Agreed (I have XP Pro), that's a good prog for those that have a floppy drive (we're back to square one as this was discussed some time ago ).
Many units these days, esp laptops come without floppy drives, mine included. For that reason I got NTI DriveBackup sw earlier, because it will create Emergency Recovery CD/DVDs (also Drive Image backup if that's needed). It's sister prog, NTI Backup Now, is easy to use for file level backups. They work for me although I have not had the 'pleasure' of having to restore with the CDs I made so can't comment on that.

Some other progs I looked into, like PowerQuest are very good but don't have the Emergency Recovery CD/DVD feature.

...I've had problems testing a restores with some of those programs you'd buy... ...NTbackup is the ONLY one I say is 100% reliable... ...pretty much amazing because its a Miscrosoft program, go figure... ...the key is 2 partitions with XP Pro and backup/restore using a 3rd NTFS Partition... ...FAT32 is no good... ...any file larger than 4Gb in FAT32 will fail...

For anyone following along, don't get "NTI Backup Now!"confused with NTbackup! These are 2 different programs.

I have an 'older' 2001 XP pro which came with Backup Utility for Windows, copyrighted by MS and Veritas corp. Is it diff from the NTbackup you mentioned?

Cuz I may have assumed incorrectly in that there post above yours, hehe, just wanna make sure we're on the same page. And you're absolutely right in saying NTI is a separate entity from MS, did not mean to create confusion there either.

Brad:

Not a problem checking... ...without a doubt, you have NTbackup (the better one). "NTI Backup Now!" is something you'd purchase separate. In those horrible dark days from Windows 95 up to Windows 200 and Windows ME something like "NTI Backup Now!" was justified... ...not anymore with Windows XP Professional.

Again, for the record to be clear on this too, Windows XP Home does NOT have NTbackup either, just Windows XP Professional.

Regards,
George

Ok, thanks George. But I do have both NT and NTI now ... I acquired the latter cuz of the floppy vs CD issue . I just wasn't clear what the prog that came bundled with XP pro was cuz 'about' doesn't call it that. No prob, so now I have choices ...

...I use NTbackup... ...a 6Gb partition backup to disk is 30 minutes (including verify)... ...restore has been tested and even used when Microsoft screws up... ...restore is 20 minutes... ...I'm able to get a dead partition back without the pain of a reinstall and all the extra programs and settings like networking.... ...saves you almost a long day of buggering with everything... ...it all adds up to a BIG job, trust me.

Regards,
George

I don't doubt that at all George, like I said I have not had to do a restore this way yet. Had to do a full restore once and since I was totally green then (am only somewhat green now ) it took me longer than a week, so a 'long day of buggering' would have been welcome . It's good to have your experience to 'kick' around ... believe it or not I'm learning

...I'm confident these posts are of some benefit... ...to read them and realize "hey, thats happened to me" is worth something... ...who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks... ...I'm learning or discovering something new all the time...

It's a portugueese based service:
[URL=https://www.zmail.pt/]Zmail.pt over SSL[/URL]
If that doesn't work try this:
[URL=http://www.zmail.pt/]Zmail.pt[/URL]!

I think you should get an English greeting page!

thanks thornc, i'll look into it, from their home page they can receive faxes too wow !!

My comment on the backup software, NTBackup, from what I recall from using it a long time ago(probably even a different version than the one now shipped in XPpro) , was a nice tool!

My main choice these days is plain old script using tar, bzip2 and some other tools called by the windows version of at
(they call it schedulled tasks)
Long live the console and cygwin(gnuwin32 works also!)...


About the attached devices, like I said they are pretty reliable these days. So if you stick with a good vendor and use a reliable brand there should be no problems... like fenris says be carefull with the devices and they will last!
Be carefull with the 3,5" and 5,25" models because those use normal desktop hard disks, the ones using notebook hard disks can handle a bit more.
In fact I have used laptop hard disks on a project that involved deploying a
computer on an ocean buoy, and they
performed with any problems!!

Hi Everybody,

I bought a New Computer ( Made by Tiny ) in 2001 when XP Home Edition first came out. I read that you could install the BackUp Utility from the CD-ROM. Unfortunately my CD-ROM had NO such Utility.
What I do to BackUp my Files is to pick up the Folders in Windows Explorer and drop them into the DVD/CD-RW Drive ( D: ).
Unfortunately this ONLY BacksUp the Data Files so to Speak.
I have found this Windows XP Site by Bob Cerelli which has a Download for the NTBACKUP.MSI.

[url]http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#backup_home[/url]

It also has Sections on :-
Performance
Networking / Internet
Repairing
Startup / Shutdown
Desktop / Toolbar / Explorer
Misc

Has anybody Downloaded the NTBACKUP.MSI from this Site, and if so, have they had ANY Problems with it. I do NOT like Downloading anything if possible.
Great Thread by the way .
Any Help would be Appreciated.

All the Best
PAB

PAB:

I think you won the biggest prize, bravo... ...I can sure make use of this! There are some XP Home PCs I know about which could exploit this... ...I have not tried it yet and I'd say give it a try. I'd have something to share with you when an attempt to install and use in a few days is complete if my schedule for this week is on target.

Regards,
George

Although easier and user friendly, the backup program that came with XP, I still use my own batch file which I formulated in DOS that copies ALL the files that I have specified in the instruction down to the root and sub folders including all hidden files, if any that I need and all verified as same with no corruption. The files are intact and in its raw state rather than having it compressed/zipped in backup mode. Saves a lot of time restoring it to the appropriate drives/folders if you're only doing selective restore. This you can do if your backup storage capacity can take the data as it is in the computer.

The other reason why I want it in this state is, I use this USB backup storage drive simultaneously on my laptop and servers at work.

The only other program that I trust that can do almost as good if not better is the Symantec's Norton Ghost if you want to go windows version.

That folks, is MHO !!!

...probably xcopy with several options... ...here is a real life example of one I use...
xcopy I:\*.* M:\*.* /e/y/h/r/q/v

There is command line support for NTbackup so you can automate a backup like I've done... ...here is an example of what is possible...
ntbackup backup "@C:\Backups\Windows.bks" /f D:\Backup\Windows.bkf /j "Windows Backup" /m copy /v:Yes /l:f