Backup (XP Home)

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Having read all the problems with XP’s backup routine, especially backing up to CD, is there any reason one cannot copy over the Backup utility in Windows 98? – it may be crude but at least it works for backing up data often, quickly and easily. Before I get the recommendations on the (excellent) utilities like Ghost, the owner of this computer is my student son, who has no money (unlike most students). Alternatively, is there a free simple ulitilty to do the same thing?

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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I would imagine XP would object to installing a program from your Win98 CD but I’ve never tried it so I can’t be sure. I can’t imagine that you can just “copy” the backup program onto your system without going through an installation process.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for backup of “selected files” rather than a full hard drive backup, Karen Kenworthy’s Replicator is

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Thanks – I will have a look at Replicator

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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Win98 Backup will not work under WinXP for FULL SYSTEM RESTORE. WinXP is NT-based system, and Backup utility running from inside Windows. For backing up data files, you can use ZIP utility like WinZip, storing zip archives on removable media. For restoring Windows installation, create Restore Points with System Restore (Start | Help and Support | Undo changes…) BEFORE installing any new programs, even “viewers” from Internet. And for full system restore, in case of major problem or hard drive failrue, you need third-party utility like Norton Ghost to store your image (backup) outside your primary hard drive and ability to restore it from outside Windows. If Computer Programming with home-made computer-crash programs is out of your scope and you don’t have a habit to open “I Love You” letters and download “Anna Kournikova Nacked” pictures, you don’t need it.
And remember – in any case, buy, install and keep up-to date Antivirus program!

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My son is trying to backup the data only, not a full disk image nor a system restore. The problem with WinZip is that it is very cumbersome if you want to backup only some of a large folder in order to fit onto a CD. Specifically, I want to back up all of My Documents, except the music folder, plus the Outlook files. Replicator might do the job, but as far as I can see it does not have compression. And yes – he gets skinned if his antivirus etc is not up to date!

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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I haven’t done so lately, but I have in the past done a lot of looking around on the web for shareware or freeware FILE-LEVEL backup programs and I don’t remember seeing any that also have compression capability. You might want to take a look at TUDOGS freeware and TUCOWS shareware to see if YOU can find anything worthwhile. The problem with most of the ones I’ve tried is that they don’t give you enough selection capability over which files to backup. Karen’s at least has some “masking” capability. Of course, you could make it a two-step process and use Karen’s program to copy the files you select to a TEMPORARY folder and then create a zip file from there to the CD. Then again, what’s a DAD for except to shell out some $$$ for a program that has what you need…..

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If you install Winzip Command line support then you can use a BAT script to backup exactly the files and folders you want on a regular basis – this supports a list of excluded files or folders.

StuartR

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There ya go, Chris! Per-zackly what you were lookin’ for! Thanks for that, Stuart. Gettin’ lazy in my old age. I only recently downloaded Winzip’s SR-1 and never even glanced at the link for command line support. I was thinking to myself – I’m ALWAYS in the Windows shell when I use Winzip – yeah, right! I’ll pay attention now…..

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