[Anita123]

Hi
My OS is XP Home Edition. I have no XP CD (was preloaded).
I would like to backup my Hard Drive onto CD or DVD. However, I have tried with System Mechanic 6 and looked into some websites, and they all say use Drive A.
I aint got a drive A. I have C, D, E, F,G ,H and I
I read previous post on Annoyances .org and I may experience problems if I change a drive letter.
C==local Drive
D== dvd-rw drive
E==DVD Drive
F==Memory Stick
G==Compact Flash
H==SM/XD Picture Card
I==SD/MMC (have no idea what this is)
Can anyone assist me with a solution to no Drive A please.
Thanks

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Parallel Installation of Microsoft® Windows® XP From the Recovery CD

1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

2. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.

3. When you receive the Press any key to boot from CD message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

Press the <Enter> key at the Welcome to Setup screen.
The Windows XP Licensing Agreement appears.

Press the <F8> key.
A screen displaying the hard drive partitions appears.

Highlight the Windows partition using the arrow keys, and press the <Enter> key to select it.

Press the <C> key to use the selected partition.

At the next screen, highlight Leave the current file system intact (no changes) using the arrow keys, and press the <Enter> key.

Press the <Esc> key to use a different folder.

In the next screen, change the installation location from \WINDOWS to \WIN.

Press the <Enter> key.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

***NOTE : MAKE SURE TYPE A DIFFERENT NAME WHEN YOU ENTER THE USERNAME

YOUR MY DOCUMENT FOLDER WILL BE IN
C:\documents and settings\<Old USERNAME>\My Document

You have YOur Files now BACK IT UP !!!!!!!!!

[JacobAtDell]

Parallel Installation of Microsoft® Windows® XP From the Recovery CD

1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

2. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.

3. When you receive the Press any key to boot from CD message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

Press the <Enter> key at the Welcome to Setup screen.
The Windows XP Licensing Agreement appears.

Press the <F8> key.
A screen displaying the hard drive partitions appears.

Highlight the Windows partition using the arrow keys, and press the <Enter> key to select it.

Press the <C> key to use the selected partition.

At the next screen, highlight Leave the current file system intact (no changes) using the arrow keys, and press the <Enter> key.

Press the <Esc> key to use a different folder.

In the next screen, change the installation location from \WINDOWS to \WIN.

Press the <Enter> key.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

***NOTE : MAKE SURE TYPE A DIFFERENT NAME WHEN YOU ENTER THE USERNAME

YOUR MY DOCUMENT FOLDER WILL BE IN
C:\documents and settings\<Old USERNAME>\My Document

You have YOur Files now BACK IT UP !!!!!!!!!

[SRX660]

Personally i use Norton Ghost to make iso files of my hard drive. What i like about Ghost is you can make a iso that has your programs installed so you do not have to reinstall them again after you reinstall the OS. If you make changes to your computer hardware you will have to make a new ghost iso or it won't install back to the computer.

http://ghost.radified.com/

To a newbie to ghost this seems complicated. Wade thru the tutorial and practice and you will see that it is really not that hard.

I use ghost 2003 because i already had bought norton system works 2003. Funny that i now only use ghost and none of the other programs. i had problems with the norton utilities. I also got tired of paying $30 per year for norton AV so i switched to AVG.

SRX660

[dsenette]

the reason it's asking for the a drive is to make a boot floppy...because they are assuming you would be tring to restore to that backup from a catastrophic failure....in which case you would need to boot to a floppy drive to initiate the restoration

[Anita123]

Hi Guys,
A million thanks for all your suggestions and advise.
I was not given an XP CD as it was preloaded on my computer. If I had one, I would be trouble free I think.
Buying Ghost seems to be my only alternative right now. or----
if I bought an XP Home CD I would have to reinstall everything I assume?
Thanks again
Anita

[SRX660]

You really have not said what kind of computer you have. You probably can use a XP Home CD to reinstall windows over itself. You usaully don't lose any data as windows does not overwrite those files. I have had some problems doing a overwrite kind of install. Software i had installed no longer worked unless you used a profile from before. Windows also installed extra local service, another named user, and network service folders in the documents and settings folder. I now had 8 folders in "documents and settings" instead of 5.

From what i read in your post you just want to backup your data. Is that correct? If it is and you have a cd-rw or dvd-rw in your computer you can copy all your data to the cd's or dvd's with the burning program you should have on your computer.

If you are trying to reinstall XP then i would go with a windows XP cd . The difference is that i would save what data i wanted to cd's then wipe the drive clean and do a clean install of XP. If you have not done this before wiping a drive and doing a clean install can be daunting.

http://www.winsupers...xp_sg_clean.asp

I like using Ghost because i experment with lots of software and many times have ended up crashing my computer. With Ghost i can reinstall my Xp to where it was before the new software crashed it. Ghost completely replaces the OS with the one from the cd's. If i don't backup any data that i downloaded after making a ghost iso i lose that data. Ghost is not for the average user as you need to learn how to use it to be able to make the iso file.

SRX660