Just how do you back up your laptop?
Since the disk on my sub-notebook was getting decidely tatty, I have just spent a happy (Not!) few days formatting the disk, reloading windows (which was the easy part) and reloading all the applications (which was not so easy).
To save the pain of this exercise again at some time in the future, it would make sense to save a disk image while the machine is in known good shape, so that if it gets stuffed up again, I can simply restore the disk image.
But now the fun starts. I have an HP SureStore CD-Writer connected via a parallel port to the notebook. That seems a sensible device to use because it has sufficient capacity to save a compressed image of the disk.
However, Microsoft Backup doesn't work because it will only back up to tape and refuses to back up to the CD-ROM.
Norton Ghost won't work, because it only operates under DOS (on the basis that when Windows is actually running, some files may be open and will therefore be saved in "an indeterminate state"). However, there are no DOS drivers available for the HP CD-Writer, so as soon as the machine is bought up under DOS, it disappears off the radar scope.
So - does anyone out there have any bright suggestions about how to backup said notebook? I don't want to use tape (which I have found to be monstrously slow, unreliable and ineffective in the past), and I sure as hell don't want to shuffle a pile of several hundred diskettes.
Do you back up your laptop? How do you do it? Has it worked when you have needed to restore in the past?
Comments?
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Feline
(I Sit, I Watch, I Smile)