Can someone tell me?
 

How do I back up my computer.

Its a Dell, with xp.

Its a laptop. And my husband thinks we should back it up in
a disk.

Donna:grouphug:

Just wanted to say hi. It's a good question. I've never backed up anything. Someone will come along and teach the both of us.

lol

Melody

a usb flash drive would be better than a cd/disk unless you have a bunch of disks around already.
disks get scratched easily and may not last as long as you want them to

flash drives are enclosed with a memory chip
and you don't have to burn ( copy/write to a cd) anything to use a flash drive.

basically just click the file or files you want to backup and send it to the flash drive easy :cool:


http://www.udel.edu/topics/backups/flashdrive.html
http://www.backupforall.com/usb-flash-backup.php

there are probably many videos on youtube and websites that detail step by step how to back up your computer..
much easier than me trying to type everything out..

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=13&g...w=1360&bih=636

Thanks Jo-mar

I wondered after I posted about a flash drive.

It makes sense.

Now if I can just figure out how to get the stupid thing, my desk top.
Back on the internet, at least it reading its on. But wont go on.


Ugh, its making me mad. I need to print somethings off. But my laptop
isn't set up yet.

Donna:grouphug:

Jo Mar

Can you back up EVERYTHING that is on the computer, on one flash drive??

thanks, Melody

I'm just curious, not that I'm going to do this, but just curious.

Backups
 

Oh, far from it! The hard drive I'm currently using has a capacity of about 80 gb, and that's on the small side as hard drives go. Even though there's less than 15 gb of data on it, that would still fill up 15 of the flash cards that I normally use for backup.

I have a DOS program (a .bat file) set up to handle my backups. At the end of each session, I run it. It checks in the folders that I've specified (such as My Documents) and copies to the flash drive all files that have changed since they were last backed up. Once a month or so, I burn a copy of everything on the flash drive to a CDR. If there's almost enough data on the flash drive to fill the CDR I delete the oldest files, the ones that have already been burned to several CDRs.

I back up my own data but not Windows nor any other software that I have an installation CD for. If I lose any of those from the hard drive, I'd much rather reinstall them from the original CD than from my own backup attempts.

I do save copies of software that I download, and burn those to CDR. What I save, though, is not the installed program (which can be very large) but what I call the "installer" -- the thing I actually downloaded, usually a self-extracting ZIP file that installs the software, creates any necessary folders for it, updates the registry, puts an icon on the desktop, and does whatever else is needed to get the software ready to run. In case of a hard drive crash, I want to be ready to reinstall everything that I've put on that hard drive since it was new.

If the flash drive is big enough maybe more of a 16 or 32 G size -

- or if you limit only files & settings and not the whole windows system files
- or if the flash drive has a built in compression program.

most will tell you at some point of the process of backing up - if it runs out of room. But then you have to go re select fewer files to back up. and start over.

Here are some easy back up programs that might be very helpful & much easier than the windows backup utility ( it has to be installed from the Windows CD -XP anyway)

read about them -and the comments on the bottom of the page for each program - before trying it.
If you try one and don't care for it - uninstall it & just try a different one sometime I try 3-4 before I find one I like.

http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Todo...-10964460.html

http://download.cnet.com/Cobian-Back...-10071828.html

http://download.cnet.com/GFI-Backup-...-10915610.html

The only things you really need to back up are things like documents, photos, songs, etc. that you don't want to lose. The system files all reside on your Windows disk and are restored when you reformat.

Wal-Mart had a nice sale on 8GB flash drives recently. I use one on my Vista box for the Readyboost feature.

I don't have a windows disk. Never had one. When I got this, everything was bundled and well, I'll probably learn what I need to learn when I need to learn it. Here's a question. Can I get another flash drive and back up my Windows XP operating system?

Or, when I re-format the hard drive, will it automatically pop up?

thanks much

Melody

If you want to save/backup/clone the whole xp system a much bigger flash drive is needed.

