Re: Back up

From: Wesley Vogel (123WVogel955_at_comcast.net)
Date: 03/19/04 

Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 16:08:55 GMT

Jeff;

I knew NTbackup on XP Home was worthless,
but I didn't realize how worthless.

Interesting article. 

-- 
Hope this helps.  Let us know.
Wes
In news:WTt6c.19955$4B1.15196@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com,
mrtee <hingelicker@new$.rr.com>  hunted and pecked:
> It wont do you any good to get it because it doesn't work (to do an
> Automated System Restore (ASR)) in XP home.
>
> The following is from Woody's XP Watch #2.05 (2/4/2002):
>
> Last week I promised you that I would tell you about backup
> techniques for Windows XP/Home. If you'll recall, I told you that
> Windows XP/Pro has a downright decent backup and restore wizard,
> which runs as part of Automated System Recovery, accessible by
> clicking Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Backup.
> I also told you about the way Microsoft decided to include the backup
> half of the wizard in Windows XP/Home but, uh, neglected to include
> the restore part. In my WinXP book, I say "that makes XP/Home's
> backup just about as useful as a Ferrari Testarossa with no wheels."
> If you really, really want to use the ASR backup routine in XP/Home
> (it's the NTBackup program that Windows 2000 users have come to know
> and love), you can install it from the Windows XP/Home CD. To do so,
> put the XP/Home CD in your CD drive. When the installer asks, "What
> do you want to do?" click "Perform additional tasks" then "Browse
> this CD", navigate to VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP and double-click
> NTBACKUP.MSI.
>
> But don't bother installing the program until you've the rest of this
> newsletter. It should send a chill down your spine.
>
> I tried a few experiments and learned a few surprising things about
> XP/Home backup. There's an MS Knowledge Base article that's supposed
> to tell you what you need to do in order to perform an XP/Home
> restore, but I tried and tried and couldn't make heads from tails out
> of the article. The boot diskette generated by the backup program,
> following the description in the KB article, doesn't work on any of
> my systems. The steps detailed there for creating a backup file do
> work - you have to manually override the wizard's settings - but in
> the end, the backup isn't much use.
>
> Microsoft outright lies in their Knowledge Base article Q309340 where
> it says the restore feature "applies to Microsoft Windows XP Home
> Edition" when it most assuredly does not - any backup that you make
> in XP/Home is essentially worthless. Even if you tell the XP/Home
> "Backup or Restore Wizard" to restore the entire contents of the c:
> drive, it misses parts.
>
> The only way I found to restore the c: drive, after using NTBACKUP to
> create a backup file was to boot from the Windows XP/Home CD,
> completely delete the partition that held Windows, re-install
> WinXP/Home, re-install NTBACKUP using the steps I outlined above, and
> immediately run the restore using the Advanced settings in the
> wizard.
>
> You know the worst part of it all?  At every turn, it appears as if
> everything is working correctly, No error message. No warnings. No
> nothing. The Knowledge Base articles occasionally warn you that the
> procedures don't work with XP/Home - then go ahead and give you
> specific steps for performing the procedures that don't work! Unless
> somebody's clued you in, you'll only get heartburn over XP/Home's
> clueless backup when you need it - and find out that it didn't do
> what it was supposed to do.
>
> Trustworthy computing, eh?
>
> So now I've spoiled all your illusions about Backups in Windows XP
> what can you do?  In the next issue I'll tell you what I do and what
> options you can try.
>
> From #2.06 (2/12/2002):
>
> There are a million ways to back up your system, and at least a half
> million of them work.
>
> I've been playing the backup game for a long time, and I've only
> bumped into three basic scenarios where I really needed a backup.
> Mind you, I'm not a major multinational corporation, and I don't have
> a server farm. Although I do have an orchid farm. But that's another
> story.
>
> I need backups for three reasons.
>
> First, sometimes my c: drive dies. When that happens, I need to stick
> a new drive in the machine, boot, restore the hard drive, restore my
> data, and get going. I also lose at least two hanks of hair and at
> least one night of sleep.
>
> Second, sometimes I screw up a file so badly I need to go back and
> retrieve an earlier copy. When that happens, I know about it right
> away: I shout and kick the computer and swear a few times, then go
> spelunking to look for an old copy of the file.
>
> Third, on rare occasions, I'll make a change that needs to be undone
> and not catch it right away. I can only think of a couple of times
> I've done that, and it usually involves dial-up networking settings -
> I get the wrong password typed in, or I forget the name of a mail
> server, or something else equally obscure, and it's a couple of days
> later before I realize that I changed something I shouldn't have.
>
> The technique I use for backup works very well for the second kind of
> problem, and pretty well for the first kind. It doesn't do beans for
> the third type.
>
> My method is really simple. I like it that way.
>
> 1. All my PCs have two hard drives. The second one is primarily for
> backups, but I'll also stick device drivers and Service Packs and
> other not-critical-but-a-pain-to-download files on the second drive.
> The second drive also has copies of my old Outlook files, which I
> cycle manually once a month.
>
> 2. Every week or two (or whenever I'm going to do something fun like
> install new software) I run PowerQuest's Drive Image and create a
> full backup image of my main boot drive on the secondary drive. Drive
> Image generates boot disks and all the other goodies necessary to
> recovery from a crashed c: drive.
>
> 3. Every day - usually at the end of the day, I run a little batch
> file that copies all of my important data files from the main hard
> drive onto the backup drive. This is really a bailing wire 'n chewing
> gum approach, but it works fine for me. To make your own batch file
> that copies your data files from the c: drive to the d: drive, just
> do this:
>
>   a.. Right-click on the desktop, pick New | Text document
>   b.. Immediately type the name backup.bat and hit Enter. Windows
> will warn you not to change the file name extension. Which is really
> weird because Windows doesn't bother to show you file name extensions
> in the first place, but such is the Wonder of Windows. What you have
> is an old-fashioned batch file.
>   c.. Right-click on the new backup.bat file and pick Edit
>   d.. Type in this line:
> xcopy "c:\Documents and Settings\*.*" "d:\Backup" /d /e /c /h /y
>
>   a.. Close backup.bat.
>   b.. When you want to run a backup, double-click on backup.bat. The
> first time you run it, Windows will ask if you're trying to create a
> file or directory. Type "d" for directory. After the first time,
> it'll run without a hitch.
> Hate to disappoint you, but that's my entire backup strategy.
>
> That strategy might not suit you, not all of us have to install beta
> versions of Office and Windows from time to time.
>
> XP/Home users have some other options. For example, Microsoft has a
> set of six (six!) setup boot diskettes that you can download. Those
> diskettes will let you boot from your floppy drive, so you can run
> Windows XP setup from the CD, if your computer won't boot from the
> CD.
>
>
> The archives are at http://www.woodyswatch.com/winxp/archives.asp.
>
> MS was originally not even going to include ntbackup in XP home but
> (apparently) someone talked them into including it, with reduced
> functionality.
>
> I used ASR with XP pro, it worked as advertised.  However I now use
> an imaging program from www.acronis.com TrueImage which works very
> easily and does the job much better.
>
> Look on your XP CD in the value added folder for ntbackup.msi if you
> want to try it.
>
> --
> Just my 2¢ worth
>            Jeff
> __________in response to__________
>
> "Bill Pinkel" <bpinkel@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:d01201c40d4b$84a85870$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>> I have Windows XP Home Edition.  I click "Start", "All
>> Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", and there is
>> no "Backup" shown.  It states "Activate Windows" but I
>> know that Windows is activated.  I have seen other
>> computers with the "Backup" listed in the "Systems
>> Tools".  How do I get it???

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