Well
I have always in the past used Ghost, but to a cd. Using the standalone floppy method, ghost an image on to CD (spanned if required). That way you always have a standalone bootable method of recreating a new disk.
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I use both - a partition and a CD-R.
Try Partition Magic. If that can't /readcure your hard drives than you may have a corrupted partition.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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PS
Re the partition and CD-R - I mean using Ghost.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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A reasonably full 40Gb drive will take quite a few CDs each time though, as a backup strategy.
I always Ghost the lot once, straight after installing the OS and all patches, and any software I know I need.
Then I make sure I can access any software I download or buy later to reload in the event of catastrophe.
I carry out a daily backup (disk to disk) of my volatile files (My Documents, photos, mail files) and any settings I can get at easily.
And once a week the daily backup is backed up to another computer (maybe in your case to a rewriteable CD, not overwriting the previous week's).
My music, which is over 30Gb, had a base backup done to DVD about 4 months ago. Then I occassionally remind myself to do an incremental backup to get that later stuff. Sometime I might do the lot again in one go.
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.. windows 98se .... pc blue-screened ...
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odds on that : windows 98se = pc blue-screen
suggestion - cure the problem rather than the symptoms, i.e. change over to xp sp2 and/or the other alternatives favoured by the anti-microsoft gang.
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Well if the Windows XP, NT or 2000 screwed up a windows installation (had two laptops with this last week) it would take far longer to restore it than it would Windows 9X. If a driver gets messed up on XP the operating system doesn't load or blue screens, with 9X it just doesn't allocate the device and loads ok. Change the chipset brand on XP and the operating system doesn't load, 9X it does. Load on the updates of XP and then try to use the XP cd to restore it when it goes wrong and it doesn't work.
XP may be better at a few things but its worse at many others.
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> by the anti-microsoft gang.
What a lot of bitterness I'm sensing.
It's good to be able to choose the right tool for the job rather than be lumbered with something less effective, more wasteful of computing resources, and more expensive, just because "the nice man in PC World said I need a new computer." That's what free markets are all about, right? That tool may actually be Win98 in this case because a PC built in that era may not handle XP's bloat in a nice way--incidentally it may also struggle with a default install of some of the more consumer-oriented Linux distros like Mandrake, though I suspect less so. Anyway an unbundled legal copy of XP is unlikely to be sensible from an economic point of view.
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legal copy of XP is unlikely to be sensible from an economic point of view
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depends on assumptions about
1. cost of a legal copy - quite reasonable from legit sources as most people who buy microsoft software should already know .
2. how much you value/cost the time spent on putting right the failed disks.
3. how much you value/cost the data lost permanently.
no compulsion to take up my suggestion - it is offered only as a possible solution to the problem raised in the question.
still a free country and free market. without the competition from linux, ms would be selling us the equivalent of trabant cars.
i do prefer mild to bitter when i cash in on the virtual pints that i have been banking on crq thread volumes.
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>1. cost of a legal copy - quite reasonable from legit sources as most people who buy microsoft software should already know .
Dabs.com (not the cheapest, but not unreasonable:
Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
£164.50 inc VAT (£140.00 ex VAT). Operating system only.
Mandrake Linux:
Mandrake Linux 10.1 Powerpack (equivalent to XP Pro) 79.90 Euro inc VAT. Includes MS and Adobe compatible office suite(s), email client(s), multimedia and graphics software, the full range of networking/server software, you name it.
Quite reasonable my a***
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Quite reasonable my a***
Fair point, well made
No Do$h - Backroom Moderator
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
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>> Quite reasonable my a***
Fair point, well made
>>
it would be if the facts were right.
he he he.
(tic on) :: ;-) :: the price quoted is that charged for non-believers who wish to convert to the majority religion; perhaps as a deterrent to keep the poor enemy from entering the inner sanctum of the knowledge. :: :-0 :: (tic off)
however, for existing believers wishing to upgrade, you can get the xp-home for under £70 and for anyone with an "education" entitlement, even cheaper deals are possible.
calm down dears, it is only a computer question. after all, you pays your money and takes your choice.
