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dothomas
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 101
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Hi guys
I've been successfully scared into backing up my pc and I'm looking for a bit of advice and have a couple of questions as well. Firstly, what backup program would you suggest? I have the normal windows backup and nero. Are there better ones around or are those ok?
Secondly, I'm planning on backing up the pc on an external 250G hard drive. Would that make it more difficult for restoration as opposed to cds?
Thirdly, if the dreaded event occurred and i had to restore, would i need the serial numbers from the installed programs or will it restore the programs completely?
Many thanks in advance
dot
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RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4725
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No definitive answers, just more questions you need to answer before making your decision:
What you're using at the moment is fine if you just want to back up data, eg pictures, documents etc.
Restoring from an external hard drive is probably easier than CD as you'll get more on it so no swapping over disks, and it's more reliable, CDs aren't a very reliable method of backing up.
If you're just backing up data, if the dreaded happens you'll need the serial numbers and source of program installation, ie download or disk containing the program. You can't backup programs in their own right.
If yowant to go a stage further, you can back up your entire operating system using imaging software, eg Acronis True Image
This backs up your system as it is so in the event of failure you can restore the image and your computer will be exactly as it was before it failed. This way you don't need to reinstall programs, documents etc. The down side is that it also takes an image of any problems you may have, eg viruses etc so they also get imported.
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 OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
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dothomas
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 101
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Thanks Richie 
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dothomas
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 101
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Got another one for you. I got the Acronis True Image 11. Done the backup to the external hard drive and all seems to be ok. I want to activate the Startup Recovery manager but it says i need to create a secure zone on the hard disk. It says it will overwrite the master boot record with its own boot code when the recovery manager is activated. It also says it will disable any other third party boot managers and these will have to be reactivated manually.
I'm not very pc savvy so was just wondering if it's ok to do this and what are the implications, if any, of overwriting the master boot record (MBR), or should i not bother with the recovery manager at all.
Thanks in advance
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RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4725
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It will overwrite the MBR with it's own so that you can activate the recovery partition in the event of you wanting/needing to restore your system. Acronis gives you the option to press the F11 key for about 5 seconds, then continues to boot as normal. It won't do your system any harm creating this partition.
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OK OK I can't go any faster! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!
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dothomas
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 101
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Thanks for the speedy response Rich. Will try and do that now. Thanks for the recommendation as well. 
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dothomas
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 101
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All done. Just want to say thanks again for all your help.
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