"MariaL" <layportm@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:1176161312.313838.198410@y80g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
>> On Apr 9, 5:07 pm, "Rock" <R...@nospam.net> wrote:
>> "MariaL" <laypo...@bellsouth.net> wrote
>>
>> I bought a 160 GB external drive for backing up my files. I want >> to
>> make a full backup of my entire PC. Also, anyone have any
>> personal experience between these two backup programs or any
>> advice on any others available that are better.
>>
>> > Thanks for any and all help.

(...and Maria later adds...)
> How do I access the Ntbackup? Also am I correct that your saying
> with that program you can't do a full system restore to how the pc
> was before a crash or lost files. Doing an Image backup with
> something like Ghost or this Acronis, is much better, is that correct?


Maria:
As Rock & others have suggested, you may be better served by using a disk
imaging program such as Acronis True Image to completely back up your
system.

The advantage of these disk imaging programs is that they are comprehensive
in nature - not only do they back up your user-created data, but also the
operating system and all your programs & applications - in short everything
that's on your day-to-day working hard drive (HDD).

So through the use of a disk imaging program if and when for one reason or
another your working HDD becomes dysfunctional you can restore the drive to
its previous state.

A program such as Acronis can either create a "clone" of your working HDD
(the so-called "source" disk) on your "destination" disk, i.e., your
external USB (I assume it's a USB device) HDD or it can create a "disk
image" - in effect, a "snapshot" of your system - which you can store on
your external HDD. There are advantages/disadvantages to each, but in either
case the backup/recovery process is straightforward and should pose no
difficulty for you.

You probably should avail yourself of the opportunity to download a 15-day
trial version of the Acronis program (http://www.acronis.com) and try it
out.

I've posted to this newsgroup on a number of occasions step-by-step
instructions on using the Acronis program both for disk cloning & disk
imaging and the recovery process. If you're interested I can post them
again.
Anna