Backing up - Somethings not right.

rory41444

I want to back up my hard drive for the first time ever on my Windows XP system.

All the directions I read about tell me to open Start Menu, click on Programmes, click Accessories and then System Tools. Then click Backup to run Microsofts Backup Programme.
When the System Tools box appears there is nothing in it that says Backup.

Can anyone tell me where to look for it and is it better to buy a Zip drive or an external hard drive. I don't have a huge amount on the computer - mainly documents and family photographs. Would a CD be any good?

Any help would be appreciated

imho

I would buy a external hard drive about £70.Acronis 7 is still free,use that,or just get Acronis and back up to your main drive for now.

imho

I backed up all my programs/songs to discs using Nero 6,You click on back up data,and it puts it all on cd discs,that would be better for you.
But you really need to back up your whole computer soon .

rizla01

Yes. Definitely!!

Mine died recently and I have lost a HUGE amount of family photo's and other important stuff.

(I have two Grandchildren under two and all of the photos were on there.)

Def Back up.

Nikolai

If you have XP home, the backup program is not automatically installed.
If you have got your XP disc, you can install it. See here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx

BillScarab

How much data have you got to back up? If ii's not much just copy it straight to CD or preferably DVD. That will get a copy off your system in case your hard disc crashes. I'd advises taking two copies just in case you lose or scratch a CD.

Long term you need a proper backup strategy. One option is to get an external hard disk or a second internal hard disk and use a disk clone program like Acronis to create an image of your PC. This is good as you can easily re-install your whole PC to a new disc.

The other alternative is to use a backup program such as Windows backup and just backup your data files. Then if you lose your disc you can buy a new one, re-install windows and restore your data.

Personally I take a disc image occasionally and backup my data to DVD on a fairly regular basis. I don't use a backup utility, I just copy my data across to DVD when I want to backup.

rory41444

Nikolai wrote:

If you have XP home, the backup program is not automatically installed.
If you have got your XP disc, you can install it. See here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx

Thanks for all your replies.

I haven't got a XP disc. I think windows XP came already installed. What now?

rory41444

BillScarab wrote:

How much data have you got to back up? If ii's not much just copy it straight to CD or preferably DVD. That will get a copy off your system in case your hard disc crashes. I'd advises taking two copies just in case you lose or scratch a CD.

Yes but how do I do it? I've got some spare CD's

j_davies

Lets say for example you want to back up your documents and anything else like music or pictures, well what I do is insert a blank CD first then to go to the folder my documents from Start, My Documents, then Edit, Select All then Edit, Copy to Folder and choose a CD drive where a blank CD-R is inserted into and then click copy to folder and follow the onscreeen instructions.

-TangleFoot-

It's not an ideal solution, but you could use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard as an impromptu backup utility.