External HD, Recovery (restore system)???

WinXP Home, SP2

Need to get my daughter a (easy) way to restore her HD and system.
Looking at one of the external HD with recovery. Went to bestbuy but
they didnt seem sure if it would restore the system (windows) or not.

Want to find a HD that (if windows dont bootup) will restore XP and all
data files, partitions, etc. Havent been able to get a decent answer
about backing up and restoring XP as well as her data file/folders
Specifically, if windowsXP dont bootup (or even if it does) and a
recovery is still needed.

Is there such an animal in captivity that will do this?

thanks,
savagcl

 

savagcl--Backing up an "image" of the hard drive to an external hard drive--using a tool such as Ghost or Acronis True Image--should give you the abilty to "restore" if needed.
You will probably not be able to boot from the external hard drive, but the "restore" function of one of the programs mentioned should allow you to do what you want. The only way to know, however, is to try it. Are the stores not willing to let you return the external drive if you are dissatisfied?

To guard against the time you cannot boot the PC, you should probably create a WinXP Boot Disk (see toward the end of this reference)
http://www.computerhope.com/boot.htm

And you may want to create a Boot recovery CD such as BartPE Builder.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder

 

Welshjim,

I have Acronis and it works well for me. I use the Acronis restore CD and it does very good
job. Saved my hindend a couple times for sure.

My daughter however, is pretty new to computers, at least backing up and restoring.
She would get confused with Acronis and really mess things up (dont tell her i said this

Am looking for some way simple for her to accomplish a system restore without all the
different options and "hands on ".

Yes, i have returned things to BB before with no problem. What they said was "Yes" you
can restore windows provided you install it to the ex. HD first. This was from the manager.
Not the answer i was looking for at all. Then i ask "Supposed windows wont bootup. how
do i get it to restore the system - another blank look appeared. At that point, i figured i was
in the wrong BB.

 

Could try the following solution ...
EZ-GIG USB 2.0 Data Transfer Kit
EZ-UP-UNIVERSAL
Have no experience with this company and the site does not provide any insight in the use of it's software. Can interface via USB, Firewire, SATA. Basically kit comes with a HD enclosure (you provide the drive) and software (EZ Gig II Data Transfer Utility). The software has two basic backup options ...

What I can't find is how simply / painless to create Image copies. But most important, how simple is to restore system HD image copy stored on external drive. You could contact them for additional info.

 

savagcl--I am waiting to see what other suggestions are offered. I hope there is an easier one than I suggested.
However, if your daughter has a WinXP CD she should be able to reinstall the OS from there if needed. And the computerhope.com BootDisk should allow the PC to boot to do that. Then reinstalling the personal data from the external drive should be easy.
If she does not have a WinXP CD, she should get one. Most PC makers will sell one cheap (like $10) to buyers of the PC. (They should supply it with the PC, of course, but...)

 

Sometime over the last number of months their was a post on wBBS for a company which provide a complete package which included the following ...
2nd HD (internal) and software which automatically maintain an restorability backup for system it was installed on. Can not locate the post on wBBS. Anyone else remember the post? NOT sure if software provided a "Current Status restore" or just stored a previous created copy with simplistic restore features. It was primarily aimed at schools, R&D, etc. Company presented is a one button - bullet proof restore approach.

 

Dennis L

Clone EZ Key Features:

Create an exact clone of a hard drive
User-friendly interface
Automatic and Expert modes
Supports backing up or restoring data via USB 2.0 & USB 1.1
Allows restoration without presence of an operating system <---------This
Provides bootable Disaster <----------This
Recovery clone
Can be loaded and run under Windows, or boot from CD <-----------This

Image EZ Key Features:
Creates exact disk image for complete system backup <-------------------- All
User-friendly interface <-------------------------------------------------------------------- of
Restore entire hard disk contents or replaces individual files/folders <---
Allows restoration without presence of an operating system <--------------these

Seems what i'm looking for. Will check further with them (they always look good on
their own site!

Welshjim,
She has the gateway restore cd that came with the system (but has managed to messup
more with that cd than anything i ever saw (and i've see some disasters!)

Thanks for the input guys, i have a couple leads to follow up on now.
savagcl

 

Here’s how I do it for family and friends.

Give then a triple boot setup with 3 identical clones. Set the bootmanager to a 3 second countdown before it boots the chosen install. When they trash Windows they have 3 seconds to press any key and select to boot the next clone. Complete recovery with just a reboot. Once they have moved onto the third clone I’ll go round at a time that suits me and reinstate the 3 clones from my backup image on disk.

I set up Windows to store all personal files on a separate data partition, so no matter which clone they are using all their data are still there and they can’t tell the difference. You have to teach them to backup their personal files to CD occasionally, but hey if they don’t then that’s not my concern.

When I rebuild their system I’ll restore the first clone from CD then update it as necessary, adding any new programs etc that they have started using. Then clone it to the other two partitions and make a new backup CD. It's usually no more than 2 - 4 hours work once every 1 - 2 years and they have three new clean and unused installs of Windows.

I’ve personally never seen the point of making backup images of the OS you are constantly using. Errors and trash accumulates and you have to eventually go back to a previous image anyway and update it. Software that automatically updates your only backup image will mean you are reinstalling Windows from scratch every year or two.

 

I use EZ Gig and it is easy, use the imaging/cloning only, don't use the data backup software.

What I can't tell you is how well or not it backs up to CD, I backup/restore to/from an external hard drive.

And because I dual boot two OS's, I use the running OS to backup/restore the non running OS, so no issues about backing up whether the OS is running or not running.

Only image the OS partitions - the data partitions I backup by copying folders to the external. I have set up my data in such a way that each have their own folders. This includes the My Documents folders which I moved to the non OS partitions.

Regards - Charles