You got a new hard drive fairly recently right? last spring or so?

You might ask the computer guy if he partitioned it like the HP original drive was -with the XP OS recovery files on it or not?

Recovery disk info-
[This document pertains to HP or Compaq Desktop computers with Windows XP.
HP computers that ship with Microsoft Windows XP and Compaq Presario Desktop computers made in spring of 2003 and later already come with a hidden preloaded recovery partition. This hidden partition can be used to recover all of the original software in the event of a major problem by pressing the F10 key repeatedly when the computer is first started. However, there might be times when recovery discs are needed to restore the computer, such as when a virus destroys the recovery partition. By using the Recovery CD-DVD Creator program, you can create a set of recovery discs to restore your computer back to its original condition.]
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ectID=bph08097

If no recovery files then I'd go to the HP site and see about ordering a cd or down loading the recovery files.
It is a legal copy for that computer - so it will be very handy to have if you ever want to do a format or complete fresh re install of the xp operating system. here- http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ectID=bph07143

Do Not Format until you get your recovery disks!!!
IF you format your drive and have no recovery disks available - you will have no xp system at all. FORMAT erases everything on the hard drive
Computer will be unusable until you instal some kind of operating system on to that hard drive.

If you buy a bigger flash drive be sure to ask the person if it is big enough to hold a complete backup or a cloned image of your system.

Just to be on the safe side before you do any changes get the recovery disks from HP- should be free /very low cost /maybe postage.
I ordered a set for an old compaq computer my son brought home and I was surprised at how easy it was to do and cheap- maybe 20.00??.
compared to having to buy a totally new operating system from a store or online.

Let's see if I got this right. When the guy re-partitioned my hard drive (he did this, I remember), then what I need to do is put a cd rom thing in my cd drive and copy recovery files and make my own recovery discs?

Is that right?

Now. and I don't know if this matters but my lightscribe dvd rom thing doesn't work. My cd rom thing works fine.

So How do I find these recovery files, where are they? and I gather I do the drag and drop to the cd rom thing?

Or am I completely off the loop here.
I think it's easier to go and buy a router and laptop and replace this old workhorse but I really want to keep it.

Stupid me, I thought if I reformatted it it would be like it came from the factory.

But I'm not crazy. I once remember that we did this some years ago. We did a default thing by pressing one of the F keys and it did something to the system and it made my computer like it just came from the factory.

It re-set everything to a default stage (or something like that).

Am I crazy here?

Melody

does your cd rom burn cds?
or only play them??? that is the question..

didn't the light scribe stop working when the motherboard or hard drive was changed?
*maybe the drivers got removed or scrambled - you can go to whoever makes them (the brand name)and get the updated drivers for it and it might start working again.*
be sure to go to the manufactures website only and not some other site as some of those are questionable.

ahh they have an Automatic Product Detection here - looks like you need to use IE or certain versions of Firefox .
[use one of the following browsers:
Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0, 7.0, or 8.0
Firefox 3.5.x or 3.6.x
Google Chrome 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or 7.x]
http://h20270.www2.hp.com/EDIAGS/GMN...mpatError.aspx

that link might be just what you need to get the light scribe going again..

and the out of warranty info /help page -
http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/cache/...0-225-121.html

If you can't burn a cd at all - you'll have to order the recovery disks.
but another complication might be the different motherboard..??

Too bad that computer guy didn't make the recovery disks for you...

that info I posted in the last post tells about the recovery process- and w/the link to HP

I have no idea if my cd rom thingee burns anything. Years ago I did burn a dvd using the lightscribe thing.

When the guy re-partitioned the hard drive, (and because I rarely do dvds) I had no way of knowing if the stupid dvd rom thingee worked.

Only when I could not play Avatar (or any of my other dvds), well, that's when I found out. I dowloaded all the correct codecs and nothing helped. I went back to the guy and he told me to bring it in and he'd fix it but at my age and with my arthritis I'm not lugging this monster out of my house anymore.

