XP Pro/backup

Ken68

Have just bought a new computer with XP Pro and see there is a backup system, apart from, I presume, a System Restore.
Bought it from an experienced trader, honest, and lives just round the corner. He has serviced my old computer, no problems.
However, he has installed Norton Ghost, with a loada running processes in Task Manager.
Do I need both the XP Pro back up AND Ghost. 3GB memory and 250GB Hard drive, and nothing to back up really. Music and photoes are backed onto the web. Can I just leave it . What do readers think. Can muddle thru most things, but doubt I would know what to do if owt goes wrong.
Thanks for reading.

posted_2

Ghost is better.

If your hard disk dies tomorrow, how would you get a fully working system back (windows/programs/data) - with a disk imaging software backup onto DVD or external disk it is easy, without it is either a pain, or impossible.

Is all the software legit?

Jaffa.

You could get an external hard drive or a large USB drive and put your documents on there. Stuff like windows and music can be re-installed and put back, unless it's iTunes then you'd want to back up your purchased music.

Ken68

This Ghost backup goes to a ''partitioned drive' (whatever that is), so don't see the point of that, if windows goes. Have a 8gb stick, could do something one.
Oldie, me not the stick, so want it simple. Am always tempted to delete things if I don't think I can handle problems.
Thank you for the quick replies. One day things will stay the same. I mean, car makers have the same pedals in the same place, so why the !!!!!!!g hell can't Gates and Co do a deal.

kwikbreaks

> I mean, car makers have the same pedals in the same place, so why the !!!!!!!g hell can't Gates and Co do a deal.

Are you saying there should be only a single way that a PC can be backed up? If not what are you saying?

Ken68

Sorry, Kwik, me ranting at having to learn new ways. Never had to back up before, except Photobucketwise.
Come to that, why are there different ways to backup, if the generic way works why Ghost and Acro something. Like the first comp I had did the same things this does, e mail, music, photos, office.
Instead of re-designing , they want to sort out Spam and Hacking. Rant over, feel better, carry on.

kwikbreaks

There has always been a need to backup your data at the very least and the whole machine preferably.

I keep copies of stuff I consider to be important (eg photos) on different hard drives (on different PCs but that isn't essential) and take an image (I use Acronis True Image) of the whole operating system disk about once a month. Naturally if anything screws up it turns out that I missed a backup or two and the restore is a bit old but having something is a lot better than having nothing.

I've never lost any data I consider to be important but at least some of that is down to luck as I don't do manual backups as often as I should and don't run automatic backup software.

Ken68

You are right, Kwik, but it does annoy me that money is spent on duplicate design,Ghost, Acronis , IE 8, Vista and others when such money could be spent on an attack force to round up and shoot a few spammers. Only joking.

colboy

Nortons product that is like system restore is called GO BACK. Ghost is different

Ken68

Yes Colboy, worried now that will have trouble getting rid of Norton Ghost. Maybe just disable it when something pops up.

anguilla

If you want a free backup product and have the Operating System CD then just do Start/Run/ntbackup - select the drive to back up (or just folders) and also System State if you want a full restore and then you can restore all your data should the hard drive fail. Then just put in a location.

If the worst comes to the worst you load up XP again and then do a restore telling it to overwrite everything. It only runs when you want it to.

For a small set it and forget it (around £20 or so) - I use Second Copy - set it to back up files/folders, tell it when to run and just let it do its thing.