RE: backup and ghosting software

[Guest guest]

Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great.Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration?Another question s- if you have a ghost on  a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer?ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free!  they are not trial downloads.  i have done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup.  i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done.they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting.  just google them.i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format.has anyone else seen these programs?i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be.  i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works.i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969.anyone else remember that? LLYahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great.Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration?Another question s- if you have a ghost on  a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer?ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free!  they are not trial downloads.  i have done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup.  i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done.they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting.  just google them.i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format.has anyone else seen these programs?i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be.  i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works.i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969.anyone else remember that? LLYahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great.Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration?Another question s- if you have a ghost on  a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer?ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free!  they are not trial downloads.  i have done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup.  i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done.they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting.  just google them.i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format.has anyone else seen these programs?i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be.  i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works.i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969.anyone else remember that? LLYahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

what i did: i had previously copied over the internet four AC ms access files from my work to home office computer, from the AC program folder, and had placed them on the desktop at home, as an additional backup for my office. if one looks in the AC program folder, there appear to be four files which change on a daily basis, noted by date, under the "detail" view-- they are labeled (exactly) AmazingCharts import billing schedule i did not have those files loaded into my AC folder on my home computer. i downloaded and installed cobian backup v8. i used cobian to make backup copies of those four files. i compared the file size of each of the four files, between the originals, on the desktop, and the backed up set of those same four files. there was no difference in size in each case. i then copied and pasted the four backup copies from where they were, in "My Documents", into the AC folder. i could do that because they have slightly different names from the original file names. however, to use them, and AC requires that have specific names, i had to rename them to each of the specified names. that creates a conflict with the originally-named files. to overcome this conflict, i merely created a new subfolder within the AC folder, and dragged and dropped the four original originally-named files into the new folder, which i named "old data". i renamed the four backup copies to the original names, as required by the AC program, in order to use that data. it worked fine. i checked, and discovered that i had done the backup without compression, so i re-ran the test, by making a backup using cobian,

of the four files now in the AC folder, using one of the available compression modes. i then decompressed and extracted the four files from the archive, and compared the file sizes; they appear correct, and the program indicated no errors. i then copied the four decompressed files, which retained the original names, as a group, and pasted them into the AC folder. the computer asked me if i wanted to overwrite the current four files, and i said "yes to all", it did so, and AC seems to be working fine with the now backed up, compressed, decompressed and restored data. so, this appears to be working, at least at my level of understanding. there's lots i don't understand, like levels of encryption and compression, so i would encourage anyone interested to take a look at this. i like the user interface; it is very straightforward. to answer your question

about creating an image of the hard drive and if it works, i think the best test is what you have, a spare hard drive. download the driveimage program, test it on your spare hard drive, and see if it works. i think your questions will be answered at the driveimage web site. both of these programs appear very straightforward, and i found that no gnashing of teeth was necessary. LL Guinn wrote: Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great. Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration? Another question s- if you have a ghost on a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer? ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free! they are not trial downloads. i have

done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup. i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done. they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just google them. i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format. has anyone else seen these programs? i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969. anyone else remember that? LL Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

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[Guest guest]

what i did: i had previously copied over the internet four AC ms access files from my work to home office computer, from the AC program folder, and had placed them on the desktop at home, as an additional backup for my office. if one looks in the AC program folder, there appear to be four files which change on a daily basis, noted by date, under the "detail" view-- they are labeled (exactly) AmazingCharts import billing schedule i did not have those files loaded into my AC folder on my home computer. i downloaded and installed cobian backup v8. i used cobian to make backup copies of those four files. i compared the file size of each of the four files, between the originals, on the desktop, and the backed up set of those same four files. there was no difference in size in each case. i then copied and pasted the four backup copies from where they were, in "My Documents", into the AC folder. i could do that because they have slightly different names from the original file names. however, to use them, and AC requires that have specific names, i had to rename them to each of the specified names. that creates a conflict with the originally-named files. to overcome this conflict, i merely created a new subfolder within the AC folder, and dragged and dropped the four original originally-named files into the new folder, which i named "old data". i renamed the four backup copies to the original names, as required by the AC program, in order to use that data. it worked fine. i checked, and discovered that i had done the backup without compression, so i re-ran the test, by making a backup using cobian,

