J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Char Jackson
writes:
[]
I'm probably in the minority but I'm one who doesn't make a rescue CD
(actually USB) until I actually need it. Then I use it and promptly toss
the thumb drive back in the pile to be recycled for other uses. Someone
who has a single PC is probably better off creating and storing a rescue
disc but that's not my situation here.

That's my point - "when I actually need it" is too late for a single-PC
user, if "need it" means the PC won't boot, for whatever reason
(hardware drive failure, you've done something silly, or malware). You
can't then _make_ the CD (or USB).

+1

That's one of the benefits of buying an image program already containing a
boot CD as part of its package, like Acronis True Image (ATI), and you can
make a bootable flash drive too. The only problem I've had with Acronis
True Image is that it's become more bloated and less straightforward in its
interface with each succeeding generation.

Well, that, and the fact that when I try to use a flash drive ATI boot
loader on my laptop to do a restore image operation, it wants to restore the
image to D: instead of C:, since it seems to see its own boot Linux OS as
C: - which is very annoying.