xp backup ?

[homer75]

I bought a secondhand pc which has xp home edition installed. I didn't get a cd copy of xp with it. Is there any way I can make a copy of the operating system in case the worst happens ? The pc has a cd writer but no dvd writer.

[stevie21]

You could take an "image" (or clone) of the entire hard drive but you'd need lots of space to store this in.
Norton Ghost, I believe, can do this type of thing

[qapmoc]

Hi homer, stevie is correct that ghost will copy an exact image of a hard drive, the problem is that the only place big enough to store it would really be another hard drive, in theory you could image the drive to a folder on the existing hard drive and then use Nero backitup or similar to span it over several CD's,

The problem would be how to use nero to copy the CD's back again, because Nero would have to be installed on a operating system before you can use it and you would not have a operating system until after you copy the CD's back!!

[commoner]

My Compaq came without a cd copy of xp but in my case there was a seperate partition containing all the neccessary files and I could make a series of recovery cds from that....not sure if yours will be the same......

[spaced]

In XP you can restore your machine to factory settings in 2 ways - Non destructive and destructive. If you choose destructive it allows you to save the whole hard drive and factory installed software to around 6 CD's, this is of course if the person you bought it from has not done so already. THe info is stored in a partition on your hard drive. If you do a destructive reinstall it will ask you to insert discs. Once you have done this the partition will be removed and the space used will amalgamate with the rest of your drive/

CHECK YOUR MANUAL BEFORE DOING A NON-DESTRUCTIVE OR DESTRUCTIVE REINSTALL!!!!!