non-floppy ghost backup [or best backup method]

hi all, 1st time posting to a support forum.

my system: hp pavilion media center m7457c desktop w/pentium dou 3.0mhz, 3.0 mgh, 2gb RAM, running winxp [pro i think since i can run gpedit.msc] media center edition version 2002 sp2, phoenix BIOS [coudlnt find the version number of the BIOS ]

for many moons now i have used ghost backup, which requires booting from a floppy if u wanna restore the c: drive [i have only 1 OS on my machine, on the c: drive], but now, alas, even my desktop no longer sports a floppy drive [my laptops have always been floppyless], and so, booting from a floppy to restore the c: drive in an emergency is no longer an option.

i need help and advice on the following 3 options:

1. use an entirely different program or method for backup. any ideas? any ideas as easy and dependable as ghost? [which, as u know, allows for an exact image of the OS primary partition to be copied or restored since, as ur booting from DOS on a floppy, the OS primary partition is closed or locked or whatever]

2. i tried booting with BartPE on a CD, booted fine, plugged in a usb2.0 to IDE connector, which was connected to a mostly blank, partitioned hardrive [running from an external power supply. i could have used a regular external harddrive, but i didnt wanna buy one, and i have many IDE hardrives lying around] which i intended to use as a storage space for a ghost image of my internal c: drive, the idea being that i could than at any time [of emergency] reboot with bartPE, hook up the usb2.0 to IDE to the external harddrive containing the c: drive ghost image, and use that image to restore the internal c: drive. But then problems: not only could i not figure out how to get ghost to copy an image of the internal c: drive to the external hardrive, but i couldnt even figure out how to get bartPE to *see* the internal c: drive [or any part of the internal hardrive]. lol. prolly need to add some kinda plugin to bartPe so i can read and explore the internal hardrive.

3. do ghost the same as always, copying the internal c:drive ghost image to dvds, *but* instead of booting to DOS from a floppy, boot from a usb flash drive. tried this, with immediate problems: cant figure out how to set Bios to boot from usb [there's no mention of usb in the boot devices listed in my BIOS, but Daniel Butler gives a tip at the very bottom of the page at http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php
which i didnt entirely understand. it would be helpful if some1 could tell me how to determine which version of phoenix BIOS i have]. but even if i can figure out how to boot from a usb thumb drive, i'm still unclear on how to get ghost to work from the usb drive.

for all 3 of the above ideas, i googled endless tech sites and forums, and though this method has never failed me in past technical problem situations, *this* time i really have become *way* too confused by all the different possibilities. thanks in advance for any help.

ö¿ö¬ E=mc²
~

 

How about Ghost on CD?
http://ghost.radified.com/

Or borrow a USB floppy when you make the image and use it when Ghost asks to copy the boot floppy.. then you'll have a bootable restore & no need for the floppy again.

 

it's awesome software, and i was very suprised when acronis began giving TI 7 for free.
Here the full tutorial of TI 7

and here you can get TI 7.

 

I use Ghost 9.0 - If you boot from the Ghost CD it provides a recovery environment, similar to DOS that will allow you to select any internal drive and extract the backup file from a scrollable list. Also, burning the image to CDs or DVDs also puts the recovery environment on the first disk of the set. So you could boot from a backup DVD. Thirdly, if you have external USB connected hard-drives, booting from the Ghost CD will find them and any installed backup images, providing another path to recovery.
.

 

i broke down and bought ghost 10, which i will test soon but i'm reasonably sure it'll do what prometheos suggests. its clear from the box that u neednt bother with floppies and it seems to provide and DOSlike clone and recovery environment. i;ll mess around t\with usb external drives also. shoulda just got ghost 10 right away, lol, thx for help tho.

 

Hello, Plaphon . . . thanks for the links. Perhaps I'm missing it, but where can one download the actual program? I went to the link and registered, but am unable to fathom where to get the software.

Again, I may be missing the obvious . . . got the flu right now, and am kinda muzzy . . .

 

Disregard . . . and I apologise . . . I am downloading the software as I type this. I think I need some sleep . . .