Free and easy drive backup/restore software

[pcspeak]

Edit:- This has nothing to do with a Video Help Forum but I thought It was a great deal and would be of use to a lot of members.
Moderators; If out of place, my apologies and please delete.

Hi all.
The very good people from http://www.runtime.org/driveimage_faq.htm provide this backup/restore/recover/browse program.
FREE of charge. It works with Vista and XP. (Haven't tried Win2k.)

The help files are very easy to read. When it comes to creating a recovery CD - BartPE is recommended. There are hundreds of links to how to do it. Just search. The ability to open the program, browse for a lost or deleted file, right click and extract it is GREAT!
I highly recommend you download and install it.

Following is a small batch file I wrote to do backups of one drive to another drive, with compression.
All you need to do is place the batch file or a link to it on the desktop, double click on it and walk away.

The source drive letter needs to be changed to the drive you are backing up. One spot.
The destination drive letter needs to be changed to the output drive. Four spots.

@echo off
:: *** Create backup root folder ***
if not exist D:\backups md D:\backups

:: *** Create env.var %date% with today's date. ***
date/t > tmp
for /F "tokens=4,3,2 delims=/ " %%b in (tmp) do set date=%%d%%c%%b
del tmp

:: *** Create env.var %number% for the next backup. Maximum of 5 per day. ***
set number=0
for /L %%x in (5,-1,1) do if not exist "D:\backups\XP%date%-%%x.xml" set number=%%x
if %number%==0 goto ErrMsg01

"C:\Program Files\Runtime Software\DriveImage XML\DIXML.EXE" /c /s- /bC /t"D:\backups\XP%date%-%number%"
goto end

:ErrMsg01
echo Unable to create the backup file.
echo Press any key to exit....
pause>nul

:end

Copy and paste into a text file:- DriveImage.cmd
Make the changes and you're good to go.

[Baldrick]

This is not video related news. Moving you to our Computer section.

[pcspeak]

Aha. Of course!
Thanks.

[jollyjohn]

Thanks pcspeak.
How do you reload your back up from D to C drive?

Thanks again

John

[pcspeak]

Basically, you build a bootable CD. During the build you add a plugin to allow you to run DriveImage.
Get started here and read from top to bottom. http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm
Download the DriveImage plugin.

Then go to Bart Lagerweij's site and download PE Builder. By following both Runtime Software's & Bart Lagerweij's instructions the job is straight forward.

NOTE:- You must have a licensed copy of Windows XP to build the Bart PE boot disk.
Read the licensing information on Bart's web site.

Luck.