Backup with External Hard Drive!

mystsnowfire · 06-11-2009, 09:33 PM

I've decided to backup my XP computer to a 320 GB external hard drive, and I have a couple of basic questions.

1) Is it necessary/beneficial to format the drive in any way before transferring files, or does it work like a flash drive where you can just plug and go?

2) If I use the Windows Backup Wizard to complete the transfer, does the option to backup "all information on this computer" include downloaded programs and software? Does it include personal settings and cookies?

3) Finally, (this is probably a silly question) if my computer were to crash and after restoring to factory settings I plugged in the fully backed up external hard drive, what is going to show up? Is there going to be a fully functioning copy of my original computer, or will the drive list the saved files and information as if it were on a flash drive?

Thanks in advance for your help and patience!

france434 · 06-12-2009, 08:10 AM

yes u can back it up just use Backup Wizard

**raptor_pa** · 06-12-2009, 01:34 PM

You would need to restore the backup. When backed up all the data is stored in one .bkf file, and needs to be restored to be useable. Most external drives come pre-formatted to fat32, which is not conducive to full system backup due to FAT32's 4 GB file size limit, so reformat it to NTFS to do the backup.

mystsnowfire · 06-12-2009, 03:58 PM

Thanks so much, raptor!

06-11-2009, 09:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
mystsnowfire Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: XP	Backup with External Hard Drive! I've decided to backup my XP computer to a 320 GB external hard drive, and I have a couple of basic questions. 1) Is it necessary/beneficial to format the drive in any way before transferring files, or does it work like a flash drive where you can just plug and go? 2) If I use the Windows Backup Wizard to complete the transfer, does the option to backup "all information on this computer" include downloaded programs and software? Does it include personal settings and cookies? 3) Finally, (this is probably a silly question) if my computer were to crash and after restoring to factory settings I plugged in the fully backed up external hard drive, what is going to show up? Is there going to be a fully functioning copy of my original computer, or will the drive list the saved files and information as if it were on a flash drive? Thanks in advance for your help and patience!

06-12-2009, 08:10 AM	#2 (permalink)
france434 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 13 OS: win vista 32 x86	Re: Backup with External Hard Drive! yes u can back it up just use Backup Wizard

06-12-2009, 01:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,714 OS: XP	Re: Backup with External Hard Drive! You would need to restore the backup. When backed up all the data is stored in one .bkf file, and needs to be restored to be useable. Most external drives come pre-formatted to fat32, which is not conducive to full system backup due to FAT32's 4 GB file size limit, so reformat it to NTFS to do the backup. __________________

06-12-2009, 03:58 PM	#4 (permalink)
mystsnowfire Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 4 OS: XP	Re: Backup with External Hard Drive! Thanks so much, raptor!