| cgflembo |
| (regular) |
| Fri Jul 25 2008 02:52 PM |
windows back-up
|
I wonder if anyone can help clarify a problem I have. I have a new laptop and already installed is windows Vista,but I do not have the the original CD. As I have only used XP before and have the original disc, I was wondering what to do if the system crashed and I needed to re-format the drive, I would not have any Vista disc to install.Is the recovery disc that you can make able to install Vista compleatly from scratch? Also I wonder if anyone would know where I can download Service pack 1 & 2 for XP, I have tryed to find it on the microsoft/ windows update page, but couldn`t find it.
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Fri Jul 25 2008 03:50 PM |
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Re: windows back-up
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1. Do you have an option in All programs to create a recovery disk?
2. Alternatively, do you have a recovery partition?
3. Download/create a Vista Recovery Disk (32-bit x86 or 64-bit x64) here http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ After downloading the image to your hard disk, create a CD in ISO format (a DVD is not necessary as it’s only 120MB in size). This will not reinstall Vista but it does give you access to a few tools.
It works in the same way as the Vista DVD, i.e. boot from the disk, choose ‘Press any key to boot from CD/DVD’ and Vista will start to load the Windows files. Select your language, time/currency and keyboard then click ‘Repair’ in the bottom left corner. Within the repair option there are five choices: Startup Repair, System Restore, Backup Restore, Memory Test and Command Prompt.
This CD will also boot to an XP installation and allow the Command Prompt option to run programs like chkdsk.
4. Rather than install SP1 or 2, get the full SP3 package here http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/detai...;displaylang=en
| mart |
| (regular) |
| Fri Jul 25 2008 05:13 PM |
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Re: windows back-up
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An alternative might be to use a disk imaging program such as Acronis True Image. This would make a backup (image) of your entire working system, complete with installed programs, settings and preferences. The backup can be stored on DVD's, another disk partition, external drive or secondary internal drive.
If you ever need to, just overwrite your faulty system using the good copy of it. If you wish, you could make 2 or more backups with different configurations or programs installed, then choose which one you want use on your computer. Any malware, system faults, programs you've tried but decided you don't need can all be got rid of in about 15 - 20 minutes by using a known good disk image.
Backups can be accessed using the imaging software or, if the computer is so corrupt that it won't boot up, they can be accessed using the supplied disk (the installation disk doubles up as a boot disk). If you obtain the program via a software download, there is an option in Acronis True Image to make a boot CD.