Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > PC Help pls - XP total backup?

[Iconic944ss]

I've kicked the idea about before of completely reformatting my hard drive and doing a 'clean' install of XP/Pro to try and get some performance back (amongst other things).

However, with three account on this PC is there a backup/ghost type App that will backup all E-mail / program settings / IE favourites and all the other toys that anyone might set themselves (and then restore it successfully later)?

or do I have to do it all myself (I dont have a DVD writer by the way - YET ).

Cheers - Frank

[JPM]

Frank,

What means do you have of backing the machine up then?

If you use something like Norton Ghost etc this creates an image file, nothing you can access and extract the specific files etc that you want to keep, and using the image will basically restore your machine to exactly as it is currently, which isn't what you want.

Do have a second partition or possibly a second hard disk? so you can move all of your data and IE favourites etc? you'll also need to take notes of certain things like email settings, username/passwords, pop3/smtp setting etc

It's a fairly easy process to do, but I've done it hundred of times.

[TP]

There is a utility in XP called Backup which will allow you to backup your profile (contains your IE favourites, printer settings, My Docs etc) or All profiles, or anything you want and back it up to a file on your hard drive somewhere.

You will need a second hard drive for this so you can format your original one for the reinstall.

[Iconic944ss]

Cheers JPM, I back most stuff up just to CD but yes, I do have a second HD however, its only 18GB.

Would I see any improvement if I tried reformatting and then restoring a 'ghosted' image ?

I imagine things like the registries would be just the same though

At least all the files would be contiguous once more ????

Cheers

[Edited on 8-7-2005 by Iconic944ss]

[TP]

Originally posted by Iconic944ss
Cheers JPM, I back most stuff up just to CD but yes, I do have a second HD however, its only 18GB.

Would I see any improvement if I tried reformatting and then restoring a 'ghosted' image ?

I imagine things like the registries would be just the same though

At least all the files would be contiguous once more ????

Cheers

[Edited on 8-7-2005 by Iconic944ss]

If you're doing it for performance then I'd only take what you need and reinstall the rest.

You'll have to reinstall your applications etc but at least you're at a known state. If you restore everything back over the top your performance gain is minimal and you could end up restoring a performance problem that you are having now.

IMO.

[JPM]

Tony's idea might work using ntbackup to backup your data, system state, but restoring that might put back a duff registry entry etc, how much data have you got to backup?

18Gb isn't much but it'll get a hefty chunk before going to CD backup

[Edited on 8-7-2005 by JPM]

[TP]

Backup doesn't do a system state backup - it's a slightly different utility to ntbackup.

The options in there are really for your profile, (local settings and my docs etc) and not the registry et al.

You can do a full backup with it, which includes a system state, but if you just want all your settings and the same for other users on the machine it will do it all for you and back it all up to a file on your other HDD.

This is what I would recommend.

[JPM]

Frank,

What email client are you using? Oultook or Outlook Express?

Outlook you'll have one file containing all of your email data (mail/calendar/contacts etc) possibly a personal address book (PAB) outlook address book (OAB)

Outlook Express is a bit messier, you'll have individual files of each folder (i.e. Inbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx etc etc) you'll have to export your contacts to a CSV (comma seperated value) file also.

[TP]

Are you on an XP machine now Freak? Have a look at the utility, Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Utilities --> Backup

It's really simple and seeing as all your mail files are stashed in your profile they'll all be captured in the back and easily restored.

[TP]

It even has a 'management proof' wizard