Happy Trails Computer Club

Restore disks

Most new computers come with "restore" or "recovery" CDs (or hidden partitions) that put your computer back to where it was when it was new. There are two problems with that approach though.

The first problem is minor: The CD may not restore your computer exactly the way it was when shipped-- just close. The manufacturer may have found and fixed a a few bugs by changing the master image used at the factory. There may be a time lag before the restore disks are updated to reflect the fix. If you ever are forced to "restore" your computer, you'll loose those fixes forever.

The second problem will more likely to be a major one for you. When you "restore" your computer, all the programs, documents, pictures, email, or anything else you've created, downloaded or installed will be deleted. Restore disks can only put the hard drive back to it's original state, which of course doesn't include anything you've subsequently added. If you've backed up your documents, etc. you can put them back too. You'll also have to reinstall all the programs that you added after you bought the computer.

The way around these problems is to use "drive images". These are restore disks (they can be put on another hard drive too) that do pretty much what a regular restore disk does, but they are up to date. That means you'll only need to restore your documents (you did make a backup didn't you?) and reinstall any programs that you installed after you made the drive image..

Windows "System Restore"

Windows XP, and ME two (pun intended) include a comprehensive system backup utility called "System Restore". Learn more about it at About.com (no pun intended). Learn how to create a System Restore Point there too or use Windows Help (which is pretty good). It's not as complete as a drive image backup, but it comes close for Windows itself (but not for your programs, documents or other data). Earlier versions, like Windows 98, do save at least the registry. I've been able to restore the registry for 98 a couple of times in the past. It certainly saved my bacon.

Fred Langa gives a good explanation of System Restore and how to use it at Information Week. I've used System Restore to fix calamities a few times myself. The results have always been fine. You will need to reinstall any programs that you installed after the restore point though. Usually that's not too many. The reason is, the registry is one of the files that's restored to an early version, and most programs make registry entries when they're installed, but system restore removes any made since the last system restore point.

System backup using drive images

Images are like snapshots of your hard drive. They capture it just the way it was at the moment. If something goes wrong later, even if you need a new hard drive, you can restore your computer back to the way it was.

On the other hand, if you restore your computer by reinstalling Windows, or by using the original restore disk, you'll revert back to the beginning. That means you'll lose everything you've added since the beginning. You could have restored things to the most recent status if you'd had an image.

I make a new drive image after I've made significant changes, for example, when I install an important new program. If it's a big change, like a service pack, I also make an image just before I install it. You can learn more about drive imaging at Acronis, PowerQuest or Symantec. Both imaging and partitioning software are available online at these locations.

Acronis True Image; PowerQuest's Drive Image (now from Symantec); and Norton Ghost (also from Symantec) are the main stream drive imaging programs. They all burn a complete mirror image of your system hard drive to CDs any time you want. Be sure to check their compatibility list to see which CD-R/W drives are supported though.

Update {2004}: Symantec has acquired PowerQuest, and now owns both Drive Image and Ghost. I've learned that Ghost is not as exact in restoring the image as Drive Image is, so the latter is the one to use. The two products will be merging in a year or so anyway.

BootIt Next Generation is an alternative to the main stream imaging programs. It's small enough to fit on a floppy, but it's more powerful than them. BootIt also handles partitioning very well. In addition it includes a slick "boot manager" (so you can put more than one operating system on the same computer). There is a downside: This program isn't easy to use. If you don't have experience with partitioning and drive imaging, I think you'll struggle to make it work. I decided not to invest the effort. Learn more about BootIt Next Generation from Langa's newsletter.

XXCopy is a free alternative that performs the primary tasks very nicely too. And for more information on software and utilities for managing disks and partitions, go here.

You can probably tell by now that I depend on drive imaging software. I invest a lot of work getting my computers just the way I want them. Bad things sometimes happen when you fiddle with your computer as much as I do. (Why else have one?) I'd hate to need to do all the work over again. Drive Image has "saved my bacon" several times already.

Backing up your BIOS and boot sector

These two elements of the computer control the basic elements of your hardware and startup of your computer. They are targets for some malware. If they are modified, your computer probably won't even start. Restore disks repair the boot sector automatically. Drive images do not (they're actually partition images and the boot sector isn't part of the partition). Norton antivirus can repair both the BIOS and boot sector though (if you've made the "rescue disks" beforehand).

It's possible to reset the BIOS manually too if you wrote down all the BIOS settings before the troubles began. If you didn't, you can start with the default settings, and then figure out the changes needed (if any) to get back to normal. Look in your user's manual to figure out how to get into BIOS "settings" -- if you don't have one, try turning on the computer and then immediately press and hold the "F2" or "Ctrl" key until you get the "settings" screen. Try it now (or soon) because you may not be able to get to this page after you have a problem. Be sure to exit without saving any changes. If you can't figure out how to do that, unplug your computer, and then restart it.

More system backup

Scanreg is part of Windows 98. Microsoft keeps this valuable tool pretty well hidden from the average user. It runs behind the scenes during boot and makes partial "system backups". They're stored as "cab" files (*.cab) in the C:\Windows\SYSBCKUP folder. These cab files contain the Registry files and a few other key system files in compressed form. See how to fix your Windows 98 registry.

Windows 95 backs up the Registry as system.da0 and user.da0. See what to do if Windows 95 won't start. Windows 95 does not back up any other critical system files.

You might want to make additional backups of the Registry before and after a major change, such as installing a new program. Click Start > Run > type scanreg in the Run dialog box > Click OK. When Scanreg finishes, you'll get the invitation like the one at the left (the backup includes the critical system files to boot).

If you want to back up the registry of Windows XP, you'll need some auxiliary software, which you can get from Lars Hederer in Denmark. However, System Restore includes the registry in its backup, so there's little reason for the average user to back up the Windows XP registry separately.

A word to the wise

Why? Windows 98 drops your oldest, and perhaps most precious system backup the first time you reboot each day. In a few days, all you'll have left is bad backups. They won't help you a bit. All you can do then is use your restore disk or reinstall Windows. As Napoleon said, "Delay is like death."