computer backup advice
This is mostly for hslayer to respond to at his leisure, but I have a lot of other computer geniuses on my flist, so any feedback would be great.
I just got my repaired Acer laptop back (thankfully under warranty), with a new HDD and OS installed; Ace Rimmer lives up to his name, as he's essentially back from the dead. I've spent the last few days reinstalling most of the vital programs and files, though I did lose some incidental images, video, and documents.
I'm pretty good about backing up the essentials (novels and stories) regularly, almost obsessively. But I hate having to strip away all the bloatware from a fresh install of Windows, configuring the system the way I like, and reinstalling all the applications I use. A friend suggested I backup an image of the system, which sounds like a dandy idea. Or is it? I would need to buy another external hard drive for the purpose, as my current one is configured for FAT32, not NTFS. Not the most dire thing in the world, as it's already running low on space, and I can get another terabyte or more for $99 - $120 these days. Or would it be possible to simply partition my laptop's HDD to store the image separately? Would it be difficult or impossible to restore the image to the same drive? (Currently it will take about 65GB for an image, which makes DVD an unwieldy option.) Is the Windows 7 backup feature sufficient or do I need to go third-party?
If I ever end up getting another new HDD, can I really just boot from disc and restore the OS and files with that image?
I'm also going to make a system boot disc and backup the Acer restore files, but is there anything else I should consider to guard against sudden, inexplicable HDD failure and the woes associated with recovery?
And on another note, it cost me $65 to ship this machine back to Acer for repairs. It was still under warranty, and I assume the hardware failure was their fault, so should I bother pursuing reimbursement for the expense? From what I hear of Acer's customer service, I'm lucky they sent it back to me at all.
Thanks in advance for your sage advice!
I just got my repaired Acer laptop back (thankfully under warranty), with a new HDD and OS installed; Ace Rimmer lives up to his name, as he's essentially back from the dead. I've spent the last few days reinstalling most of the vital programs and files, though I did lose some incidental images, video, and documents.
I'm pretty good about backing up the essentials (novels and stories) regularly, almost obsessively. But I hate having to strip away all the bloatware from a fresh install of Windows, configuring the system the way I like, and reinstalling all the applications I use. A friend suggested I backup an image of the system, which sounds like a dandy idea. Or is it? I would need to buy another external hard drive for the purpose, as my current one is configured for FAT32, not NTFS. Not the most dire thing in the world, as it's already running low on space, and I can get another terabyte or more for $99 - $120 these days. Or would it be possible to simply partition my laptop's HDD to store the image separately? Would it be difficult or impossible to restore the image to the same drive? (Currently it will take about 65GB for an image, which makes DVD an unwieldy option.) Is the Windows 7 backup feature sufficient or do I need to go third-party?
If I ever end up getting another new HDD, can I really just boot from disc and restore the OS and files with that image?
I'm also going to make a system boot disc and backup the Acer restore files, but is there anything else I should consider to guard against sudden, inexplicable HDD failure and the woes associated with recovery?
And on another note, it cost me $65 to ship this machine back to Acer for repairs. It was still under warranty, and I assume the hardware failure was their fault, so should I bother pursuing reimbursement for the expense? From what I hear of Acer's customer service, I'm lucky they sent it back to me at all.
Thanks in advance for your sage advice!