He said 'your lightscribe dvd rom is no longer functioning" I had figured this out.

But the cd rom thingee works fine.

But everything else, well, forget it. Someday I'll get a router, and my own laptop and I'll just save up.

I don't want to have this big monster as my second computer. I have no place to put it.

And I do THANK YOU for answering all my questions. You and Allengamer have helped me tremendously.

I'll post a new video when I get my new computer.

Take care thanks very much my dear Jo.

Mel

Jo.

Just found this on my computer when I was poking around the Help and Support option.

Automated System Recovery overviewYou should create Automated System Recovery (ASR) sets on a regular basis as part of an overall plan for system recovery in case of system failure. ASR should be a last resort for system recovery, used only after you have exhausted other options, such as Safe Mode Boot and Last Known Good. For more information about other recovery options, see Repair overview.

ASR is a two-part system of recovery: ASR backup and ASR restore. The backup portion is accomplished through the ASR Wizard located in Backup. The wizard backs up the system state, system services, and all disks associated with the operating system components. It also creates a file containing information about the backup, the disk configurations (including basic and dynamic volumes) and how to accomplish a restore.

You can access the restore portion by pressing F2 when prompted in the text-mode portion of setup. ASR will read the disk configurations from the file that it creates and restore all of the disk signatures, volumes and partitions on, at a minimum, the disks required to start the computer. (It will attempt to restore all of the disk configurations, but under some circumstances, it might not be able to.) ASR then installs a simple installation of Windows and automatically starts a restoration using the backup created by the ASR wizard.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here is where I get my confusion. This ASR, this is done BEFORE one re-formats the hard drive. Or does one do this BEFORE and because they are doing the ASR, it's reformats the hard drive and literally makes your computer like new. I wish I knew more than I do but this is very confusing.

this is really over my head but if you could please just say:

Melody, these are where your back up files are" then say: "melody, this is how you do ASR"

If this is possible, then when I get the new computer, I'll just move this big one over a few feet onto the dining room table (pull out an old monitor ) and I'll play with this one. If I know what I'm doing, then I know what I'm doing, but if not, I'll just chalk it up to not knowing what I'm doing. But I really want to learn this back up thing.

If you can do this and if it doesn't take too much typing on your part, I just need it made simple. I can't get over how you people KNOW so much about backing up files, flash drives, etc. etc.

I just got a new Vitamix and of course I screwed up my first attempt.

lol
Melody

I've never done a HP recovery so all I know is what the website tells about it.

But that ASR part is saying "You should create Automated System Recovery (ASR) sets on a regular basis as part of an overall plan for system recovery in case of system failure."
It's like a backup for the whole system it sounds like.
But you would need a working cd burner to do it unless there is an option to send files to that partition on the hard drive or a flash drive.

I would try that ASR Wizard located in Backup and see where it sends the files. usually it will have a default set so just let it go to that location & click OK. give it a try, then you'll know you have a backup there - at the very least it will or will not work then you'll know..


sometimes I read over the info on the websites a few times so I'm sure to understand what they are saying - or I print out the steps needed -just makes it easier.

Thanks Jo for all your help. Much appreciated.

Now I am going to make you laugh. An online sprouting friend of mine actually GAVE me a Vitamix. I have been trying to learn how to use it.

Tonight I tried making Banana Ice cream for Alan.

Just watch and you won't be able to stop laughing. I know, because I tried watching this over and over and I still can't stop laughing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdauKnDjm0M

Melody

what a mess -the strawberry one.
did you try the vitamix website for recipes?
http://www.vitamix.com/recipes/

Of course I did. That's how I learned Banana Cream Ice Cream. It's all about learning to use variable speeds, timing, etc.

I have LOTS to learn

OH, JUST GOT THE COMPUTER FROM STAPLES.

Thank you so much for ALL your great help.

You are a doll!!!!

Melody