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Looking to do a complete PC backup...but how?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by JSinNOLA, Apr 13, 2009.

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  1. JSinNOLA

    JSinNOLA Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #1 JSinNOLA, Apr 13, 2009
    Apparently I am running this computer with Windows Vista Home Premium. It looks like only the Vista Ultimate and Vista Business editions come with the option to do a full PC imaging backup. Why isn't this a standard feature on all versions? I digress.

    I have a 300G MyBook that I want to use for this backup and I want do backup every program, every setting.....everything!

    It doesn't even appear that Norton360 on my computer has a full PC backup option.
    Any ideas on how best to go about this?
     
  2. the_stig

    the_stig F1 Rookie

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    #2 the_stig, Apr 14, 2009
    This type of backup is usually referred to as making an image of the drive and there are several solutions. The big commercial ones are Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost. There are several free programs with the best known being Clonezilla and DriveImage XML but Fog is making strides in that area.
     
  3. JSinNOLA

    JSinNOLA Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #3 JSinNOLA, Apr 14, 2009
    Which out of the free would you personally recommend?
     
  4. powerpig

    powerpig F1 World Champ

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    #4 powerpig, Apr 14, 2009
    Macrium Reflect Personal (Free) Edition
     
  5. teak360

    teak360 F1 World Champ

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    #5 teak360, Apr 14, 2009
    Thanks for the hint.

    I have been trying to do this with Vista with other programs/external hard drives and it is A PAIN IN THE ASS. Switching everything to Mac soon I hope. Big chunks of my email history
    are GONE. Looking for them on an old CD now
     
  6. JSinNOLA

    JSinNOLA Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #6 JSinNOLA, Apr 14, 2009
    I hear you! Had a major computer meltdown happen once when I wasn't prepared. I think I lost nearly 2 years worth of emails and tons of music. Never want that to happen again!

    I'll be trying to make a full image of my computer tonight.
     
  7. Etcetera

    Etcetera Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #7 Etcetera, Apr 14, 2009
    I use Acronis, it works very well for imaging. Cheap at only $40.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200008

    All you have to do is build an image, save it, and make a bootable CD. It took less than 10 minutes to restore a borked Vista install, a process that takes me about 4 hours when installing the OS/drivers/apps/folders/data from scratch.
     
  8. the_stig

    the_stig F1 Rookie

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    #8 the_stig, Apr 14, 2009
    Thanks, that's the one I couldn't remember when posting earlier.
     
  9. flash32

    flash32 F1 Veteran

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    #9 flash32, Apr 15, 2009
    I have not look into anything new in a while but I always found CNET.com a good place to do research on all software ( freeware included) - they have reviews and ratings

    Just a thought
     
  10. JSinNOLA

    JSinNOLA Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #10 JSinNOLA, Apr 15, 2009
    Hmmm, I ran Reflect last night and got the following error:
    "Backup Aborted! - Unable to read from disk - Error Code 23 - Data error (cyclic redundancy check)."

    Interestingly enough when I was doing a basic Windows backup I got another error:

    "Data error (cyclic redundancy check). (0x80070017)"


    Both errors occured at least 50% into the backup attempts.
     
  11. the_stig

    the_stig F1 Rookie

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    #11 the_stig, Apr 15, 2009
    A quick Google gives a thread on the Macrium support forum:
    http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33

    They suggest running chkdsk to detect/fix disk errors.
     

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