Backup of Hard Drive

Have been "given" an external USB 80GB hard drive and wish to use it to backup my computer data, etc. with the Windows XP Backup and Restore program. Would appreciate any suggestions/tips to make full use of the ext. drive. One question I have is, do I disconnect the ext drive once I've backed up the data for safe storage, etc.? Thanks for any suggestions/tips they will be much appreciated.

 

I've never bothered with the XP backup utility. Maybe it actually works!
What I generally do is to backup data files such as Office files. I backup my favorites or bookmark folder. I also backup any programme updates and .exe files I've downloaded, including any driver updated. I used to do screen dumps through Word of setup options for my Modem and Internet connection settings and other ISP specific settings. I now know all that from memory.

I'd suggest purchasing a backup programme like Acronis True Image 8.0 for full system backups. Using USB2 a full system backup can take less than 10 minutes, and is quite simple as well as having a verify function to check the backed up image.

http://www.acronis.com

A full image can be created from within windows or from a bootable CD you create with the programme. Works like a gem!

With your external drive, you should always click on the taskbar icon and disconnect the drive in software, then unplug the USB cable before reboot or shutdown. This lessens the slight chance of drive corruption or failure if you leave it connected on reboot, power down and power up. This warning should be in the user documentation?

Someone else should give you pros and cons as well as tips for using the XP backup thinggy?

 

I second the motion on Acronis True Image. Anything less is second best. I use the older version (6) which still does a fine job. I understand the new version makes incrementals and does a file check of images, that's even better, maybe someday Santa will upgrade me.

I rarely burn the backups to cd's since I have a second drive with lots of room, somewhat like you rebar. I make one per week and keep the last ten, deleting the oldest each time. It keeps me as safe as need be.

Good luck.

 

Thank you for the suggestions and I'll certainly use them as I become familiar with the backup. Thus far I'm not too excited about the Windows Backup and Restore program and will probably go to the recommend one. Thanks again ...