of the four files now in the AC folder, using one of the available compression modes. i then decompressed and extracted the four files from the archive, and compared the file sizes; they appear correct, and the program indicated no errors. i then copied the four decompressed files, which retained the original names, as a group, and pasted them into the AC folder. the computer asked me if i wanted to overwrite the current four files, and i said "yes to all", it did so, and AC seems to be working fine with the now backed up, compressed, decompressed and restored data. so, this appears to be working, at least at my level of understanding. there's lots i don't understand, like levels of encryption and compression, so i would encourage anyone interested to take a look at this. i like the user interface; it is very straightforward. to answer your question

about creating an image of the hard drive and if it works, i think the best test is what you have, a spare hard drive. download the driveimage program, test it on your spare hard drive, and see if it works. i think your questions will be answered at the driveimage web site. both of these programs appear very straightforward, and i found that no gnashing of teeth was necessary. LL Guinn wrote: Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great. Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration? Another question s- if you have a ghost on a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer? ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free! they are not trial downloads. i have

done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup. i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done. they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just google them. i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format. has anyone else seen these programs? i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969. anyone else remember that? LL Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

what i did: i had previously copied over the internet four AC ms access files from my work to home office computer, from the AC program folder, and had placed them on the desktop at home, as an additional backup for my office. if one looks in the AC program folder, there appear to be four files which change on a daily basis, noted by date, under the "detail" view-- they are labeled (exactly) AmazingCharts import billing schedule i did not have those files loaded into my AC folder on my home computer. i downloaded and installed cobian backup v8. i used cobian to make backup copies of those four files. i compared the file size of each of the four files, between the originals, on the desktop, and the backed up set of those same four files. there was no difference in size in each case. i then copied and pasted the four backup copies from where they were, in "My Documents", into the AC folder. i could do that because they have slightly different names from the original file names. however, to use them, and AC requires that have specific names, i had to rename them to each of the specified names. that creates a conflict with the originally-named files. to overcome this conflict, i merely created a new subfolder within the AC folder, and dragged and dropped the four original originally-named files into the new folder, which i named "old data". i renamed the four backup copies to the original names, as required by the AC program, in order to use that data. it worked fine. i checked, and discovered that i had done the backup without compression, so i re-ran the test, by making a backup using cobian,

of the four files now in the AC folder, using one of the available compression modes. i then decompressed and extracted the four files from the archive, and compared the file sizes; they appear correct, and the program indicated no errors. i then copied the four decompressed files, which retained the original names, as a group, and pasted them into the AC folder. the computer asked me if i wanted to overwrite the current four files, and i said "yes to all", it did so, and AC seems to be working fine with the now backed up, compressed, decompressed and restored data. so, this appears to be working, at least at my level of understanding. there's lots i don't understand, like levels of encryption and compression, so i would encourage anyone interested to take a look at this. i like the user interface; it is very straightforward. to answer your question

about creating an image of the hard drive and if it works, i think the best test is what you have, a spare hard drive. download the driveimage program, test it on your spare hard drive, and see if it works. i think your questions will be answered at the driveimage web site. both of these programs appear very straightforward, and i found that no gnashing of teeth was necessary. LL Guinn wrote: Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on it that needs back up, but if I could "send" it to the hard drive on the front computer, that would be great. Thoughts? And how are you going to test restoaration? Another question s- if you have a ghost on a hard drive, can you just hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer? ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for free! they are not trial downloads. i have

done some initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and backup. i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to be done. they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just google them. i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using an xml format. has anyone else seen these programs? i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969. anyone else remember that? LL Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

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[Guest guest]

… I was born in 1969

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O.

Box 7275

Woodland

Park, CO 80863

From:

[mailto: ]

On Behalf Of lawrence

lyon

Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006

12:49 PM

To: practice improvement

Subject:

backup and ghosting software

ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead

practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for

free! they are not trial downloads. i have done some

initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and

backup. i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to

be done.

they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just

google them.

i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data

(alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using

an xml format.

has anyone else seen these programs?

i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out

to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car,

i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic

understanding of how it works.

i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected

to the dartmouth

time share computer, in 1969.

anyone else remember that?

LL

 

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make

PC-to-Phone Calls to the US

(and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

… I was born in 1969

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O.

