Backing up W98SE/IE6 to CD-RW

[siwalker66]

About once every 6- 9 months I seem to be forced to reformat my C and reinstall everything. This takes ages as I have lots of little progs I like aswell as particlar desktop prefs, wallpaper, views, single- click etc.. .So (sigh) I try to back-up using the provided software onto a CD-RW. Seems straightforward... name the backup, choose where to back-up, go painstakingly through all the boxes within prog files, docs, favourites etc etc... Reformat C with smug smile, get the basics in, backup...mmm, absolutely nothing has been backed up. All that is restored is empty folder (like various academic references; the folders I had them all in were restored but not the contents).. .Can anyone put me out of my misery? I manage now by directly saving copies of progs, docs etc on the CD but surely I shouldnt need to

[ 11 February 2002: Message edited by: chickenhawk66 ]</p>

[What_does_this_button_do?]

Use Norton Ghost and take an image of the drive in a good condition so when you re-format you will restore a known good config.

Only an idea!

B

[siwalker66]

Thanks for the suggestion. . .I am still curious about what I am doing wrong when I use MS backup though.

[Canuck_AV8R]

The short answer is that MS Backup sucks. Use a dedicated backup program and you will enjoy more hasslefree backups and recoveries.

Cheers

[KwikPhix]

I've just done a reformat, my machine works a lot better now I've cleaned out all my rubbish that i'd collected over the last year or so. the way i did it was;. .1) All my personal stuff, letters , spreadsheets, dowloaded programme files, etc, went into seperate folders , all stored within 'My Documents' though. This way i only had to copy one folder.. .2) I located the Calendar file thet contained all my appointments etc. I simply pasted it over the blank one after the reformat . It worked.. .3) I used a programme called 'Express Assist' to back up all my Internet Explorer,Outlook,outlook express,folders, settings, e-mails, favorites, etc. It worked.. . It was a bit of a pain in that I had to remove all my added Hardware and return the computer to factory condition, before the 'rebuild' , however i like messing with my machine- it's part of the hobby, imho.. . One thing I did find when re pasting all of my files, etc. I have 2 drives in my machine,a DVD drive, and a CD-RW, I found that the files would not work when put back on the machine via the DVD drive even though I could see them/use them of the CD (DISASTER!). I tried again using the CD-RW Drive (which had been used to make the copies) and hey presto everything pasted and worked . Spooky. The computer goes like a train now (a Japanese Train !)HTH.