any way to make complete backup of hard disk?

[NleahciM]

Hi - I'm having some fairly serious problems with my computer. I believe they're due to something wrong with XP, and not the hardware itself. All the problems are related to USB - lots and lots of crashing when various usb devices are connected. Anyways - I'd like to do a clean format of XP and start over - but I'd also like to have a full backup of the xp install in case I want to revert back to it. My xp install takes up about 20GB right now. I have an external hard drive with plenty of free space. Ideally - I'm looking for something that can copy every bit of my primary hard drive to my external hard drive (usb 2.0) - and that could then somehow recopy the OS from that hard drive to my primary hard drive (perhaps off of a bootable cd?)

Is there anything like this? If it matters - computer is a Dell Latitude D600.

Thanks!

 

[AsianriceX]

Sounds like you need Norton Ghost

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[Wyck]

Or if you consider yourself hardcore and don't want to spend the money, G4U is an open source Ghost clone that will do the job nicely. It's a bit ugly though.

 

[bersl2]

Hell, dd would work just fine.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: AsianriceX
Sounds like you need Norton Ghost

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[corkyg]

Don't think imaging - think cloning! I do it every week. The best out there for the task is Acronis TrueImage 8.

TI8

 

[robisc]

Don't think imaging - think cloning! I do it every week. The best out there for the task is Acronis TrueImage 8.

I second this, as i have lost major data multiple times with Ghost.

 

[saxophonoia]

Ghost. Used it for years and never a problem with it.

 

[gpgofast]

True Image 8.0. Download from Newegg for about $35. I use it all the time and love it. GP

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: gpgofast
True Image 8.0. Download from Newegg for about $35. I use it all the time and love it. GP

You got it! It auto-creates a bootable CD, then use it and you can clone anything in your system - IDE, Firewire, SATA, SCSI - whatever - both ways. Makes Ghost look like a poor, more expensive less capable cousin.

 

[gpgofast]

You can also mount the Image and assign it a drive letter with Acronis installed. Looks just like another hardrive and all files are accessible.

 

[danzig]

I would have to say True Image also :beer:

 

[skyking]

Is there an option to start and stop DB services, so you can get a clean copy of the DB?