Re: Reconfig WindowsBackup so doesn't require diskette for Restore



"Poprivet" wrote:

Hmm, somewhere we've disconnected in what we mean. What specifically are
you referring to by a "restore disk" being required? All that's required
for a restore operation is the source of the backed up files.

I guess basically we need to decide what you consider a "restore" disk.
I also don't understand hte problem with the drive A issue: perhaps a
step-by-step of what you do would show something up under analysis. It
won't matter whether you use the Wizard, choose a single file or all files;
it all works the same. I just fired it up to be certain what I'm telling
you works, and it's fine here on my XP Pro SP2+. In my case it's
ntbackup.exe; I understand on some OEM systems that it's simply backup.exe.

Just kind of rambling here:
-- One file or all files shouldn't make any difference. All you need for a
backup is
-- ntbackup or backup.exe, whichever one came with your system, and
-- if it's your system drive you're backiing up, to have the Shadow Copy
service running so it can backup in-use files.
-- For the backed up files to be accessible. Which it sounds like they
would be on your external hard drive.

You MIGHT be thinking about a complete catastrophe where the C drive has
gone belly up? So you cannot boot to USE the backups you have?
In this case, you do a full install from the XP CD, and before you even
connect to the 'net or set anything else up, you will now have backup.exe
available, which you can now use to restore all your files from the backup
disk.

There really isn't any "restore" disk with XP backup processes. Perhaps
you're remembering back to win98 or something. They did have floppy startup
disks.

Since you have no A drive, you could replace that with a bootable CD though.
There ARE some places around that have a minimal XP installations in order
to get you going enough to run the Restore but personally I don't recommend
them for a variety of reasons; ymmv of course. Instructions on how to
create one for yourself might be OK though; I've never done it that way.
Is this where you might be coming from?

If you want elegance and perceived reliability in backing up, an imaging
program is your best bet. The major three are Norton Ghost, Acronis TI, and
BootItNG; those will help you make a restore disk for catastrophic failures
and allow recovery in essentially one step as long as the back up files are
available. Personally I'm using Ghost 10 right now and am quite happy with
it. Like anything else it's a "ymmv" situation though.

Any of that help anything? Let us know; lots of knowledgeable people here.
Anyone makes a mistake, they get corrected pretty quickly <g>.

HTH
Pop`

lewisma9 wrote:
Hi again Pop:
There's a problem with your strategy of using a small file as a test
backup. I guess it only requires the final A: diskette/floppy when I
do a total backup -- because in this test, no Restore disk was
required. Plan B?

lewisma9 wrote:
Hello:
I am getting desperate. I can't find this information anywhere. I
want to use Windows Backup Utility [NTBACKUP] but I keep stumbling
over the last required step: After completing the backup to my
Firelite SmartDrive USB external harddrive, Windows requires a
diskette in the A: drive for copying the Restore utility files. But
my laptop doesn't have a diskette drive, and Windows won't accept
any alternatives! I've tried to get it to copy the Restore files
to a CD, and then to a USB diskette drive. But it doesn't allow me
any other options than its default to an A: diskette drive. I
have Windows XP Pro SP2 on an HP Compaq Presario V2000 laptop.
Please don't repeat the saw that Windows Backup is useless etc etc -
I'm tired of this kind of unhelpful response. Those who know how to
use it say it works just great, and I want to make up my own mind by
trying it. I will greatly appreciate your help with this. Thanks.

I'm not looking at the program, so if I've not made sense when you
try it, post back; I'll do a step by step.
A very intelligent attitude, BTW about figuring it out for
yourself on the worthiness; EXCAXTLY the right thing to do!

It's defaulted to a floppy, and, you cannot use ntbackup to write to
CDs. So:

1. Back up to the hard drive. Then COPY the files over to a CD or
DVD.

2. From the Wizard;
When you're presented with the A: Drive option, there is a drop down
and a Browse button, I either one gets the same results: Using
either one will tell you it's going to back up to Drive A. Try it:
It'll then give you an error message, and put up an Explorer like
window that will let you choose any drive that exists on your
computer. Choose a drive and a folder, and go from there; you'll be
done. Personally, I'd experiment by telling it to let YOU decide
what to back
up, and choose only one file so you can test it quickly, including
test out restoring that same file.

IFF you have a good packet-writing software for your CD/DVD drive,
you -might- be able to back up directly to the CD/DVD, but until
you've tested it, I wouldn't. There are many temporary files
created during a backup, and unless the writing software is smart
enough to handle it, the CD/DVD will quickly fill up with those
temporary files and you'll run out of room quickly on the DVD! Not
all packet-writing software is created equal, so unless you know for
sure, TEST first! IFF you're using the XP's basic DVD writing
app, you definitely can NOT backup straight to the DVD; you must
backup to a hard drive and then copy it to the DVD. Or CD.
XP's backup will also not compress files - which can be a problem
if you're worried about the number of DVDs and all that. It'll only
compress if writing to a tape drive. If you have a 3rd party
writing app though, you may be able to compress. Personally I like
it that it's not compressable; fewer chances for error, and the
files, even without the backup app, can be recovered by simply
copying them from the backup media and renaming them to get rid of
the .bkf TLD.

HTH
Pop`




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