Backing up Windows XP

[Dr. Edward Warren]

I have 2 Colorado 5GB tape drives. I used to be able to create an entire
image of my hard drive on them in Windows 98. I could then erase the hard
drive, reformat it, and install from a boot floppy.

Is anything like that possible with Windows XP and a 3rd party backup
program?
Are my tape drives obsolete?
Should I adopt a new strategy of backing up only my data and then reloading
each program individually in case of a catastrophe?
I would like to throw the tape drives away if they are really of no use.
There does not seem to be a Windows XP driver for them anyway.
Thank you,
Edward Warren

 

[DL]

If there is no driver for winxp they are probably of no use.
To backup the entire sys use something like True Image or Ghost, otherwise
any backup app for data only

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

I have 2 Colorado 5GB tape drives. I used to be able to create an entire
image of my hard drive on them in Windows 98. I could then erase the hard
drive, reformat it, and install from a boot floppy.

Is anything like that possible with Windows XP and a 3rd party backup
program?
Are my tape drives obsolete?
Should I adopt a new strategy of backing up only my data and then
reloading
each program individually in case of a catastrophe?
I would like to throw the tape drives away if they are really of no use.
There does not seem to be a Windows XP driver for them anyway.
Thank you,
Edward Warren

You would need DOS level drivers for your Colorado drives, and even then
there is no
guarantee that you would be successful.

With the cost of DVD writers dirt cheap, it would be better to put a DVD
burner in your system
(I just purchased a Sony DRU-800a DUAL LAYER DVD burner for $49.99 after
rebates).
You could then use Ghost to make a bootable DVD copy of the drive....

Bobby

 

[Sparda]

I have 2 Colorado 5GB tape drives. I used to be able to
create an entire
image of my hard drive on them in Windows 98. I could then
erase the hard
drive, reformat it, and install from a boot floppy.

Is anything like that possible with Windows XP and a 3rd party
backup
program?
Are my tape drives obsolete?
Should I adopt a new strategy of backing up only my data and
then reloading
each program individually in case of a catastrophe?
I would like to throw the tape drives away if they are really
of no use.
There does not seem to be a Windows XP driver for them anyway.
Thank you,
Edward Warren

"I have 2 Colorado 5GB tape drives. I used to be able to create an
entire image of my hard drive on them in Windows 98. I could then
erase the hard drive, reformat it, and install from a boot floppy."
Dosnt creating a hard drive image, then formating the hard drive, then
putting the image back on defeate the point of formating? What you are
effecticly doing is (analagy) geting a document, photo copying it,
then burning the one you copied in the first place.

"Is anything like that possible with Windows XP and a 3rd party backup
program?"
Probably, but it seems pointless to me.

"Are my tape drives obsolete?"
If they work no. (thats my opinion at least)

"Should I adopt a new strategy of backing up only my data and then
reloading each program individually in case of a catastrophe?"
Yes, you should back up only data (not programs or hard drive images)
you need, but make sure you know that you have backed up all data
befor formating, a good place to start would be your profile folder
(located some where like Cocuments and Settings)

"I would like to throw the tape drives away if they are really of no
use."
As I have alredy said if they work then why upgrade. They are capable
of storing 5GB each, not nessaserly the biggiest, but if they are
bigginof to store all the data you need to store, then whats the
problem?

 

[Dr. Edward Warren]

The point of the exercise I described is that if I can do it, then I can
restore fully to a new hard drive in case of hard drive failure.
Thank you for the advice.
Edward Warren

"I have 2 Colorado 5GB tape drives. I used to be able to create an
entire image of my hard drive on them in Windows 98. I could then
erase the hard drive, reformat it, and install from a boot floppy."
Dosnt creating a hard drive image, then formating the hard drive, then
putting the image back on defeate the point of formating? What you are
effecticly doing is (analagy) geting a document, photo copying it,
then burning the one you copied in the first place.

"Is anything like that possible with Windows XP and a 3rd party backup
program?"
Probably, but it seems pointless to me.

"Are my tape drives obsolete?"
If they work no. (thats my opinion at least)

"Should I adopt a new strategy of backing up only my data and then
reloading each program individually in case of a catastrophe?"
Yes, you should back up only data (not programs or hard drive images)
you need, but make sure you know that you have backed up all data
befor formating, a good place to start would be your profile folder
(located some where like Cocuments and Settings)

"I would like to throw the tape drives away if they are really of no
use."
As I have alredy said if they work then why upgrade. They are capable
of storing 5GB each, not nessaserly the biggiest, but if they are
bigginof to store all the data you need to store, then whats the
problem?

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