Box 7275

Woodland

Park, CO 80863

From:

[mailto: ]

On Behalf Of lawrence

lyon

Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006

12:49 PM

To: practice improvement

Subject:

backup and ghosting software

ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead

practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for

free! they are not trial downloads. i have done some

initial testing, and they seem to work fine to make an image and

backup. i have not yet used them for restoration, that also needs to

be done.

they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just

google them.

i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get data

(alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they are using

an xml format.

has anyone else seen these programs?

i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary tries to make me out

to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going to drive a car,

i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at least a basic

understanding of how it works.

i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected

to the dartmouth

time share computer, in 1969.

anyone else remember that?

LL

 

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make

PC-to-Phone Calls to the US

(and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.

[Guest guest]

hey Larry- Thank you so much for looking into the backup and ghosting

issues.

I am feeling dense and gnashy though, and I think I am missing the main

point of cobian. Couldn't you just grab those access files and plop them

onto a thumb drive and stick them onto your desktop computer at home, (which

is what I do now about once a month)? (I do burn a CD daily with those files

and few more.) Does cobian automatically do this for you as a scheduled

backup AND over the web?

Also, a mistake I made for a while was not to actually copy the imported

items folder -not just the import Access database file- in my backups. I

understand that you aren't actually importing items into the chart, so maybe

you don't have anything in your imported items folder, but if you do import

into the chart, you have to copy both the Import file and the imported items

folder- otherwise no imported items.

I haven't looked at driveimage yet, but I'm going to buy an external hard

drive - I think a 40 GB Western Digital Passport model- this weekend. Does

ghosting the image of what's on my (main) laptop mean that if my hard drive

begins to show signs of senescence, I could take it out and plug in my

external drive into my laptop and just run from that, through my USB port?

Can you actually run from a ghost from driveimage? Or would I have to run

out and quickly buy a new hard drive and then copy the ghosted image on the

new hard drive? The devil is in the details.

Thanks for your always appreciated advice.

PS. now that you've found the sweet spot, are you going to stay at that

practice, or are your days out there limited?

Lynn

>

>Reply-To:

>To:

>Subject: Re: backup and ghosting software

>Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 22:49:22 -0700 (PDT)

>

>what i did:

>

> i had previously copied over the internet four AC ms access files from

>my work to home office computer, from the AC program folder, and had placed

>them on the desktop at home, as an additional backup for my office.

>

> if one looks in the AC program folder, there appear to be four files

>which change on a daily basis, noted by date, under the " detail " view--

>they are labeled (exactly)

>

> AmazingCharts

> import

> billing

> schedule

>

> i did not have those files loaded into my AC folder on my home computer.

> i downloaded and installed cobian backup v8.

> i used cobian to make backup copies of those four files.

> i compared the file size of each of the four files, between the

>originals, on the desktop, and the backed up set of those same four files.

> there was no difference in size in each case.

> i then copied and pasted the four backup copies from where they were, in

> " My Documents " , into the AC folder. i could do that because they have

>slightly different names from the original file names. however, to use

>them, and AC requires that have specific names, i had to rename them to

>each of the specified names.

> that creates a conflict with the originally-named files.

> to overcome this conflict, i merely created a new subfolder within the

>AC folder, and dragged and dropped the four original originally-named files

>into the new folder, which i named " old data " .

> i renamed the four backup copies to the original names, as required by

>the AC program, in order to use that data.

> it worked fine.

> i checked, and discovered that i had done the backup without

>compression, so i re-ran the test, by making a backup using cobian, of the

>four files now in the AC folder, using one of the available compression

>modes. i then decompressed and extracted the four files from the archive,

>and compared the file sizes; they appear correct, and the program indicated

>no errors.

> i then copied the four decompressed files, which retained the original

>names, as a group, and pasted them into the AC folder.

> the computer asked me if i wanted to overwrite the current four files,

>and i said " yes to all " , it did so, and AC seems to be working fine with

>the now backed up, compressed, decompressed and restored data.

> so, this appears to be working, at least at my level of understanding.

> there's lots i don't understand, like levels of encryption and

>compression, so i would encourage anyone interested to take a look at this.

> i like the user interface; it is very straightforward.

