new computer backup problem

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

yc wrote:

> I bought a new computer (viro (sony) brand). But I didn't find any
> support diskets or CDs in the package. I need to backup its system
> files, my friend told me that. What should I do and how I can do it?
> Please help me. Thank you.

First of all, legally Sony must have provided some way for you to
restore your system. It could be a hidden partition on the hard drive,
a real operating system disk, or a restore disk. I would refer to the
manual/help files or contact Sony tech support about this.

You could always image the drive with something like Ghost or TrueImage,
but not all laptops image successfully. You really should find out what
method Sony provided in any case.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Malke" <invalid@not-real.com> wrote in message
news GqgxfUoFHA.2152@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> yc wrote:
>
>> I bought a new computer (viro (sony) brand). But I didn't find any
>> support diskets or CDs in the package. I need to backup its system
>> files, my friend told me that. What should I do and how I can do it?
>> Please help me. Thank you.

<snip>

> You could always image the drive with something like Ghost or TrueImage,
> but not all laptops image successfully. You really should find out what
> method Sony provided in any case.
>
> Malke

Interesting statement Malke. What problems have you seen? I image laptops
frequently and have not run into this. If it does occur, it would throw a
monkey wrench into my normal repair methodology, as I image to an external
USB hard drive the Windows partition of every computer I work on. I'm just
trying to be prepared.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

>> I bought a new computer (viro (sony) brand). But I didn't find any
>> support diskets or CDs in the package. I need to backup its system
>> files, my friend told me that. What should I do and how I can do it?
>> Please help me. Thank you.

Most newer systems (if they do not come with a restore CD) have the option
(usually in the manufacturer's preinstalled software section) to create a
restore CD set.
I just finished doing that for an HP system I picked up (for my son) on
clearance at Wal-Mart.
8 CDs in the set.
--
For evil to prosper requires only that good men remain silent!

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Richard Urban [MVP] wrote:

>> You could always image the drive with something like Ghost or
>> TrueImage, but not all laptops image successfully. You really should
>> find out what method Sony provided in any case.
>>
>> Malke
>
> Interesting statement Malke. What problems have you seen? I image
> laptops frequently and have not run into this. If it does occur, it
> would throw a monkey wrench into my normal repair methodology, as I
> image to an external USB hard drive the Windows partition of every
> computer I work on. I'm just trying to be prepared.
>

Hey, Richard. A little background to set the stage - my youngest goes to
a school with a laptop program. The school can't afford to buy all the
computers, so the parents have to. Don The School Tech God (who is a
good friend of mine) has a list of various machines for which he has
images. If a parent chooses to buy a machine off that list, it has to
be hand-configured for school, and the work is outsourced to me (yay!
work!).

So while I don't have a huge experience imaging different laptops, I've
set up about a dozen of them over the last few weeks. After I get them
configured, I image them with TrueImage using a bootable cd and storing
the image on an external hard drive. Out of the dozen or so, I've had
two machines that absolutely would not run TrueImage. TI wouldn't run
or would hang. Now, maybe they would run a different imaging program
but I wasn't messing about with that so I don't know. I asked Don about
this and he said that he had run into the same situation (he uses
Corporate Ghost) too and all we can figure is that there must be
something peculiar with those laptops' recovery program, hardware,
BIOS, or something. Not very precise, but you are the person who could
probably figure out why far better than I could since you are so good
with hardware.

The funny thing is that it isn't a whole product line, just one machine.
For instance, I had two Acers and one of them imaged beautifully and
the other would load TI and then just hang.

If you have any ideas about this, I'd love it if you'd take this off the
ng and email me privately.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User