Complete back up

in vista ultimate there's a program utilities that allows you 2 completely back up hard drive partitions everything. you then put in vista disc and click complete backup restore and its back to how you backed it up. everything a complete computer snap shot.

I'm looking for something i can use with xp so i can back my laptop to an external hard drive. complete

obvoiusly looking for free program :drool

any help and guidance will be very thankfull

Chris

 

http://www.acebackup.com/

And Welcome to MG!!

 

Here's a link to backups. http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html

Most are not free, however there are a few free ones like DriveImage XML, Karen's Replicator and XXClone. To find more info on them, just click on the author's page.

I haven't tried them personally since I have Acronis TI v8.

Good luck in finding what you need. Perhaps someone can point you to the exact (free?) software you need for imaging your XP drive.

 

I've tried them ones u suggested but none do the complete back up like in vista. there must be a program out there that does this. i dont mind paying if its reasonable cost. but need a trial version be4 i pay.

original quote:----

in vista ultimate there's a program utilities that allows you 2 completely back up hard drive partitions everything. you then put in vista disc and click complete backup restore and its back to how you backed it up. everything a complete computer snap shot.

I'm looking for something i can use with xp so i can back my laptop to an external hard drive. complete

----------------

regards crazymazey

 

DO YOU MEAN :-
Acronis True Image Home 2009 v12.0.0.9709 ?

 

Personally I use PiNG (Partimage is Not Ghost), and I have had great success with it.

It will boot from a CD and take an image of your hard drives and save them either to a network location or to removable media such as an external hard drive.

It is totally free and accessible here: http://ping.windowsdream.com

 

does that work for xp proffessional. as it says linux ?

 

I got Acronis True Image Home 2009 v12.0.0.9709
all i want to be able to do is back up everything on my laptop to external hard drive like vista complete computer back up.
i,ve loadedAcronis True Image Home 2009 v12.0.0.9709 and i'm well confused.
i need an idiot guide to what i need to do so if something goes wrong i put a disc in that then finds the back up on my external hard drive and restores my laptop to when i backed everything up ????? well confused

 

It all runs from the CD before XP is loaded, so it will be fine.

 

can this be done on usb 2gb memory stick ?

as my cd writer is not working for some reason. writes dvd and reads dvds but the cdr an cd audio are not reading or writing any ideas why this is happening ?

 

ignore last post. i created boot disk with dvd.
try and tested working. now my next question is
when creating back ups
should i delete the old one 1st then create a new one.

and if i reformat my computer and decide to go back to how it was when i backed it up. do i just run the disk and restore ?

also

i still cant get my matshita dvd-ram uj-850s
driver date = 01/07/2001
driver version 5.1.2535.0
to burn cds ?????

no probs with dvds though ????

 

As long as you name the new backups differently from the old ones, you can keep the old ones if you want to. It's really up to you to decide if you need/want to keep them.

Yes, you just run the disc and choose the restore option.

As for your DVD drive, try updating your drivers first and foremost, and if that dosen't work, then uninstall the drivers and the device from windows, and then reboot and see if windows will install CD burning drivers as well as DVD burning ones.

 

this is my cd/dvd drive in my acer aspire 5050 laptop

matshita dvd-ram uj-850s
driver date = 01/07/2001
driver version 5.1.2535.0

i,ve looked everywhere cant find an updated driver ????

 

Sorry, I should have explained better. I meant for you to use Device Manager and have Windows search for a better driver itself.

 

it just looks on the computer and says driver installed. cant search online ???

 

My fault again, if you open up device manager and find the drive, then double-click on it, go to the driver tab, and click "update driver".

 

still does not search online. and everywhere i look that driver detective program pops up. is there anywhere that does drivers without driver detective.

 

Okay, that is all I wanted you to do. I have also just looked on the Acer website and they do not have a driver listed for your drive so I will assume that the drive uses a generic Microsoft driver.

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drive?

 

YES. Tried Everything

Heres a puzzle for you ????

if i put in XP Professional cd then boot computer it does not read disc and give me option to press any key to boot from cd and goes straight to starting windows.

BUT ???

If i put in Vista DVD then boot computer it reads disc and gives me the option to press any key to boot from DVD to load vista (reformat)

i dont want vista as i love XP PRO.

is there any way i can copy the XP PRO from CD to DVD then i can reformat XP PRO ?

i cant understand why it reads DVD from boot and not CD ???
any ideas or suggestions

cheers for your help so far. Chris

 

any ideas guys. ????? please help :confused