Backup of XP ? how to do something simple and reliable ?

My question : How to do a backup of all OS XP and to be able to use it after changing disk (crash disk) ou necessity of reinstallation (OS not working well, problem of virus ..).
my AAO and flash memory is : xpsp3 /120go/512mo/ sdhc 4go and sdhc 8go / usb 2go+2go
size of OS+ programs : < 7.5go
data are on D: , os on c:

my dream should be to be able to do like this :
backup of system :
A1 / boot on usb thumb (like on PE, but will all drivers , included sdhc)
B1/ backup of C: (OS)
Recovering system :
B1/ boot on usb thumb (same as A1)
B2/ to recover system from sdhc (done in B1) on C:

this should be very reliable , small and easy to have with me when I travel .
On my other laptop, I use GHOST (boot on cd /PE, and backup are on cd ).
Here, with AAO , my problem is to find how to do a bootable USB thumb (with installation of all drivers , including sdhc, some usefull software : explorer, partitions,backup and recovery ....)

Complete satisfaction should be to have a USB bootable key able to work on any configuration. This should be next step.
Thanks for your advice

 

it's pretty easy to make a bootable USB key with PE and GHOST (I use ghost 11, the ghost version has to be Vista compatible and I believe 11 was the first one that was?).

I would suggest using maybe a 16GB key to boot with, so it has room to hold images and what not.
You could also copy the image directly to a USB hard disk (if you have one) using PE and GHOST (what I am doing atm on my AAO).

 

Very good
Do you think it'd be possible to make a ghost on sdhc or I absolutly need a USB ?
Thanks

 

I will check later whether I can save the image onto SDHC through PE, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to see it. Since I boot off a 16GB USB key, it wasn't a big deal to make an image onto it (or the 160GB external USB drive that I have as well).

 

I did it booting from external USB cd (PE) and I ghosted on HD D:.
Copying ghost files from D: to sdhc , I'm testing
Thanks

 

Try http://www.ubcd4win.com
You can make it boot from usb and it includes Driveimage XML which can make an image of your hard drive or partition

 

For painless backups I highly recommend a Windows Home Server. If you have any old retired desktop (no monitor needed except to install) you can simply purchase a copy of the WHS OS for about $150. Not cheap - but check the reviews - it is comprehensive daily hands-off backups (even wakes PC from sleep). Restore is super fast and easy -restore individual files or whole PC from any backup date u want over the network. This may be overkill, but if you have ever failed to do a backup because you were too lazy - WHS solves that problem. It is also extremely space efficient - figures out duplicate data and stores it just once (or twice on separate physical drives if you specify)

google it for more info - I have WHS, two vista machines, older xp laptop and am thinking an XP A1 makes sense for me. waiting for the recent price drop to hit canada.

btw - is the hdd version of the A1 slightly larger than the ssd version?

 

Nope, same dimensions. Slightly heavier though I believe.

 

Another method I've used for backups is the ImageX tool from the Windows Automated Install Kit (AIK). It's a free download from Microsoft, so you don't need to buy Ghost, etc.

It's intended for deploying Windows Vista and Server 2008 images, but it works great for backing up and restoring XP images, too.

The first step is to make a bootable USB key. I followed the instructions here to make a bootable USB key and copy the essential AIK files to the USB drive. Note that you'll need to use a Vista system to format the USB key (it can be a desktop machine), and the drive you're copying the backup to has to be formatted as NTFS.

Then, just boot your AA1 from the USB key, change to the drive letter that is assigned to the key (depends on how many partitions the HDD has). I use an external USB HDD to hold the backup (.WIM) file, since writing to a USB key is dog-slow :roll:.

Assuming your OS is on drive C:, and the USB HDD where you want to copy the backup file is drive D:, you'd run a command like this to make a backup of the OS partition:

Code:

imagex /capture C: D:\backup.wim "AA1 OS partition backup" /compress fast /verify

On my system, the OS install alone was about 4.7GB. The backup took about 20 minutes, and compressed it down to about 1.5 GB.

Imagex has lots of other options that are documented in the AIK documentation (and on TechNet). If there's enough interest, I can write up a step-by-step

 

seems interesting, I'll check it next WE. Thanks