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My 4 yearl old Fujitsu/Siemens desk top was getting slower and slower and crashing a lot too. I had it fixed (new video card) and cleaned out and reloaded. It now runs well and fast BUT there appears to be no facility to 'back up' the system. Was it called back up and restore centre? I certainly used to have the facility and now I don't. The people who did the fix said that I could selectively copy stuff that mattered to me on onto my external hard drive but I'd rather have a full back-up facility! Any ideas please?

Mr Nephews HP desktop had a backup restore on a separate disc partition,didn't find this out until I formatted his disk,had your disk been formatted?

Backup IS there but not installed by default.

It is hidden away somewhere on the XP Home install disc.

Can't remember where but a quick Google should inform you.

:ok:

I should ask the people that did the fix for you where they got the Operating System from.

If they had used a standard back-up procedure, assuming right back to an install, then it would have prepared the disc as it was as new. Sadly, this means that it F-discs the the HD and puts a partition in ready to put your Restore information in.

Since the disc can't wipe itself and then carry on reinstalling, I would guess they had to have either your Restore disc on a CD, or they used an OS that is not kosher.

First check. Have you got a drive D:? If so, what size is it and is there anything in it?

FS and HP seem to used the same as most suppliers.

Fujitsu give you two CD's for recovery, a winblows disk and a driver disk, they don't use a backup partition so there is no sense in looking for a separate partition.


Now, if I am understanding the OP's question properly, "backup and restore" can be added to the machine by going to "Control Panel->Software" and then click on the bit that says something like "Add Windows Components" (my machine is in Dutch, so I doubt it would help if I gave you the path I have here). That will let you install whatever parts of Winblows you feel you are missing, or remove bits you feel are just wasting space.

Many thanks for the replies to date. I had no XP disc as such, with the computer, it came pre-loaded and I have mislaid any discs which came with it; thery are probably in the Jurassic layer of one of my filing drawers! I have an unpartitioned hard drive which was completely cleaned out and then re-loaded with the XP system but I do not what source they had. I will give your ideas a try when I am home and report back.

Are you sure you had the home edition before? As far as I recall the backup facility (microsoft version anyway) was only available on the pro version.

Have a look in the windows folder for ntbackup.msi if it's there try double clicking on it to see if it will install the back up facility.

Thanks Tex37. I don't know (for sure) what version of XP I had but I could certainly do back-ups (Backs -up!) with it and now I can't.> Thanks for your input GG. I will give that a try too.

If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you'll need to follow these steps to install the utility:1.
Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer.
2.
On the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen, click Perform Additional Tasks.
3.
Click Browse this CD.
4.
In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup.
5.
Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility.

Windows XP Backup Made Easy

I had a FS laptop in the UK last summer. I was fairly convinced that it had a partition...but not totally sure, but I seem to remember trying to stop D: taking up so much space. I couldn't, not without creating a hiatus that wasted even more space, anyway.

Of course, the laptops may differ from the PCs.

Very many thanks Bakgat. I don't have an installation CD but I had just come across the file Ntbackup.msi by Googling for "XP Backup". I have downloaded and installed it but it doesn't appear in my programme list and I can't find it in my computer to use it! Any more help for a computer dunce please??!!

Normally (ha!) if you run a .msi, you will get all the install dialogue and it will tell you where it put the stuff it installed.

Best idea I can come up with is to run the .msi again. Then it'll ask you if you want to overwrite ... in file location ... and you know where to look.