Hard drive imaging question.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Will the back-up utility that came with my Hp pc do the same thing as Acronis True Image or other imaging software. All I'm looking to do is, after my next clean install of winxp, and my used programs. I want to be able to go back to that exact setup, if say my drive were to fail or I somehow get nailed with viruses of malware. So would the included back-up utility allow me to create an exact copy of my OS settings, installed programs, etc, just as Acronis or Ghost would?

[TimA-C]

I think (and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong ) that the backup utility you're talking about just creates a series of CDs or DVDs that contain the system recovery information that is stored on a hidden partition on your hard drive. Basically they're a set of make-your-own-recovery-disks-because-we-can't-be-bothered-anymore-besides-we-can-screw-some-more-money-out-of-you-when-your-pc-goes-down-and-you-never-got-around-to-creating-the-disks-ha-ha rather than an actual backup of your system at the time the backup utility is run. Like I said, I may be wrong. I still tend to use the old Norton Ghost 2003 DOS utility to make backup images of my drives.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Unless your HP has a specific back-up utility separate from the one that comes with XP then you are using Microsoft's Backup that has shipped with NT-based Windows for many years. It does a good job - I've used it many times - and, like most utilities provided with any OS, aren't necessarily the best nor easiest to use. Nevertheless, you can use MS Backup to rebuild a system, restoring it as it was before. But it is a pain to use.

However, unlike Acronis (why I have also used and now prefer - paying for a utility has its advantages, of course), it does not create a disk image.

With Vista, that's changed. The Vista version of Backup does create images - you can create a complete set of images for each drive. The nice thing is that these images are in Virtual PC format so you can mount them in Virtual PC and use them without having to restore the files. The not-so-nice thing is that they are in Virtual PC format! They are not backwards compatible with pre-Vista Backup. (Vista does have the pre-Vista version, too.)

Anyway, I would strongly recommend Acronis.

(If you are using a simple tool that TimA-C describes, then at least use the MS Backup instead - Start Menu\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Backup)

[ahhaa]

On my screen this thread is about 40 feet wide. How come and is there a quick fix for reading easier?:]

JM- that's real interesting; if you get some time it would be cool to hear more, mebbe even a tut?

The worst thing about restores is most folks have never done one when it wasn't for real... have no idea what'll happen!