Automated system recovery

[Guest John Eppley]

Greetings...I am stumped. I just purchased a WD external HD for "backup"

purposes. I am using XP Professional which came installed on my HP. I used

the XP BACKUP and selected that a recovery disk be created. The backup went

smoothly. Unfortunately XP asked me to use a "floppy" disk to create the

backup media. Not possible. It booted me out. There must be a workaround.

BTW, I believe I checked every knowledgebase article. Can I use a CD or DVD

to make the backup media, and how???

 

John

[Guest Jo-Anne]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

Hi, John,

 

Check out Patrick Keenan's response to my query with the same subject line;

it appeared in this forum yesterday. Essentially, no, you can't use anything

but a floppy drive with ASR. If you have a notebook computer, you'd need to

buy an external floppy drive. A far better backup approach, though, is a

third-party backup program, such as Acronis True Image, Casper, or Ghost.

You can back up to just about anything with them.

 

Jo-Anne

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:%23U63YGN$IHA.4616@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Greetings...I am stumped. I just purchased a WD external HD for "backup"

> purposes. I am using XP Professional which came installed on my HP. I used

> the XP BACKUP and selected that a recovery disk be created. The backup

> went smoothly. Unfortunately XP asked me to use a "floppy" disk to create

> the backup media. Not possible. It booted me out. There must be a

> workaround. BTW, I believe I checked every knowledgebase article. Can I

> use a CD or DVD to make the backup media, and how???

>

> John

>

[Guest John Eppley]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

I forgot to mention that Knowledgebase article 315255 claims I can create

the required ASR using a tape or Hard Drive. My external disk is a hard

drive.

[Guest Gary S. Terhune]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

That article in no way addresses ASR. Doesn't even mention it. Talks about

an entirely different problem. Read it again.

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://grystmill.com

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:uV2E1PN$IHA.3756@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

>I forgot to mention that Knowledgebase article 315255 claims I can create

>the required ASR using a tape or Hard Drive. My external disk is a hard

>drive.

>

>

[Guest John Eppley]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

Thanks for your input. Should my HD "crash", will the Acronis software allow

me to boot then copy the files from the external HD?? In other words..... is

it bootable??

 

Regarding 315255 info. I was led to this article from another knowledgebase

discussion. I followed the path and assumed I was in the right playing

field. Please note that the article says it applies to XP Professional.

[Guest Jo-Anne]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

What you do is create a bootable CD using the Acronis software. It boots

directly into Acronis and allows you to restore from your external HD. For

lots of information about the program, I recommend the Acronis support

forum:

 

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65

 

You can download a free trial of the program at

 

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

It's a complex program with a long, detailed manual; but you can do simple

backups by following the directions in a wonderful beginner's guide written

by one of the forum members. It's at

 

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/supportfiles/gh-acronis-backup1.pdf

 

Jo-Anne

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:OUDa53N$IHA.5048@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Thanks for your input. Should my HD "crash", will the Acronis software

> allow me to boot then copy the files from the external HD?? In other

> words..... is it bootable??

>

> Regarding 315255 info. I was led to this article from another

> knowledgebase discussion. I followed the path and assumed I was in the

> right playing field. Please note that the article says it applies to XP

> Professional.

>

[Guest Meebers]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

The recovery disk (cd/DVD) will allow you to boot. From there you choose the

image and the destination. Then you should be able to boot from the main

HDD as it was on the day you made the image.

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:OUDa53N$IHA.5048@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Thanks for your input. Should my HD "crash", will the Acronis software

> allow me to boot then copy the files from the external HD?? In other

> words..... is it bootable??

>

> Regarding 315255 info. I was led to this article from another

> knowledgebase discussion. I followed the path and assumed I was in the

> right playing field. Please note that the article says it applies to XP

> Professional.

>

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:%23U63YGN$IHA.4616@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Greetings...I am stumped. I just purchased a WD external HD for "backup"

> purposes. I am using XP Professional which came installed on my HP. I used

> the XP BACKUP and selected that a recovery disk be created. The backup

> went smoothly. Unfortunately XP asked me to use a "floppy" disk to create

> the backup media. Not possible. It booted me out. There must be a

> workaround. BTW, I believe I checked every knowledgebase article. Can I

> use a CD or DVD to make the backup media, and how???

