Back up CD

[four_two]

Hopefully a simple yes or no answer to a question.
I know you are permitted :rolleyes: by Microsoft to make 1 back up of your OS.
Having been caught out once before by damaging my W2000 OS disk and then finding my hard drive dying on me leaving me bereft of computer, I don't want to be caught again.
I now have a new PC and want to make a copy of my OS. Is it just a simple matter to do an ordinary copy or is it more than that? Someone told me that it has to be bootable? -- but isn't the original like that anyway?
Does this make sense? Am I asking too many questions? Is the answer 42?;)
Thanking you in anticipation.

[ORAC]

If you got a copy of the OS on CD, then it is just a matter of making a copy. If the manufacturer provided a Rescue/Recovery disk containing the OS you can make a copy of that instead.

If you have neither, you cannot simply make a bootable copy of the OS, but you can make a backup image of your system by using Programs/Accessories/System/backup and selecting a full backup. This will burn an image of your system to CD and produce a system recovery boot disk (floppy).

Regardless, make sure you have a copy of the OS registration number as you will need it to reinstall. Replacements are not provided.

[four_two]

Thanks orac
I have a new Dell and I did get a "Reinstallation CD" which I read somewhere is a full OEM version of XP, so I can make a copy for peace of mind purposes.

As an aside, I dont seem to have this backup facility in "Accessories" as part of my OS.

[Loose rivets]

I had a long conversation with HP today. They have assured me, that the Restore disc will give me the abillity to do a total reinstall of the Os should the hard disc fail, and i have to purchase a new one.

I had assumed that it would only bring to life the data in the restore partition, and would be of no use whatsoever, on a new drive.

I still have doubts.

[rotorcraig]

I had the same concern with a Dell PC that I recently helped the father in law to set up.

It doesn't come with a restore CD, but a piece of paper cut to "look like a CD" which explains that there's a restore function in the BIOS that will save the day following HDD failure.

Unless there is a chip onboard that contains a restorable image(?), then the only other thing that I can think of is that the BIOS restore function is dependant on you buying a new drive from Dell rather than some generic. Can't imagine that would be cheap?!

RC

[four_two]

rotorcraig
I only bought my Dell in January and it came with a reinstallation CD. Perhaps there has been a change of policy recently? If this is the case then in future I will probably (with the help of my son) build my own and have my own copy of the OS. My Dell is working fine but I didn't realise when I bought it that it would come loaded up with dozens of pieces of software I wouldn't have chosen in a million years.
Since I posted above I've heard that any copy of XP would do to reintall the OS as long as you have the identification key for the OS supplied-- it's normally stuck to the case somewhere.

[bladewashout]

This dell issue is a real pain in the *rse. I installed an old copy of Wordperfect on my father's new with XP Pro Dell because he wanted it, and it overwrote some XP system files. The OS popped up a dialog box pointing out that a system file had been overwritten with an older version and to inert the OS CD so it could re-set it to the latest version, and this dialog box just kept popping up in front of all other windows.

But of course you have no CD. Only way out was a full re-install of the OS from the hard disk, and all applications from scratch.

I don't understand why Dell have done this, unless it is for cost.

BW

[Blacksheep]

My IBM Thinkpad has a restore function on the HDD that I once had cause to use. Reinstalling all the softwater was a bit of a pain but not too difficult. If the HDD goes down I don't think I'd get a new one from anywhere but IBM anyway, but I do now have a back up on CD to make any future system restore less traumatic.