>

> to answer your question about creating an image of the hard drive and if

>it works, i think the best test is what you have, a spare hard drive.

> download the driveimage program, test it on your spare hard drive, and

>see if it works.

> i think your questions will be answered at the driveimage web site.

>

> both of these programs appear very straightforward, and i found that no

>gnashing of teeth was necessary.

>

> LL

>

>

>

>

> Guinn wrote:

> Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up

>arrangement in my office donw by an " IT " person and either hire someone

>else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My

>desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office

>computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it.

>I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I

>have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on

>it that needs back up, but if I could " send " it to the hard drive on the

>front computer, that would be great. Thoughts? And how are you going to

>test restoaration?

> Another question s- if you have a ghost on a hard drive, can you just

>hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off

>of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer?

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead

>practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for

>free! they are not trial downloads. i have done some initial testing, and

>they seem to work fine to make an image and backup. i have not yet used

>them for restoration, that also needs to be done.

> they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just

>google them.

> i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get

>data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they

>are using an xml format.

> has anyone else seen these programs?

> i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary

>tries to make me out to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going

>to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at

>least a basic understanding of how it works.

> i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected

>to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969.

> anyone else remember that?

>

> LL

>

>

>

>---------------------------------

> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+

>countries) for 2¢/min or less.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>---------------------------------

>Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+

>countries) for 2¢/min or less.

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good points, lynn-- yes, in addition to those four files, one also has to back up the imported items folder in AC, if one has altered it's contents. i see what you're saying about cobian, that without encryption, compression, or any other process, why can't one just copy the files over? the answer is, yes, one can. that begs the question, why use cobian or any other type of backup software? as best i can tell, that without using the additional data handling processes, it is essentially to do two things-- to backup data, in any of three different manners, namely full, incremental and differential, and to do so automatically, to any designated location. my understanding is that that location could even be another hard drive in the same computer, such that one may not need to set up RAID (no, not the insecticide, rather a random array of independent disks, i think that's what it stands

for). try cobian's forum, there should be additional info and help there. regarding driveimage, you'll have a perfect way to test it's ghosting ability with your external hard drive. however, from what i read of driveimage, if your cloned image is, for example, 30 gb, and you clone it to a hard drive that is, say, 60 gb, it will take up the entire space (60 gb) of the new drive. again, go to the faq's on driveimage (i forget if they have a forum). the concept is what is called "bare metal restoration", where one merely plugs in the hard drive containing the clone, into the crashed computer, a copy of the clone is migrated to the "bare metal" hard drive of the crashed computer, and voila! your crashed computer's hard drive is restored, with all your programs and operating system, and it works, as if the computer had never crashed. do not

clone a hard drive that's working, rather use routine disk care and maintenance programs, such as windows defragmentation, disk cleanup, and my favorite program, "crap cleaner" (no joke, free and one of the best utilities there is). of course, don't forget to restart at least once a week. DO NOT use something called matco defragmenter, also called dirMS-S. it did something weird to my hard drive at home, still usable, but i'm still trying to figure it out. after you test it, give us a full report. you can always reformat your external hard drive. hope that's helpful. LLlynn ho wrote: hey Larry- Thank you so much for looking into the backup and ghosting issues.I am feeling dense and gnashy

though, and I think I am missing the main point of cobian. Couldn't you just grab those access files and plop them onto a thumb drive and stick them onto your desktop computer at home, (which is what I do now about once a month)? (I do burn a CD daily with those files and few more.) Does cobian automatically do this for you as a scheduled backup AND over the web?Also, a mistake I made for a while was not to actually copy the imported items folder -not just the import Access database file- in my backups. I understand that you aren't actually importing items into the chart, so maybe you don't have anything in your imported items folder, but if you do import into the chart, you have to copy both the Import file and the imported items folder- otherwise no imported items.I haven't looked at driveimage yet, but I'm going to buy an external hard drive - I think a 40 GB Western Digital Passport model- this weekend. Does

