bootable floppy.
>>>> I have some large external USB connected drives that would easily
>>>> contain everything on the pc. I was wondering if the boot floppy will
>>>> be able to reliably connect the machine to an external drive in the
>>>> event of a major failure of the machine?
>>>> Or would I be better off not using the ASR mode, and having everything
>>>> on DVD's? In this option, I could exclude some data folders to reduce
>>>> the size of the backup considerably.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Bill
>>>>
>>> You could use one of the many back-up programs on the market to back up
>>> to your external drives, and most of them have the ability to boot from
>>> a CD and restore your hard drive. My personal favorite is Acronis True
>>> Image. I've used it with great success on both XP and Vista systems. If
>>> you have a Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive or external
>>> hard drive, you can get the free version from the drive's web site. I
>>> use the freebie from WD, and have no problems with it. My external drive
>>> is a WD, and even though none of my internal drives are WD, the boot CD
>>> recognizes the external drive and allowed me to restore the data from my
>>> Hitachi drive to a new Samsung (the Hitachi went belly up). Others will
>>> have other suggestions, and they're all good, but I like this one.
>>>
>>> SC Tom
>>>
>>
>>
>