wath backup utility

[Mungos]

cause i want change my present harddisk with new one,larger,i want to backup system and installed programs,but i dont want to backup full system (as i will install fresh windows xp on new hard) ,only some installed programs (with all settings,registry etc.) let say antivirus,cause i dont want to loose updated modules...,email client etc.
Q is:
what is the best utility to do that ? other than winxp backup utility.

[Rick]

With the number of changes made by programs during the installation

Backing up the Program files and NOT the system files is next to impossible
also
When you install the fresh copy of XP it will create a new REG.
If you copy the old one(reg) over it all the old settings and possible problems will go with it.


You should back up your data files..
Then do a Clean install of everything

[Mungos]

thanks,yes i am aware of that,anyway, can i backup data files from some specific programs,and then when i install,only replace with backuped files?

[Sylvander]

With the present state of my knowledge, what I would do in your situation is:

1. Set up a system of backup.
See http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2242_4-0-2-4.html? for examples of applications.
I'm interested in "Paragon Drive Backup" [I now use Hewlett Packard's version of "Simple Backup"] because it makes backups to various drive types including DVD, and will make a bootable CD to boot from in the event that Windows won't. Some other prog's require the user to boot from the HDD to recover a backup, but if the HDD is inoperative that's going to be of no use!

2. To transfer the contents of the old HDD to the new you could:
A. Use the utilities [downoaded to a floppy] supplied by the OEM of the old HDD to copy or move the contents of the old HDD to the new. [That's how I tranferred from my old to new HDD's.] You then switch the master/slave jumpers and boot to the new HDD.
B. Make a backup of the whole of the C: drive, fit the new HDD, switch master/slave jumpers, then restore the backup to the new C: drive.
Prior to the restore you could irrecoverably "erase" [using the "Eraser Boot & Nike Disk"] the HDD's, repartition & reformat the HDD's to your liking [provided the C: partition size is big enough to take the backup]. You can do all kinds of shifting around of data files and resizing of partitions using this method, then restore the backup[s]. Be aware that a backup of a C: partition will be restored to whichever partition is subsequently named C.

In 2A & 2B above you may need to do a "repair" re-install of WinXP to take account of the new hardware setup.

Alternatively, you could selectively backup your data files including such as:
a. My Documents.
b. E-mails for all identities.
c. Internet Explorer Favourites.
d. Temporary Internet Files.
e. The Windows Address Book.
f. Any other data files.
Then re-install WinXP & all your other programs and restore the data to replace or add.
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Here's my saved spiel:
RECOVER USING BACKUPS
The easy way to recover from all software [including configuration] problems [without even having to discover the cause], is:

1) As you proceed forward in time, make backups of everything on your C: drive.
Do this at regular intervals, particularly before making software changes [un/installing programs or changing configuration] and keep a log of all this.
2) When you hit trouble caused by a bad configuration change and no hardware or software changes have been made, [use "scanreg /restore" in Win98, or a restore point in WinXP, to] restore a previous good configuration.
3) When the trouble involves more than just the configuration, and involves the files [including the configuration perhaps] but no hardware has been changed [this is important because the software must match the hardware], then:
----------------------------------------------------------
Re-format the C: drive and restore your latest good backup.
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The software will "jump back" to the way it was when the PC worked.
If this doesn’t fix things, then it probably is not a software problem but a hardware problem.

It helps if you keep the C: drive "lean & mean".
I move as much as possible off the C: drive [and keep it as small as possible].
The "Windows" & "Program Files" folders account for 95% of the used space on my C: drive.
All the data that changes day by day [or are considered vital] are re-homed on another physical drive [although another partition would do].
When I "jump back" I still have up to date:
a. My Documents. [Use “TweakUI” to move their home]
b. E-mails for all identities. [use the email client to move their home]
c. Internet Explorer Favourites. [Use “TweakUI” to move their home]
d. Temporary Internet Files. [use the browser (Internet Explorer) to move them]
e. Re-home the Windows Address Book as shown here http://tinyurl.com/24q6l . Use the key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab FileName” to specify its new address. [Its normal home address [in Win98] is C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\(the name you gave your PC).WAB]
f. Any other storage of data files you wouldn’t want to “jump back”.

