Re: I cannot believe it!!!


"Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_newsid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:xn0fcvd1i1rrkdf005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 25/10/2007 in message <5obgujFm55utU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Alma wrote:

OK so we should back up - it would be most helpful if someone would give
baby step instructions on how we should do this - It would be helpful not
only to me but I do know someone else who would like to know:-))
I should be happy to do regular back ups to CD.

Step 1 is to never keep any data on the 'C' drive, never, never, ever,
ever :-)

I guess you are advising never to keep data on the hard drive which until
last weekend
was drive 'C' - *but* since these clever fellows have scrubbed my hard drive
and reinstalled
t Windows my hard drive is now letter 'I' - this is going to take some
getting used to because
what was 'D' is now 'G' and my re-write is 'H'. Perhaps by Xmas I might
have sussed it out:-)))

If your PC is set up with one partition on one hard drive though you would
need a partitioning tool to shrink that partition and make space for a
second partition for your data - since you should only need it once we
could do with some input on any good free ones out there. We could also do
with knowing if the recovery process on your Dell allows for recovery to
just the 'C' partition or if it will over-write the whole HD. All my
laptops allow re-installation to the 'C' partition but I haven't had to
re-install my Dell Vostro yet, I haven't even looked at th CD's that came
with it.

Sounds complicated.

So let's see what input we get on partitioning before taking that step.

In the meantime what about getting an external hard drive, Firewire if you
have a F/W connection, USB2 otherwise. That way you can run a batch file
each night to backup up your 'My Documents' stuff at least. There's an
article here:

Yes Jeff an external hard drive sounds like a good idea. I have a spare
USB2 connection.


http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx

Ilooked at this some time ago but it seemed a bit beyond me.

about using the built in backup program, MSFT also have a free program
which is a bit better but I can't remember its name - perhaps somebody
could jog my memory?

If this is a desktop PC I can let you have a batch file that would backup
to an external HD and then turn the PC off so you could run it each night
when you've finished with the PC.

You could add an extra step by backing up to CD/DVD once a month on top of
the external HD. CD/DVD is not a good backup medium though, I use DVD RAM
(in cassettes) but the drives are few and far between.

Thanks for the advice. I shall have a google for an external drive -

Alma


.

Relevant Pages

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