Cannot create ASR disk, no floppy drive

tincat

I can't quite believe this.

I've just bought an external hard drive so that I can back up my current laptop, before I try repairing my old laptop. (All files from the old one have been saved onto my current computer).

I did the back-up but it did ask me to ensure I had a 3.5" floppy disk to make an ASR recovery disk.

I don't have a floppy drive - (laptops! 2007! come on Microsoft!) but still backed up the entire settings of my computer - including all settings, files etc etc to the external drive.

1) If my current computer fails for any reason, will I still be able to access the back up either to save it onto a new computer, or to my current one which I assume would be wiped back to factory settings?

2) I also have expensive software on this computer for which I cannot for the life of me find the original disks - studio 8 and photoshop. Having saved the entire settings and all files on my computer, will the programs work if I use the back up on a new laptop, or this one (current computer) if I had to wipe it clean?

I just want to be prepared for the worst.

Thanks

BillScarab

do you know if you have a seagate or maxtor disc in your laptop? If you do you can download Disk Wizard from the seagate website and use that to backup your PC and create a bootable CD. Disk Wizard is just Acronis true image rebranded as a Seagate product and is very good and free. You could download it and try it anyway whatever disc you have as I dob't know whether it actually checks or not.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

tincat

Thanks for your reply - I don't know what cd drive I have in the computer, but I've just looked on ebay, and I can buy a usb floppy drive quite cheaply. I suppose this would be the best solution?

Could you tell me if I have to do the whole back up all over again, or if the info for the recovery disk is stored somewhere that I can access it?

Also, do you know whether if restore my back up to another computer if I get a new one, would the software work as it does on my current one?

Thanks

BillScarab

I'm not that familiar with ASR but as I understand it, the process creates an image of your current machine. I doubt if you would be able to restore that to a different machine as the hardware would be different.