[Broncofans]

I'm running Windows XP on my computer i just purchased a new Wester Digital 1T external hardrive i want to back up my computer. Need help in how is there free soft ware or can my computer do this?

[spot]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u..._03july14.mspx seems a useful starting place. XP comes with a built-in backup package.

[philthomas]

My recommendation would be Acronis True Image ... not free, but an excellent package and nicely priced.

[spot]

If we're into recommending, some of my friends get by rather well with the free option at http://mozy.com/ as an off-site backup. Offsite always seems more protective to me. Mozy's quite cheap for unlimited too.

[philthomas]

Yep the off site storage does seem a good idea for vital data .... the only limitation, as far as I know though, is they can only offer data backup, whereas a program like Acronis True Image, can create the same backups, and also save an image of the whole drive, including the Operating System.
This is really useful for imaging the drive, and gives you the option of restoring everything as it was, in a very short time.

[spot]

One can't image a disk while the operating system's running, presumably. In which case you'd need to bring the system up with a CD? In which case just about any linux live CD would allow a disk image backup to be run, and a disk image recovery to be tested (without which a backup disk image is a pretty useless lump of dead flesh), in any number of very free and flexible ways.

I used to use Norton Ghost but only for companies that had bought a licence.

[philthomas]

Acronis does indeed image a disk with the OS running and cretes a compressed .tib file.
My Vista Drive image, with all programs etc. is 6.54gb.
Acronis comes with a Start up (boot) Disk, which allows the image to be recovered to a new Hard Drive, in the event of HDD failure. It can also handle simple data backup.

It's similar to Norton Ghost, but easier to use and better IMO.