The importance of regular backups

[30111987]

It was norton internet security

I won't bother to go into detail about it, basically it broke my pc, wouldn't uninstall, wouldn't reinstall

Eventually my pc wouldn't boot.

If it wasn't for a free program I installed from a CD that came with a magazine I would still be formatting my hard drive just now. True Image, saved the day.

Fortunatly I had the foresight to partition my drive and make an image of my C drive about once a month.

I simply booted the program, selected my image and 3 hours later my PC was working again. OK i've lost some files, but it's only a few weeks worth, instead of years.

Hence the importance of regular backups. ;)

BTW, i've now uninstalled Norton and burned the disks. My PC is alot faster thanks to having less to run in the background. I am now enjoying free antivirus software and my hardware firewall.

[dammit]

Norton..... AGAIN!!!! ..... screwed my PC regularly.... I rest my case... :disgust:

[busterb]

I dwnloaded true image back in Jan. Has saved my butt once all ready. Cost $34.99 from newegg. I make my images of a 120GB drive, 5 partitions to a 20GB usb drive.
Works for me

[degsy]

With the drive space avaialble these days and DVD Writers then imaging programs are very worthwhile.

Also the new version support incremental backups.

[renegade600]

backup - whats a backup? :eek: Seriously I usually only keep copies of stuff I cannot afford to lose. I look at it this way, backups usually have all my problems backup also. I look at a major crash as an excuse for a fresh restart.

[Nick Grana]

I downloaded true image back in Jan. Has saved my butt once all ready. Cost $34.99 from newegg. I make my images of a 120GB drive, 5 partitions to a 20GB usb drive.
Please heed busterb's statement closely. I can't tell you the number of times people had ghost or some drive imaging on another partition of the same drive only to have that drive go up in smoke. If your drive fails mechanically or electronically and will not spin-up, 10 images on that drive is worthless.
Always use an external backup source.
I have a caddy tray on my system that I can slide my backup hard drive into whenever I backup. I use either use XXCopy or windows copy/paste all files (except the swp file). I then make sure the backup boots properly and and then put everything back in place.
Of course you can use your drive imaging to backup to another drive.
People have been doing this for years with the same crying results.
Safe computing.:wave:

[30111987]

good advice

i dont have a second hard drive at the moment, though i do backup my most important files onto a usb pen drive. This way in the unlikely event that my PC catches fire or something I have a copy of my files in a different place.

[hypnotizeminds]

backup - whats a backup? :eek: Seriously I usually only keep copies of stuff I cannot afford to lose. I look at it this way, backups usually have all my problems backup also. I look at a major crash as an excuse for a fresh restart.
The only type of backup I use is System Restore, and I don't rely on it to save me anytime soon, just use it because it couldn't hurt (or could it..?).

I backup anything I cannot replace, because I can afford to lose everything on my system at this point. I don't keep important information on my hard drive, or I do my very best not to. If I had to reinstall XP today, I'd be out nothing more than the time it would take to do so.

[30111987]

I backup anything I cannot replace, because I can afford to lose everything on my system at this point. I don't keep important information on my hard drive, or I do my very best not to. If I had to reinstall XP today, I'd be out nothing more than the time it would take to do so.

but wouldn't it be easier if you setup xp with sp2, your drivers, and your most useful programs and imaged it?

That way you can restore the image without having to search for lots of disks and waste time installing programs and setting up windows again.

[hypnotizeminds]

but wouldn't it be easier if you setup xp with sp2, your drivers, and your most useful programs and imaged it?

That way you can restore the image without having to search for lots of disks and waste time installing programs and setting up windows again.
It would be, yes, if it weren't for the fact that I've only a few drivers in use that aren't included with XP.

[degsy]

but wouldn't it be easier if you setup xp with sp2, your drivers, and your most useful programs and imaged it?

That way you can restore the image without having to search for lots of disks and waste time installing programs and setting up windows again.

I have to agree that with imaging you can have a Fresh system withing Minutes via Imaging.

[renegade600]

but wouldn't it be easier if you setup xp with sp2, your drivers, and your most useful programs and imaged it?

That way you can restore the image without having to search for lots of disks and waste time installing programs and setting up windows again.

but its more fun to search all of the disks and such... :rotflmao: Theres always changes I would like to make and usually don't have time for. It is always an excuse to have a fresh install and start from scratch and make those changes and tweaks.

But then I do not have that many crashes that requires reinstalls.

Note, this is how I do things, I would not recommend it to anyone and I do agree that backups are very important for those who do not want to waste time like I do.

[Spider]

I don't know what Symantec's dealieO is with those home system programs. The corporate stuff never
gets complaints but the home/small office stuff just plain explodes if you give it ½-a-chance. All you
gotta do is install it and it seems 45% of users get the whammy.

Maybe Symantec feels obligated to create work for service techs? I dunno, s'weird. The most popular,
the most downloaded, is the most dangeous and complained about...end users, will never figure them out ;)

[30111987]

nortons problem is that it tries too hard

It integrates so far into your pc if anything goes wrong u can't get rid of it and it often causes boot failures. The other problem with trying too hard is that the last few versions have been very bloated.

Norton broke my old PC (nav 2001) and I thought i'd give it one last chance with Norton Internet Security 2005 (got it cheap). I shall never be buying another norton product again. Their support is useless.

[Spider]

It integrates so far into your pc if anything goes wrong u can't get rid of it
There's the nail on the head.
The other problem with trying too hard is that the last few versions have been very bloated
Call it like it is...that's exactly them.
I had such a headache with clients and their Norton 2004 junk, it lasted all year and when the 2005 junk
came out there was no lapse in the grief.

I ask permission to remove it every time I see it and about 90% of the clients let me. The 10% that don't
keep calling back and seem to have forgotten my little "speech" about home/small office Norton. I really
would like to not re-bill them but I just can't justify the second/third repairs when on the first fix I requested
to remove it.