>

> John

 

No, you can't use anything but a floppy.

 

Your workaround is to get a USB floppy drive and diskettes, or use just a

few dollars more to get a modern imaging program that does not require

floppies and will write to optical media. Examples are Acronis True Image

and Norton Ghost, there are a number of others.

 

You've found one of the reasons many people buy 3rd party applications for

this.

 

HTH

-pk

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:OUDa53N$IHA.5048@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Thanks for your input. Should my HD "crash", will the Acronis software

> allow me to boot then copy the files from the external HD?? In other

> words..... is it bootable??

 

Absolutely. TrueImage, and likely Ghost and others, allow you to create a

bootable CD or DVD that will then mount and install your image files.

 

Plus, it will handle many of your regular primary and incremental backup

needs.

 

It usually takes me around an hour to image or recreate a full system in

this way.

 

TrueImage is in the $50 range, and I find it worth the money. Check out

the free trial version, which runs for about two weeks.

 

HTH

-pk

>

> Regarding 315255 info. I was led to this article from another

> knowledgebase discussion. I followed the path and assumed I was in the

> right playing field. Please note that the article says it applies to XP

> Professional.

>

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:uV2E1PN$IHA.3756@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

>I forgot to mention that Knowledgebase article 315255 claims I can create

>the required ASR using a tape or Hard Drive. My external disk is a hard

>drive.

 

 

Yes. While the article doesn't mention ASR, ASR is an "advanced" though

comparatively rather primitive function of ntbackup. And ntbackup can't

deal with optical disks, only tape or hard disks.

 

You do want to be sure that ntbackup *can find* your hard disk at bootup.

Unfortunately it's a little risky to test this.

 

I personally don't bother. I use TrueImage, which finds all the disks I

use and has not let me down in several years.

 

HTH

-pk

[Guest Twayne]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

> Greetings...I am stumped. I just purchased a WD external HD for

> "backup" purposes. I am using XP Professional which came installed on

> my HP. I used the XP BACKUP and selected that a recovery disk be

> created. The backup went smoothly. Unfortunately XP asked me to use a

> "floppy" disk to create the backup media. Not possible. It booted me

> out. There must be a workaround. BTW, I believe I checked every

> knowledgebase article. Can I use a CD or DVD to make the backup

> media, and how???

> John

 

For ASR, it is not your backup it wants to put on the floppy. What goes

on the floppy is the information to be able to get things going to

recover from a catostrophic failure and it's still going to look for

your "big" backup files on disk, or CD, DVD, or wherever you sent those

to. The floppy IS needed, is bootable, and is what you use to get a

catastrophic recovering going.

Floppy drives are cheap; like $10. And easy to find. So if you

don't have one, it's easy enough to get one.

OTOH you'll never need the ASR floppy if you don'thave a drive

failure. You need to read up more on what the ASR is, I think. Each

ASR is also connected to its own set of backup data, so each full backup

should get its own ASR disk.

 

As someone else mentioned, it is a lot easier and smoother to use

imaging software, but it costs a little more though a lot less than

$100. Norton Ghost and Acronis True IMage are the two most often used

ones out there. BootItNG is good if you're a techi type but it's not

that user friendly for most people.

 

HTH

[Guest John Eppley]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

Jo-Ann: Thanks for your rapid and courteous reply. Your advice makes sense.

I have downloaded the 15 day trial of Acronis True Image 11 Home as

suggested. I now have two choices....install a 3.5 floppy, or purchase the

Acronis program. Again, thanks for your inputs.

[Guest Jo-Anne]

Re: Automated system recovery

 

Glad I could help. FWIW, Acronis is $29.99 with free shipping for the boxed

version at Newegg.com--a reputable retailer. For some reason, the download

is more expensive. If you get the boxed version, the CD of the program is

bootable. I burned my own anyway, though, just to make sure I could do it

with the software.

 

"John Eppley" <jeppley@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message

news:%23mGGC8U$IHA.3696@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Jo-Ann: Thanks for your rapid and courteous reply. Your advice makes

> sense. I have downloaded the 15 day trial of Acronis True Image 11 Home

> as suggested. I now have two choices....install a 3.5 floppy, or purchase

> the Acronis program. Again, thanks for your inputs.

>

>

>

>