I have a ASUS laptop running Vista Home Premium, 64 bit OS.

I have several programs that I use but no loner have the insall disks
for. Should I have to reformat in the future I would hate to lose
them.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Buy a extrenal hard drive. Seagate, 1Tbit, usb, cost $90.00.
Copy my hard drive to it.

If I need to reformat.
Reinstall Vista from my recover disk that came with the computer. Then
copy files from external drive. Bingo. All my old programs would be
there and working.

Question is: Can this be done?
What file/folders do I need to copy to the external drive?

I'm kinda new to this so any input would be great.
Thanks for any and all help................Tom

touch wrote:
I have a ASUS laptop running Vista Home Premium, 64 bit OS.

I have several programs that I use but no loner have the insall disks
for. Should I have to reformat in the future I would hate to lose
them.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Buy a extrenal hard drive. Seagate, 1Tbit, usb, cost $90.00.
Copy my hard drive to it.

If I need to reformat.
Reinstall Vista from my recover disk that came with the computer. Then
copy files from external drive. Bingo. All my old programs would be
there and working.

Question is: Can this be done?
What file/folders do I need to copy to the external drive?

I'm kinda new to this so any input would be great.
Thanks for any and all help................Tom

Use google groups to search the subject in file_management and you'll
get more info than you can use.

Get a backup program that will do "Images". I use Retrospect (good and
easy), many will say use Acronis (good and complex).

Dave T.

"Dave T." "Dave wrote:

Get a backup program that will do "Images". I use Retrospect (good and
easy), many will say use Acronis (good and complex).

Complex because it's the "Swiss Army Knife" of backup programs.

Best bang for the buck - period.

touch;1086328 Wrote:
I have a ASUS laptop running Vista Home Premium, 64 bit OS.

I have several programs that I use but no loner have the insall disks
for. Should I have to reformat in the future I would hate to lose
them.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Buy a extrenal hard drive. Seagate, 1Tbit, usb, cost $90.00.
Copy my hard drive to it.

If I need to reformat.
Reinstall Vista from my recover disk that came with the computer. Then
copy files from external drive. Bingo. All my old programs would be
there and working.

Question is: Can this be done?
What file/folders do I need to copy to the external drive?

I'm kinda new to this so any input would be great.
Thanks for any and all help................Tom


What you are trying to do is not going to work - with or without
Acronis or similar. When you reinstall Vista, you need the Installation
.exe of a program. The program files in your current Vista are not much
help because there is a lot more to a program installation than the
program files - the registry entries are just one of many.
If you use Acronis, Norton Ghost, Macrium or any other of those (which
I recommend for backup), you can reinstall your system from the backup.
But it will be exactly in the shape it was when you took the backup.
That is a very good scenario for recovery from any fatal error
(including the HDD going south). But you have to realize that you loose
everything from the time the backup was done to the time you broke down.
That can be little if you make a daily backup or a lot if you do it only
monthly.
If you want to know more about it, you can read this thread that I once
started ( 'Ghosting approaches - summary because of popular demand «
How-To Geek Forums'
(http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic...and?replies=46)
)


--
whs

"whs" wrote in message
...

touch;1086328 Wrote:
I have a ASUS laptop running Vista Home Premium, 64 bit OS.

I have several programs that I use but no loner have the insall disks
for. Should I have to reformat in the future I would hate to lose
them.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Buy a extrenal hard drive. Seagate, 1Tbit, usb, cost $90.00.
Copy my hard drive to it.

If I need to reformat.
Reinstall Vista from my recover disk that came with the computer. Then
copy files from external drive. Bingo. All my old programs would be
there and working.

Question is: Can this be done?
What file/folders do I need to copy to the external drive?

I'm kinda new to this so any input would be great.
Thanks for any and all help................Tom


What you are trying to do is not going to work - with or without
Acronis or similar. When you reinstall Vista, you need the Installation
exe of a program. The program files in your current Vista are not much
help because there is a lot more to a program installation than the
program files - the registry entries are just one of many.
If you use Acronis, Norton Ghost, Macrium or any other of those (which
I recommend for backup), you can reinstall your system from the backup.
But it will be exactly in the shape it was when you took the backup.
That is a very good scenario for recovery from any fatal error
(including the HDD going south). But you have to realize that you loose
everything from the time the backup was done to the time you broke down.
That can be little if you make a daily backup or a lot if you do it only
monthly.
If you want to know more about it, you can read this thread that I once
started ( 'Ghosting approaches - summary because of popular demand «
How-To Geek Forums'
(http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic...and?replies=46)
)


--
whs

That was a very interesting thread. I like DriveImage XML. I use it to back
up both my XP desktop and my Vista notebook using the Ultimate Boot CD to a
WD My Book 500GB USB/Firewire/eSATA drive. It won't do an incremental
backup, but it does allow you to restore individual files. I've used it to
restore my notebook with no problems whatsoever, but haven't needed it to
restore my desktop (KOW!).
I can backup my notebook through the USB port in about 35 minutes (40GB of
data). My desktop takes about 90 minutes for 140GB across 2 drives using
Firewire. I have never seen speeds like that with Ghost (newest I used was
v10) or BackUp Exec (numerous versions). For ease of use, I would say
DriveImage and Ghost are about the same (very easy). BackUp Exec, not so
easy. But it's meant for more of a server application, and offers LOTS of
options (also very expensive).
I've never used Acronis Home, but have read a lot of good stuff about it.
And for less than $40, it offers a lot of features.

SC Tom

I've used Acronis True Image Home for a few years now and it's never
failed me. Albeit the larger the OS gets, the more hard drive space
and/or the need for extra DVD s. I tend to use the boot CD to create
images of the entire OS, then when needed, restore using the disk.

As far as data backup, I've found Robocopy (built into Vista) to be
useful. However, it takes some getting used to. There are some good
video tutorials on using the program. For the record, there is a version
available for Windows XP.

And, yes, DriveImage XML is an excellent backup solution for Windows
XP.


--
midfingr