Backing up Entire C Drive.

well i need to backup my entire c drive, but the program that comes with the western digital external harddrives arnt backing up all the files, what are the files i need just incase the RESTORE option fails and im left with nothing, if i backup my entire c drive i thought i could just restore all of it on my system, then just resume from where i was before, how can i do this? its not copying anything like the WINDOWS folder or anyting, please give me a list of files ill need, i dont want to have the RESTORE option fail and then i have to go buy a new os disk/activation key, please help. (btw its a desktop, sorry i thought you guys could help me also)

 

You want to clone the hard drive. This is usually done from a bootable CD. There are many utilities out there, some free, some for money. A lot of people like Acronis True Image, which has a free trial. I personally use Partimage, but it's a pain, with no real GUI and only experimental NTFS support. So I wouldn't recommend it.

Do you plan to restore the image to use on the same computer or a different one? If a different one you may run into some driver difficulties, and a clean install would make more sense. Also you would want to keep in mind that you can only use the Windows key on one computer at a time.

There is a good guide here which is intended for XP users, who plan to restore on the same computer.

 

well i dont own a windows xp disk anymore, i plan on restoring my current c drive if my restore partition that dell provided on the desktop fails, so i wanted to backup my entire c drive just incase and then i can just restore it and back to normal. but the thing is my desktop does not have a dvd burner etc, its really old and slow so i wanted to do this, so how can i do that if i dont have a dvd burner?

 

Take Gregory's recommendation with Acronis. Install the software, install an USB card (if you dont have USB already) then just clone the drive to an external drive.

cheers ...

 

so i should install it, and clone it onto my external your saying, k im doing now

 

Yep! That is my approach for many of my comps.

cheers ...

 

+1 for acronis. used it to clone a drive when upgrading two different laptops to bigger drives, and also for two different complete pc restores. worked on a dell, a gateway, a vaio and an HP. great stuff.


ev

 

well what should i set to run when i need to restore if the os doesnt boot after the restore fails? sorry never done this before

 

If you are using Acronis, you need to get it on some bootable media. That way if anything happens, you can boot from this media and run Acronis to restore from your external device.

A word of warning whatever you choose as a bootable media, CD, memory stick etc. make SURE that you can boot from it and Acronis can see your external drive where the image is stored. If not, you will NOT be able to restore the image. DO NOT PROCEED UNTIL YOU ARE CERTAIN OF THIS!!!

Gary

 

You are "cloning" a drive with Acronis. So if the original boots before, the cloned drive will boot, after installation.

You can confirm that, and then proceed to clean up your original drive as stated in your OP.

cheers ...