Backup solutions for laptop

**buksida** · July 21st, 2008, 01:16 AM

I've recently purchased an Acer laptop with Vista on it however the vendors do not give you the OS or driver CDs. Can anyone recommend a good way of backing up the entire C drive so I can reinstall the lot should something go wrong. The C drive is currently around 16 Gig.

Would Norton Ghost be best for this? I've experimented with Acronis True Image before but never managed to fully restore a partition without errors so have no confidence in that.

**Platypus** · July 21st, 2008, 03:47 AM

I use Acronis TI 9 and 10 (Seagate DiskWizard) and have had no problems. What version(s) of TI did you experience errors with?

**NooNoo** · July 21st, 2008, 03:56 AM

Acer either supply the discs when you ask them to, or have a utility to burn the discs for yourself. If you have Vista Ultimate, there is a backup image facility as well.

**buksida** · July 21st, 2008, 04:40 AM

The built in Acer stuff no longer functions since I disabled the 15 odd services it wanted to run on startup and uninstalled the security gumph which has known issues with Dreamweaver.

Have also tried Acronis TI Home v11 on another PC but it threw up errors when I wanted to restore the partition - had to format and set it all up from scratch which kinda defeated the object of using backup software!

**NooNoo** · July 21st, 2008, 08:24 AM

OK, re-enable them and get your disks made, then shut them off again. I wouldn't be surprised if Acronis is throwing a fit about the restore partition which you may have already destroyed.

**Ferrit** · July 21st, 2008, 08:57 AM

Have used acer built in software to make the restore cd's on over 25 acer laptops and it has worked very well. So i am with NooNoo re enable the services and get the cds made then remove them again

**buksida** · July 22nd, 2008, 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

OK, re-enable them and get your disks made, then shut them off again.

Ok - will give that ago and post if I run into problems.

**buksida** · July 22nd, 2008, 03:17 AM

Quick bit of research from the Acer site tells me eRecovery (which is what I need) is not compatible with Vista. Nothing happens when I try to run it though all the other Acer eGumph works.

Acronis here we go again!

**NooNoo** · July 22nd, 2008, 06:46 AM

Was this laptop supplied with Vista?

**buksida** · July 23rd, 2008, 04:10 AM

Yes. The only thing I have done is uninstalled the eSecurity as it conflicted with Dreamweaver. If the eRecovery is part of that it'll explain why it no longer works ... of course I'd re-install it if I had the CD!