These can be backed up separately and more or less often.

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QUOTE
The AVG Rescue Disk is a special diskette where the most important parts of your computer’s boot up data will be saved. In this backup diskette, the contents of the Partition Table, Boot sectors and some other internal data will be saved. These areas are often targets of computer virus attacks and their damage can (and mostly will) cause the malfunction of the whole operating system – your computer cannot be started.

Repairing such destruction can be very difficult job. But if you have a backup copy, restoring the damaged areas is easy and safe.

In addition to the backup copy of the system areas there is a special AVG-SOS program stored on the rescue disk to handle the saved data.
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[Paul Komski]

You could create an image of the whole partition using "Drive Image" (which means you could get everything back if you ever wanted to) but only restore individual files or folders as required using its sister utility "Image Explorer".

[Sylvander]

See "Paragon Drive Backup" here:
General Info
User Reviews
Features

[Mungos]

ok,big thanks to sylvander,i will read all of this and think about what is best for me to do.
once again,thanks!
ps.this can use for future references.

[Mungos]

after all i decided to backup full system,to make some exact copy!
what is the easiest way to do that (without reinstalling system,if that is possible,just to transfer all from old hdd to new one and just replace hdd's) ?

[jabarnutcase]

There are many Programs and utilities designed to do just that....some mentioned above.
In the case of a Hard drive "Clone" where you are simply installing a new hard drive and removing the old, (or using it for extra storage), I simply download the FREE utility directly from the Manufacturer. (They all have them).

Follow the instructions and it's usually a piece of cake.
Whatever utility you use, the only requirement is that at least one of the hard Drives is from the Company you downloaded the utility from.

(Edit) In looking at the posts above, I see Sylvander mentions this method under "#2" in his first post.....I've done it many times. Works very well.

[Sylvander]

What I did:

A) Used the HDD manufacturers utility software to copy [or was it move] the contents of the small older HDD to the larger newer HDD and the delete the original contents of the old HDD.

B) Began copy & paste [or drag & drop] of data files from the [new HDD] C: partition to the [old HDD] D: partition. Win98 named the partition on the old HDD D: because it was still a Primary DOS Partition and marked “active”.

C) Made a fixed size swap-file on the D: partition.

D) Installed “TweakUI” and moved to D: such things as; the “My Documents” folder; the emails folder; the Internet Explorer Favourites folder; the Temporary Internet Files folder, and the Windows Address Book file.

E) If the old HDD was capable of holding all that I wanted to move off the C: drive, well and good, but if not I’d need to do the moving and re-partitioning in more than one step.

F) Having reduced the contents of the C: drive to as small as I could get it [hopefully its final minimum], I made backups of both the C: drive and D: drive.

G) Re-partitioned and re-formatted the new HDD to make a smaller C: partition just big enough [with 300 MB empty] to hold the contents [95% of the space was used by the “Program Files” folder and the “Windows” folder]. The new HDD now had a 1.8 GB [yours might need 2 GB] C: partition, and the remainder was named the E: drive by Win98 [because the old HDD had an “active” primary partition].

H) Restored the backup of the [previously enormous] C: drive to the new [smaller & better fitting] C: drive.

I) The clusters on the C: drive were made small [4kB I think] so that not too many clusters would be used per file [the files on the C: drive tend to be small][trying to make the contents a good fit to the container(s)]. I then put LARGE files on the E: drive which was made to have VERY LARGE clusters. The D: drive had medium clusters and medium files. That’s the theory anyway.

J) The final result is that I have 1 [D:] partition on my old HDD that holds all the important data and can be backed up separately [at differing intervals to the others] just in case that drive should fail. The new HDD has 2 partitions: the E: drive holds all the huge files and is backed up much less frequently; the C: drive is backed up most frequently and is re-formatted and restored to fix configuration and program file problems. That gets me out of all kinds of trouble. If any of the HDD’s failed they could be replaced, partitioned, formatted, and restored quickly and easily I imagine.

[Mungos]

ok,thank you all very much!