How to use Wdw XP RESTORE

[AwolAtHTR]

Sat 10 Jul 04

hi,

ISSUE: How to RESTORE with Windows XP

I have a HP 533w with Windows XP ver 5.1 which I mainly use to back up my data.

I know Wdws 95 and 98 very well and have resisted learning more about XP and have
the attitude that if that tool is not going to help me with my research, WHY BOTHER!!
The Restore feature was one of the neat new features of XP and with any NEW feature there are likely problems. In fact, this is one of the features that has tempted me to learn more about XP. But, hey, I would rather take time to download HTR data to fill my data mine than
to spend time playing with XP.

So, for you experienced folks with XP, this should be a trivial problem and I actually tried
using Windows HELP to get the answer! Have you ever tried to use Wdws HELP when you
actually know part of the answer? Well, after about three minutes, I gave up and said
HEY, Duane, just ask the folks who likely have used the feature.

Here are my quetions:

A. Click path to SET RESTORE POINT

B. Any KNOWN problems with setting or restoring the POINTS.
eg, do I have to shut down, restart, or power down restart during the process.

C. Any oops, SHOULD not have done that experience.

Look forward to replys with HOW-TO or just oh tried that and had to reinstall.
You see, I have the HP533w set up with eleven (11) partitions and have a lot of data
stored on those different partitions. So, to make a mistake, and hear the SIMPLE solution
...OH, you just need to reformat your disk and reinstall XP. Aahh, no thank you.

Also, the version 5.1 is likely OLD and do not feel need to post Updates and be current.
In other words, I do not want to take a few hours (maybe a day!) to get this computer
updated with the latest and greatest (whatever that is) version of XP.

[Rick]

I can't help you.

When I saw how much disk space the feature was taking I decided I would rather have the disk space.

Of course I have several tons of shit on my drives. So much that I have no idea what I have. So much that except for having a 4 drive array where 2 are backups, I don't even do a backup.

Of course I have not found an affordable backup to 100+ GB, other than what I have.

One of these days the house of cards will fall. :D

[ggpagels]

I don't use the restore feature running XP on my desktop or laptop. I have two 40GB drives on my desktop(C: and D:) and I use Drive Image to create a complete image(OS, programs, data) of my C: drive on my D: drive. On my laptop I image my C: drive to an external USB hard drive. That way I always have a copy of my C: drives if I have a crash.

[AwolAtHTR]

Sun 11 Jul 04

re: Ricks

thank for the info Ricks.

I had not thought about the potential disk space then realize, of course, if the feature is going to keep an image of the OS in order to perform a restore to an earlier POINT in time, THEN the process must store ALL the related information!!

Well, found a work around for my current problem by not installing the test software but when I do learn more about how it works, I will definitely use the feature VERY conservatively.

-----------
re: ggpagels

sounds like you have a very practical alternative.

thank you for telling me about your solution. I will keep it in mind.

AWOL

[Donnie]

Funny you bring this up AWOL...within the past week both my son (age 15) and I have had to use this very nice feature in XP. My son, like most kids his age, loves to download anything and everything, not to mention rip DVD full-length movies. To this end, I purchased an internal DVD burner for his system and an external for mine. We installed the burner and went to put the software onto his system and it totally knocked out his Norton Internet Security. After some frustrating moments searching Norton's site, we found that the version of software that comes with the burner, Adaptec Easy CD Creator, actually overwrites files of Norton's, thus disabling Norton. Well we went in, choose the day before's date to roll back to, within a matter of minutes, viola! back to normal again. No fuss, no muss. You do not have to power down your self, but the system may do it on it's own as part of it's restore routine. A few days later, as luck would have it, I needed to do the exact same thing on my laptop. What a god-send! In my classes I teach this very import rule:

NEVER INSTALL MORE THAN 1 NEW PROGRAM PER DAY!! NEVER!!!!!

Reason being....if that program conflicts with your system, you know what you did that changed your system configuration. Uninstall that program, and you should be fine. The problem we had in this case was that the file names and extensions were identical, so the system thought the file was being used by Norton and didn't uninstall it. There is a patch for this problem on Adaptec's site, if anyone else has this problem.

A short part of my presentation IS going to be on Security and upkeep of your computer in general terms. I will hand out a couple free programs everyone should be using on their system, if you are interested. If not, that's fine.

AWOL...I hope that you are doing your Security Updates....without them, just being connected to the internet you run the risk of infections these days. Having 11 partitions, I assume you run your operating system just off the c: drive anyway. A roll back probably would have been a simple fix for your problem. But understand when you roll back to an earlier date, you also lose any programs you installed during that time. Any files you created and saved remain intact.

If others are interested in seeing it, I would be more than happy to demonstrate this with my system at the seminar.