backing up the computer

Hello everybody,
I've got a little problem with backing up a computer with XP on it. There is a CD burner in the system but when I go to back up the system, it asks for floppies. I drop the drop down window and the cd writer doesn't show. Is there a way to make XP see this cd writer as the writing drive to back up to? I've talk to a few others about this, and they say go and get an outside program to make back ups. Well if XP is the best MS has as an OS, then way can't it back up to the cd writer? There has to be a way to fix this. Anybody out there know? Thanks.

Freddy

I know that with Windows 2000 it defaults to the floppy, but you can change the destination drive.

Click the "Browse" button to the right of Backup Media or file name and either enter in a file name, or browse to your cd writer.

Are the CD writer drivers 'seen' in the 'add remove programmes' window ? basic, but if not, maybe reinstall ? I had a similar prob in W2K Pro, with the CD RW and the CD ROM, had set the master / slave wrong ? and it wouldn't play along. So check the wiring / links ?

Sorry I don't have anything else, and I suppose that you have already done the above.

I dont know for deffenite but i`m pretty sure that backing up to CD in WinXP is unsurported. Your better off looking for another program, microsofts free bundled software aint the best around.

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Originally posted here by homenet
I dont know for deffenite but i`m pretty sure that backing up to CD in WinXP is unsurported. Your better off looking for another program, microsofts free bundled software aint the best around.

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It is supported by XP. On my system if I right click on a file, the popup menue appears and I can send to......CD-RW. I don't know if you are having a problem with your configueration or not, but you said,

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There is a CD burner in the system but when I go to back up the system, it asks for floppies.

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: Are you using the backup feature of XP? If so, then just try right clicking on the file you wish to backup and the use the 'send to' feature and see if it gives you the option for sending it to your CD writer.

CXGJarrod,
I did all that and this is what I'm getting....

The backup file name could not be used
"E:\Backup1.bkf"
Please ensure it is a valid path, and that you have sufficient access.

The cd burner works. We've been burning mp3 and other stuff with it. I dislike e-machines. Everybody I've talked to doesn't like them. But this is an XP issue, I think. maybe I should do the un install and reinstall AGAIN. I completely redid the system with a complete reinstall. There's got to be a way to open that path without a complete reinstall. I hate to have my kids system lose all of it's files without a backup. I've got a firewall and AV software in there and an anti-spyware, so thier in shape there. I just need to get the system backupped on cd's. Thanks for your help.

Freddy

Moxnix,
I'm trying to backup the os onto cd's, so my kid will not lose any of the files. I want a complete system back-up.

Freddy

I may be wrong but as you want to do a complete back up i think you will need an application to do that with. You can back up files and settings with the inbuilt back up wizard but not a full system back up to cd.

You will need something like Nero Burning rom which will burn a complete drive image to cd's. You may be able to use the inbuilt backup app but to do that i think you would need a second hard drive of equal or greater size. Or a zipdrive or tape drive.

So then what I think you are saying I would need to run the disc that e-machine gave us, then run the backupped files from the backup feature in XP? OK that is a great idea, but I still need to be able to backup to cd. That's the problem. XP should be able to back up all the files in the backup feature to cd. Maybe I'm asking to much of windows.

Freddy

I think you are Fred. If you havn't got a stand alone burning package and you are just using xp's built in burning ability you may be asking to much of it.

You may be able to download Nero Rom though, It will only be a time limited trial but you may be able to achieve what you want. Not sure of the url but its made by Ahead just put that in a search engine. From within the app you will be able to burn a complete backup.

HAve used the M$ Backup.. and to CD-RW drive no probs.. Check that your CD RW drive is a/ recognised by the system in the Hardware Manager b/ The correct Aspi Drivers are installed (most come with XP, some with the software disk with the CD/RW)

You are trying to make a REcovery CD for Your XP Installation.. MS BAck up is not the best for this task.
You will be best creating an image of your HDD using a utility like NOrton Ghost etc..
WARNING.. A standard XP install will require a minimum of 3 CD's .. (BTW.. That is a Prob I encountered with MS BAckup is CD Spanning)

Cheers

jinxy, Und3ertaker,
Thanks for the help. I do have an old Norton disc. I'll check it to see if Norton Ghost is on it. A friend did suggest to look at that, but I was hopeing for xp to do it. I will check to see if the right driver is working with the cd burner. The cd burner came with the e-machine, so I would think it is working right, but I will take a look, again. It's probably something real simple and I've been looking at all along. Thanks.

Freddy

well i got a small trick

first save the back up in your hard disk and may then burn it in the cd , well its not the eact answer but it will work if it is soo necessary

Backup to a CDRW- A major limitation of XPs Ntbackup utility is its inability to select a CDRW drive as a backup destination. To work around this hurdle, open NTbackup, select the files to backup, then select "c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\application data\microsoft\cd burning\backup.bkf" as the backup destination. When the backup finishes, Xp will prompt you to write the files to the CDRW

It may be like hunting a mouse with a shotgun but here is a trick I used with my system in school. I put a second drive in it and used Ghost to simply clone my drive. I installed another power switch in the back to control power to the drive. My room mate and boy friend were always messing with my system. If you use an adaptec SCSI card and SCSI drives it is much easier to create a cloned drive to use as a recovery source or even to boot too when your in a crunch. You can use the SCSI controller to point to the drive you want to use. On my work system I simply use several AT commands to clone my drive. The *.bkf file has not been good at capturing the system state in an ADS environment in my opinion.

Sorry if I was too wordy but good luck to you.

I'm giving tejaswyappalla idea a try. It sounds like the simplest idea. It will probably work. Thanks to you all for the great ideas and help.

Freddy