Backing Up Vista-PC

[Calli]

A friend bought one of those cheapo Compaqs. It comes with zero cds/restore or otherwise. The tech people told him all he needs, he will find on D drive. Well if his pc crashes, I can't see how he is going to get to D drive (Vista is installed) Is there a software program that will back up this drive easily so he will be prepared for the inevitable?

[jlreich]

Compaq puts a restore option on the splash screen during startup that will take you into the restore program and handle restoring to factory condition. Look on the screen during startup, there should be something that says "hit the Fx key for system restore" or similar, where "x" is a number (F10 I think).

There are many third party imaging programs out there that will back up the system. BootIt NG, Ghost etc....

If all you need is to know that if something goes wrong with the system you can restore vista to the way it was when the machine was bought you should be OK. Do keep in mind using the Compaq system restore will totally erase everything on the drive, so make sure your friend keeps backups of any important data. ;)

Also keep in mind if the hard drive fails this won't help you either.

[Calli]

Thanks I'll pass the info on.