Portable hard drive

[anotheoldgit]

I have purchased a Toshiba 250GB 2.5 inch portable hard drive.

At the moment all I have backed up on this drive are 'My Documents'.

Can one also back-up all one's programmes Micosoft Office etc, including the operating system, Microsoft XP, in fact make a mirror image of the built in hard drive?

If so what is the best way of going about this task?

Thank You

[BilleeeeeeeS]

Acronis is the best way & here is a free trial version

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/ trueimage/

Easy enough to use

[ChuckFickens]

Not directly no...

You can create what is called an image of the hard drive on the external hard drive, but to do this you require extra software, such as

http://download.cnet.com/Drive-Backup-Express- 32-bit/3000-2242_4-10904676.html?tag=mncol

(I've not used this software, maybe somebody else will come along and suggest one they have used themselves)

(or we will get yet another iYogi link!!)

[ACtheTROLL]

same as chuck
this has been getting good writeups
http://clonezilla.org/download/sourceforge/

but not used it - I use symantec (nee powerquest) drive image

acronis is good ... for home use ... DI is industrial

[BilleeeeeeeS]

Strange I've never heard of that , I've always seen Acronis or Ghost recommended, & it's free .

[anotheoldgit]

Thank you for all your answers.

Now you have proved that backing up one's hard drive in it's entirety is possible, may I also ask could I use my portable hard drive (Windows XP) on my Laptop which is Vista, and would I be able to switch between the different operating systems?

[SiennaHughes]

Very simple purchase Norton Ghost and install on your computer and then you can create Image of your entire system with installed OS and programs, also you can fcreat backup and make clone..

try this Norton Ghost....

for more you can take help from reaching at this destination..http://www.iyogi.co.uk

[ChuckFickens]

AOG,

yes you can plug your drive into your laptop and you will be able to access the files fine..

I would suggest you get in the habit of ensuring that you click the little icon down by the clock that says safely remove hardware and click stop before removing the drive from either computer though....aside from being good practice in general unless you remove the drive this way vista will want to run a scan on it everytime you plug it in.