How do I backup my system? Plz help noob

[DVad3r]

Hey guys, I've been having some mad computer problems lately and have formatted at least 7 times in the past 2 days. I think I have finally got my system to be stable but then again who knows. I installed fresh win xp, got all latest updates, got all latest drivers for my components, and now I want to backup all this to lets say a DVD so I can use it to reformat and have everything here right off the bat.

I see there is some system recovery and backup function in the system tools, but which do I use? Any advice or links to guides? The help is greatly appriciated...

Thanks.

 

[KeyserSoze]

What you want to do is "ghost" your system, or make a true image of your computer. This means it'll backup everything, system files/registry/drivers, etc. There are a few programs that will do this.

Ghost
Acronis True Image

Those are the first ones that come to mind. They will create an image of your drive, and possibly a boot disk that you boot into before re-imaging your system.

Hope this started you off on what you wanted to know!



KS

 

[DVad3r]

Ahh I see, I heard about those programs, but I thought windows had something like that built in for free. Is ghost free? Where can I get it?

 

[Rottie]

no Ghost and True Image are not free.

 

[WildHorse]

But you can download Acronis True Image and use it free for 2 weeks!
That'll be enough time to make your backup (this time around).