ghosting the image of what's on my (main) laptop mean that if my hard drive begins to show signs of senescence, I could take it out and plug in my external drive into my laptop and just run from that, through my USB port? Can you actually run from a ghost from driveimage? Or would I have to run out and quickly buy a new hard drive and then copy the ghosted image on the new hard drive? The devil is in the details.Thanks for your always appreciated advice.PS. now that you've found the sweet spot, are you going to stay at that practice, or are your days out there limited?Lynn>From: lawrence lyon >Reply-To: >To: >Subject: Re: backup and ghosting software>Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2006 22:49:22 -0700 (PDT)>>what i did:>> i had previously copied over the

internet four AC ms access files from >my work to home office computer, from the AC program folder, and had placed >them on the desktop at home, as an additional backup for my office.>> if one looks in the AC program folder, there appear to be four files >which change on a daily basis, noted by date, under the "detail" view-- >they are labeled (exactly)>> AmazingCharts> import> billing> schedule>> i did not have those files loaded into my AC folder on my home computer.> i downloaded and installed cobian backup v8.> i used cobian to make backup copies of those four files.> i compared the file size of each of the four files, between the >originals, on the desktop, and the backed up set of those same four files.> there was no difference in size in each case.> i then copied and pasted the four backup copies from where they were, in >"My

Documents", into the AC folder. i could do that because they have >slightly different names from the original file names. however, to use >them, and AC requires that have specific names, i had to rename them to >each of the specified names.> that creates a conflict with the originally-named files.> to overcome this conflict, i merely created a new subfolder within the >AC folder, and dragged and dropped the four original originally-named files >into the new folder, which i named "old data".> i renamed the four backup copies to the original names, as required by >the AC program, in order to use that data.> it worked fine.> i checked, and discovered that i had done the backup without >compression, so i re-ran the test, by making a backup using cobian, of the >four files now in the AC folder, using one of the available compression >modes. i then decompressed and extracted the

four files from the archive, >and compared the file sizes; they appear correct, and the program indicated >no errors.> i then copied the four decompressed files, which retained the original >names, as a group, and pasted them into the AC folder.> the computer asked me if i wanted to overwrite the current four files, >and i said "yes to all", it did so, and AC seems to be working fine with >the now backed up, compressed, decompressed and restored data.> so, this appears to be working, at least at my level of understanding.> there's lots i don't understand, like levels of encryption and >compression, so i would encourage anyone interested to take a look at this.> i like the user interface; it is very straightforward.>> to answer your question about creating an image of the hard drive and if >it works, i think the best test is what you have, a spare hard drive.> download

the driveimage program, test it on your spare hard drive, and >see if it works.> i think your questions will be answered at the driveimage web site.>> both of these programs appear very straightforward, and i found that no >gnashing of teeth was necessary.>> LL>>>>> Guinn wrote:> Larry - I've just decided to dump the useless back up >arrangement in my office donw by an "IT" person and either hire someone >else or strike off on my own. I have a 3 computer peer-to-peer network. My >desktop has AC on it, and I do back that up in the sky. My front office >computer, though, is the oldest desktop and it has the PM database on it. >I'd like to ghost that computer on the 80 gig hard drive I already own. (I >have two and change them out). Then the third computer has minimal stuff on >it that needs back up, but if I

could "send" it to the hard drive on the >front computer, that would be great. Thoughts? And how are you going to >test restoaration?> Another question s- if you have a ghost on a hard drive, can you just >hook it up to another functional computer temporarily and boot or run off >of it, while you're organizing a replacement for the dead computer?> >>>>>> >>>> ok, i have been doing some research, and in line with low overhead >practice, have found a couple of programs for ghosting and backup, for >free! they are not trial downloads. i have done some initial testing, and >they seem to work fine to make an image and backup. i have not yet used >them for restoration, that also needs to be done.> they are cobian for backup, and driveimage xml for ghosting. just >google

them.> i am wondering if the driveimage people have a program which will get >data (alteer) and put it in usable form for another database, since they >are using an xml format.> has anyone else seen these programs?> i am not now, nor have i ever been, a supercomputer genius, as gary >tries to make me out to be. i'm just someone who thinks that if i'm going >to drive a car, i'm obligated to know what's under the hood and have at >least a basic understanding of how it works.> i will admit, however, that i did start using basic, and was connected >to the dartmouth time share computer, in 1969.> anyone else remember that?>> LL>>>>---------------------------------> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ >countries) for 2¢/min or

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