I am trying to backup all the info on my computer and it keeps on wanting to save the info in "A" drive. I have 12,069,577,810 bytes of info it wants to save on a floppy. That is not practical as I will need to build a new storage cabinet and break the bank to buy stacks of floppies. How can I force the computer to save the info on CD's instead? My CD burner is "F" drive.
Thanks.

 

I'm no expert but it probably depends on what software you are using to do the backup. Are you just copying the data to a separate location or are you compressing it when you back it up? Most programs that I've seen give you a way to specify your target drive.

 

Are you trying to save just documents, or image the entire hard drive. If just saving documents, drag and drop into CD burning software, 650 mb at a time. But since you state you have over 12gb, it sounds like you are trying to use MSBackup in case computer fails. If this is the case, I would suggest Norton Ghost, that way if the computer does crash you can have it back up and running in less than an hour.

 

Thanks for the replies so far. I am trying to save everything in case of a major crash. Yes, I was trying to use MSBackup. Don't use Norton, use McAfee. Sounds like I will need to go and buy a special program to do what I want to do and trying to avoid this.

 

thats still alot of cds. i run a seagate external with bounceback software, works real well, damm near bullitproof, portable, and saved my rear, its a 160 partitioned to backup three computers.
Clark

 

ps: its easy to use(for me it must be easy) and comes with the software. Clark

 

the easiest way to do this is buy an external hard drive so you can overwrite the image with the more current image when needed. If you use cd's or dvd's the data might not be accesable if it gets even the tiniest scratch on it. External drive eliminates this. Ghost is good. I wouldn't trust any MSBackup. Ghost can also mirror your drive so that if your computer literally crashes and your hard drive is useless you will have an exact copy ready to install. It would be like it never crashed. That is the smartest way. Really a RAID 1 configuration is the best, but I won't get into that.

EDIT:I need to read before I post. That will work but if you can use ghost I reccommend that. Enterprises rely on ghost so it's good enough for me.

 

An external USB drive is best. You can use the built-in NTBackup program and send the backup file to the external disk. You can also schedule backups to happen automagically.

Backup to CD's will take forever.

Edwin

 

Any suggestions as to the 'best' external USB to obtain? How does this compare to Norton Ghost for price, convenience etc etc?
I like the idea of using a USB connection.
If I schedule this to save automatically will it automatically overwrite the previous stuff or just add to what is there?
Lets say I have a major crash and can't even start my computer. If I insert the emergency disc will this be enought to get it going to enable me to transfer the saved data?

 

All a usb drive is storage. You need ghost on top of an external drive. Best buy has this one for $89. then ghost is about $70. You might get software with the drive so you might want to just get one of those.

 

EDIT: The internet is cheaper on computer stuff if you don't mind using the internet.

 

My backup is a second internal hard drive. Once a week or so I "clone" the boot drive using Western Digital Data Lifeguard (included with the new hard drive, also available as a free download). 10GBs of data takes about 20 minutes to copy. If the boot drive should fail completely from one second to the next, the worst case scenario, all I have to do is open up the computer and switch hard drives. I actually tried this and was back up and running in about five minutes.

 

i also bought an external usb drive, holds 40 gig. backup software came with it, and i just back up my data, thinking i can always restore OS and programs, if you try to restore to a diff pc the registry will be all screwed up any other way

 

Not true, the registry will find the new hardware and be working in a reboot or two. Done this for 7 years, never had a problem.

 

For all of you, if you have access to the Windows XP cd-rom, copy the I386 folder to the root of your C: drive, then if any drivers are needed they are right on the root of the hard drive. Makes life much simpler.