How do I burn back-up discs with a notebook?

Hi,

A few months ago I bought a Acer Aspire One notebook for my husband. He is very happy with it, but one thing bothers him - and me. On a regular base the message "burn your back-up discs NOW" pops up. There is no burner in that small machine, how and/or where do I make back up discs?

Thanks in advance!
Milli

 

will it let you make the backup with a usb device?

 

amazon.com sells usb external slim cd rom drives for 45 dollars. they are small and nice to have around anyway. so if you have the means I would use one of those.

this one is pretty nice. burns dvd cds runs just off usb so travel friendly.

samsung dvd drive

that particular model may require 2 usb ports. since there is no plug to have to plug into the wall

 

It should let you back up with an external hard drive or a flash drive. Just about any form of removable storage should work. It only suggests DVD's because that's the most commom form of external storage, and is the one most people are familiar with and know what it is. If you go into the backup program, it should let you select what drive you want to back up to, whether it be G:/, or F:/, etc.

 

Thank you all for the information! Just let me put it in my words to see if I have understood it right.

I can back up to any kind of device as long as it is big enough, and I would guess that 2 x a 4Gb flash drive is big enough? Or maybe not?
I will also look into the one that AppleUsr suggested (this teeny tiny notebook has 3 usb ports). I bought one of those dvd drives last week but when I got home I read the description a little more careful and I thought it didn't write, only play so I brought it back.

My other concern is, can I re-format a hd from a flash drive??

Thanks again!
Milli.

 

Correct, but if you are going to backup your entire HD 2x 4GB of anything is not enough. You can see about how much space you will require by opening "My Computer", right click your C: drive, properties, and check the used space of your harddrive.

If you mean, create backup disks as in "create the restore disks" for the data that originally came on your notebook, then two or three DVD's should hold that data.

Yes, as a matter of fact you can put an entire OS on a flash drive, such as XP or Windows 7 and install the entire OS from a 4GB flash drive. Instructions to do so are on this forum.

You can format a HD with just a few simple DOS commands and all that is needed is to create a bootable USB flash drive with the DOS commands on it. Instructions can also be found on NBR forums.

 

Hi,

Thank you for the fast reply!

I now realize that 'back up' isn't correct, I should have said 'restore discs'.

I regularly copy what hb makes or wants to save on some cd's (first on a flash dr) just incase. But the notebook didn't come with the restore discs and the message 'make your restore discs' keeps popping up.
If I understand your answer correctly 8 Gb in total on flash drives is enough for XP? Is the fact that I have 2 4Gb drives not a problem? Because, when putting it on CD's it's also devided.

I will go and search these forums for instructions so I know what I'm doing.

Thanks and have a great evening.
Milli.

 

Normally restore discs are made using CD's or DVD's but DVD's are the norm as each DVD holds roughtly 6x the data as CD. Results in less total discs to make and store.

I have never tried making 'restore discs' using USB flash drives. I don't see a problem as long as the program which makes the restore media allows it.

A year down the road, should you need them, it may be easier to locate the restore DVD's if archived in a case then trying to track down the USB flash drives.

 

The recovery disc creation will probably take 3 DVDs. Three DVDs are much cheaper than a couple flash drives, too.

 

But an external DVD drive is much more expensive than a 16GB flash drive.

 

True but an external optical drive is a pretty handy to have when your laptop lacks an internal.

 

So far, this seems like the best thread to post this in, so here goes.
In my "pretty new" baby(see sig), on unboxing I did nothing more than boot, register, and burn restore set(3 dvd's), swap out HD, install a "clean" copy of win7 64 HP and all is just fine .
My question is in regard to the original 160gb HD. At the moment it is completely intact(only removed it) in case it needs to go in for warranty service. I would like to use the original HD in a usb case but not real sure about messing up the recovery function (also want to keep Erecovery intact for future resale). So if I replace the original HD and Ghost it to dvd's(I have Ghost & Acronis TI, both bootable) will I be able to Ghost it back to "original" condition and still have F10 recovery?
I wholly trust Ghost but don't totally trust Acronis(had a couple restores not work). I just want to use the other drive for now.

Thanx in advance

 

No, don't trust Ghost either.

If you want to use it as a warranty drive or when you sell it (which is exactly what I do and recommend, btw), then simply get another one to use externally.

I would be too worried about any data I put on it to give it back to the 'outside' world again.

Cheers!

 

But I still want to know if it would work. Has anyone had real success. I'm not worried about the data, nothing more than transporting music and such, nothing "personal".
I don't "install" Ghost(or any other Symantec SW), but never had a problem with it other than an occasional sata/ahci controller not recognizing a drive.
Cashflow is low and it's killin' me to have a usable drive just sitting there:wink:
Thanx

 

Well, in that case - make a 'lite2' folder on the drive and only put stuff there. You are losing what, maybe 35GB out of 160 by leaving the Windows and Recovery partition on it?

Seems like a fair trade to me.

You can still do a Ghost image for a 'just in case' type of scenario (before you start using it for a data drive), but I would leave the partitions and MBR headers intact, for 'extra' protection too.

Good luck.

 

Ok, I surrender!!!
For the time being I went and ordered this drive to use as a usb portable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148489

I tried Ghost 2003, latest version you can get as a bootable(booting from floppy & cd): Boots, see's my HD but not my dvd burner(LG brand) even though it booted off that drive So no go there. Never had much luck with AHCI on Ghost, no surprise.

Tried Acronis TI 11, Tried 5 times to get a backup to dvd, it would burn'em all but report "corrupted files" on verify . Even updated firmware for the dvd drive. Tried single and dual layer dvd's.

This shouldn't be this complicated!!!!!
What am I missing?
There has to be a way of making a FULL disk backup on these other than cloning the HD to another.

 

I tried to warn you, glad you tested it first and found it corrupted before you needed/depended it to work.

Yup! Clone to another HD, that will work, but defeats the purpose you need.

Cheers!

 

Guess I should have posted it here to start with but I pulled it off.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=452884