Guest Nut Posted August 17, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 I am a computer novice. I don't have any backup for my information or system programs. I downloaded "titan" backup software from " Give away of the day"....and the program keeps stopping at a particular point and doesn't continue. I now want to go buy a external harddrive to transfer my computer contents to. I was told just transferring wont backup my programs on my computer. 1) is this true 2) what is the best way I can back up my computer so I can stop worrying about a crash and loosing all my families memories and my programs. Thanks to all that respond to a basic but essential need of mine. GC
Guest peter Posted August 17, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Backup Problems help! I and quite a few others swear by(not at) Acronis True Image. It has the capabilities to not only do backups but to also Image your HD,Create a Rescue Disk that runs without an Operating System ,Clone a HD. By buying an External HD in an enclosure you can use True Image to Image your HD.By creating the rescue disk you can restore that image back onto your HD...or restore files from within that Image back to their original location. here is the website http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ they also have a free 15 day trial peter "Nut" <Nut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:7C2D9EC2-976C-401D-ACC9-C7874685BB13@microsoft.com... >I am a computer novice. I don't have any backup for my information or >system > programs. I downloaded "titan" backup software from " Give away of the > day"....and the program keeps stopping at a particular point and doesn't > continue. I now want to go buy a external harddrive to transfer my > computer > contents to. I was told just transferring wont backup my programs on my > computer. 1) is this true 2) what is the best way I can back up my > computer > so I can stop worrying about a crash and loosing all my families memories > and > my programs. > > Thanks to all that respond to a basic but essential need of mine. > GC >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted August 17, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Backup Problems help! On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:10:19 -0700, Nut <Nut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I am a computer novice. I don't have any backup for my information or system > programs. I downloaded "titan" backup software from " Give away of the > day"....and the program keeps stopping at a particular point and doesn't > continue. I now want to go buy a external harddrive to transfer my computer > contents to. I was told just transferring wont backup my programs on my > computer. 1) is this true 2) what is the best way I can back up my computer > so I can stop worrying about a crash and loosing all my families memories and > my programs. First, bear in mind that you can back up data, but you can't do a useful backup of programs unless you do it as part of an overall clone or image of the entire drive. That's because all programs except for an occasional tiny one have many entries within Windows, in the registry and elsewhere. So if you ever have to reinstall Windows, any restoration of a backup of programs is useless. They won't run. I've never heard of "titan" backup software, which leads me to suspect that it's not one of the better products available. Here's my standard post on backup: First of all, almost everyone should be backing up regularly. It is always possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss of everything on your drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter of whether you will have such a problem, but when. Essentially you should back up what you can't afford to lose--what you can't readily recreate. What that is depends on how you use your computer and what you use it for. It takes time and effort to backup, but it also takes time and effort to recreate lost data. If you back up daily, you should never have to recreate more than one day's worth of last data. If weekly, there's potentially a lot more to recreate. You should assess how much pain and trouble you would have if you lost x days of data, and then choose a backup frequency that doesn't involve more pain and trouble than that you would have if you had to recreate what was lost. Some things (photographs, for instance) can never be recreated, and more frequent backup may be wanted for them. At one extreme is the professional user who would likely go out of business if his data was lost. He probably needs to back up at least daily. At the other extreme is the kid who doesn't use his computer except to play games. He probably needs no backup at all, since worst case he can easily reinstall his games. Most of us fall somewhere between those extremes, but nobody can tell you where you fall; you need to determine that for yourself. Should you back up Windows? Should you back up your applications? Most people will tell you no, since you can always reinstall these easily from the original media. But I don't think the answer is so clear-cut. Many people have substantial time and effort invested in customizing Windows and configuring their apps to work the way they want to. Putting all of that back the way it was can be a difficult, time-consuming effort. Whether you should backup up Windows and apps depends, once again, on you. How to backup? What software to use? There are many choices, including the Windows-supplied backup program. Which choice is best for you depends at least in part on the answers to some of the questions above. Finally what backup media should you choose, and how should it be stored? There are many choices, including CDs, tape, zip drives, and second hard drives. I don't recommend backup to a second non-removable hard drive because it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer. In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be stored off-site. My computer isn't used for business, but my personal backup scheme uses two identical removable hard drives,I alternate between the two, and use Acronis True Image to make a complete copy of the primary drive. I also use a pair of 1GB thumb drives for making more frequent backups of my most critical data (like financial information). For that I just drag and drop. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
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