Whoa up, y'all. NTBackup is not that bad. It may not be overly useful for
the average home user, but it does have it uses in the right places.

Acronis TrueImage is not always the answer either. How many average users
make an image of a system having just set it up fresh? More often that not,
they don't. They wait until they are having problems.

Images made like this reintroduce the same problems, and wipe out any
subsequent data added since the image was made, just as the manufacturer
'restore to factory' procedure does. Ask a user if they have tested an
image, and they just look at you blandly.

Manufacturers supply routines to backup a new system, but answers range from
'I didn't have any CDs/DVDs to 'I didn't understand it/couldn't be bothered
to read it' to 'I stopped it in MSCONFIG because it was annoying me'.

Maybe the fault lies with us all because we are using the wrong terminology.
When 'backup' is mentioned, users will start looking for programs that have
'backup' in their names or descriptions, and they will end up down the road
of being tied to a procedure they do not fully understand, and where the
procedure is being used as a cure instead of prevention. Instead of 'backing
up', we should refer to 'making an image' where an OS and support programs
are concerned, and 'save' or 'copy' regarding user data.

In this way, the users will look towards programs like Acronis TrueImage and
Nero/Roxio rather than the more arcane solutions used in the very different
environment of industry/commerce.


"Jim" wrote in message
. net...

"Jerry Foley" wrote in message
...
How do I create an ASR floppy without a floppy drive? I have a dvd/cd rw
but
no floppy. I use the backup utility from XP to an external USB 500GB
drive.
Thanks
Jerry
You buy am external floppy drive which you connect via USB.
Jim


--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/