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>(tic on) :: ;-) :: the price quoted is that charged for non-believers who wish to convert to the majority religion; perhaps as a deterrent to keep the poor enemy from entering the inner sanctum of the knowledge. :: :-0 :: (tic off)
Ah, I see now. It's a tithe. Glad I'm a nonconformist. ;-)
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Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 £164.50 inc VAT (£140.00 ex VAT). Operating system only.
ebuyer.com
Windows Xp Home SP2 OEM £61.16 inc VAT
You have to order hardware at the same time (a mouse only costs £1.05)
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>ebuyer.com
>Windows Xp Home SP2 OEM £61.16 inc VAT
You do realise the basic "Home" version of Mandrake 10.1 is available from Mandrake as a free download, don't you? There's no catch either. All it lacks is the online support and a few peripheral proprietary software packages. Still unreasonable.
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You can get many versions of Linux free. I'm no great fan of Microsoft, many companies have made better operating systems but linux isn't one of them for the desktop user. It great as a server and for techies but not for the consumers as a gereral purpose operating system.
Companies that have tried to make linux into a mainsteam desktop operating system have not done well, Corel linux which many said was going to take over the world flopped and Lindows (now Linspire) is going the same way.
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>Corel linux which many said was going to take over the world flopped
On the contrary it's now called Xandros and seems to be thriving:
www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117963,00.asp
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On the contrary it's now called Xandros and seems to be thriving: www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117963,00.asp
Xandros isn't Corel linux as they have gone out of the market (as I said it flopped), its a distribution based on Corel linux just like Mandrake used to be based on Red Hat, Xandros also supply technology to Lindows.
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Politely reminding people that this is a question and answer thread, rather than discussion.
Cheers, DD.
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As I recall both Xandros and Lindows licensed Corel Linux for $$$ when Corel ditched it in 2001/2. Xandros took on Corel's Linux developers--not at all like Red Hat/Mandrake--and Lindows actually sued Xandros to use their technology early on; all three are based on Debian... I remember this because I wrote some pieces on desktop computing for a history book around that time.
Sorry--my last word.
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As someone whose used computers in some form or another for virtually a quarter of a century and been through the Windows 3, 95, 98, 98SE and now XP Pro for the last 14 months (plus SP2 from virtually the day it was available), I've found it to be the most stable, troublefree OS to date.
In fact, in that time, I've used System Restore just once...:-)
Incidentally my home computer system basically comprises a 550MHz PentiumIII (Katmai) which replaced a Celeron 400MHz about three months ago, a five-year-old Elite P6BXT-A+ motherboard and the original Award Bios, plus a 60GB Western Digital HDD (upgraded about once a year to a high capacity).
Even the still superb Canon BJC600e printer is an eight-year-old model.
Hardly rocket science equipment but it runs XP without any drama...:-)
Bit like a Skoda Estelle - you might not have the same pace or comfort compared to, say, a VW Golf, but both get you from A to B in the end.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Yup, XP is good in many ways (pricey, but good). I use it myself when I have need to run a dodgy Active-X script. But there is no way it would run adequately enough on the machine my wife uses to write her books. That came (from a skip) with Win98 installed two years ago and is a 266Mhz Pentium with a 2GB hard disk--must be circa 1997/8 I think. Would XP even fit on 2GB. Xandros Linux does. That's why I advised caution when upgrading.
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If on Dial up this months Linux Format magazine has 3 cd of Mandrake 10.1 as cover disc. Price £5.99. Buy and enjoy.
Happy Surfing Phil I (using 1998 Compaq Pro workstation 5100 dual processor )
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I can't comment on the software, because I don't know, but the best backup strategy is to have at least three copies of what you need: the copy you use, a weekly backup, and a daily (or whenever there are changes) backup. They should be kept on separate media, preferably in different places, for obvious reasons, and the last daily backup should be checked to make sure it's good before you overwrite the last weekly. Ideally you wouldn't do that too often. Now copying the whole system every day is hardly an efficient option, so I choose to copy only my "in use" personal files on a daily basis. So my routine is this:
1. Everything I change I save in two places at the time I change it.
2. I back up all my user files--documents, pictures etc weekly to CD.
3. I back up the system (/home anyway) less often, but then with Linux and other Unix-alikes if you need or want to reinstall the OS your settings, files etc. can be preserved. The lack of a registry makes this much easier.
As of this week I'm lucky enough to have access to a remote FTP Server, which is where I save everything "on the fly".
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thanks for the comments chaps - I'm still not certain what i'll be doing, other than continuing to burn copies of all valuable files to CD at regular intervals
(that's the voice of 20 yrs experience of pc's - and i've still to find a backup strategy that works for me !)
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