Backup and Restore Wizard Question

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randwill

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I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

instruction here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx



When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

"Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

selected files on the external hard drive.



What did I do wrong?
 
On 3/18/2010 10:41 PM, randwill wrote:

> I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

> know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

> action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

> I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

> instruction here:

> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

>

> When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

> C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

> found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

> "Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

> again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

> selected files on the external hard drive.

>

> What did I do wrong?

>

>



You may want to check out third-party image backup apps, such as



DriveImage XML





I use this and am able to select a single file from the backup file.



hth

--

Chet
 
randwill wrote:



>I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

>know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

>action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

>I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

>instruction here:

>http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

>

>When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

>C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

>found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

>"Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

>again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

>selected files on the external hard drive.

>

>What did I do wrong?

>

>

>

>

No you can't access the selected files on external HD because the files

are compressed and can only be accessed using restore wizard. If you

have many files then clearly you need to find an efficient way to to

that. Acronis True Image Home 2010

is one way of

doing; Other good product is Norton Ghost 15

.

I don't recommend any free software because they are completely

unreliable and undocumented.



hth
 
randwill wrote:

> I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

> know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

> action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

> I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

> instruction here:

> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

>

> When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

> C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

> found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

> "Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

> again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

> selected files on the external hard drive.

>

> What did I do wrong?



You didn't do anything wrong, almost all backup applications (like the

NTBackUp wizard that you used) compress the files into a single archive

file. Some backup utilities have a tool that allows you to explore the

archive and extract selected files, NTBackUp doesn't have any such

browser, to restore files you have to go through a rather clumsy process.



You can use a third party backup utility that has this kind of feature

or you can use other Microsoft command line tools like xcopy or Robocopy

to backup your files, or you can try the Robocopy GUI version:



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

Utility Spotlight Robocopy GUI



or perhaps SyncToy could suit your needs:

http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/synctoybeta.aspx



John
 
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:41:26 -0400, "randwill"

wrote:



>I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

>know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

>action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

>I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

>instruction here:

>http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

>

>When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

>C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

>found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

>"Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

>again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

>selected files on the external hard drive.

>

>What did I do wrong?

>



If you just want to easily backup files and be able to access them

anytime, try -



http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp



It's free
 
On 3/18/2010 9:41 PM, randwill wrote:

> I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I

> know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the

> action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So

> I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the

> instruction here:

> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

>

> When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from

> C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and

> found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,

> "Backup." Clicking on this file only launches the Backup and Restore Wizard

> again. But I don't want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the

> selected files on the external hard drive.

>

> What did I do wrong?

>

>



Have you tried the unstoppable copier?? It can be found at;



http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29



I like it since it will do entire directories an anything it couoldn't

copy it gives you a report on when it is done doing the file copy.



I have also had a lot of luck with Allway Sync. It is a bit slower than

the unstoppable copier on the first run, but when you just need to

freshen up the files it is great. It can be found at;



http://www.allwaysync.com/



Sincerely,

C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T



CSD Computer Services



Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/

E-mail: c.joseph@csdcs.site90.net
 
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