This guide assumes that you are using Windows XP or prior.

Okay, well many of you posting within this forum are going to have virus infection problems. On that front I cannot help you, just suggest using a virus scanner such as McAfee, however I can inform you of a great application known as Norton Ghost. As members of this forum are aware I am not usually a fan of Norton products, however on this occasion my opinion has to differ. Now follow my simple instructions and I will explain how to create a COMPLETE and I mean COMPLETE backup of your computers operating system, all files and everything else on your hard drive !

The application you need first is called Norton Ghost. To pick this up cheap from eBay like I did click here. Go forthe earlier versions 2003 and before because apparantly the newer versions have some weird license activation crap and only work for a limited time period. Once you have purchased that you must also ensure that you have an EXTERNAL hard drive. Make sure it's bigger then the drive your backing up so if you have a 20GB local hard drive buy a 30GB external hard drive. Tip... you can pick up large capacity external hard drives now for literally ££'s so this wont be too expensive.

Now you have the CD and the external hard drive. Install Norton Ghost. Also plug in your external hard drive. Norton ghost is great because it backups up an entire image of your PC, these images can be restored in literally minutes. So you could backup and restore your computer in lets say 15 minutes (something you cannot do with other applications such as the built in windows backup tool, which takes ages).

Once installed you will see something like this:

1. Select the 'backup option', you will then see the backup wizard
2. click 'next'
3. now you will see a screen asking you which partion to backup. On Xp the default partion is the c:\ drive. Select this option with your cursor.
4. Select the option to backup your pc to a file
5. sleect the location of where you would like to backup to
6. completed a file containing a complete record of your pc's data will be created on your external hard drive
7. To restore launch norton ghost
8. select restore
9. browse for the image you created also ensure usb 2.0 drivers are enabled at the prompt 'options', usb 2.0 enabled, then click okay
10. You will be prompted to over-write you installation of windows select 'conform'
11. Your computer will be restarted and restored to the state in which you backed it up see image below:
12. Once restarted your computer will be like new (or restored) !

Before you do this:

- Always back up your 'my documents folder', just incase you screw things up !

This is a fast and efficient way to backup your PC, I recommend creating an image of your hard drive at least weekly. It's better then using buil-in windows tools because they don't tend to backup every single file, not even system restore does that! This process backs up evrything ! ! !

Trust, this is the easiest way to eliminate viruses but i would still run a virus scanner !

This post has been edited by Liveman: Apr 15 2010, 10:02 AM

That is a great guide thanks. I was looking to get some docs that I had lost.

Cool article. Just went out and bought a external HD, and I DL Norton Ghost 2003. Only problem is that my PC doesn't have a floppy drive and the program wants me to create a bootable floppy rescue disk. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Moch

cant you just use a data CD?

Nope. That version of Ghost only allows you to create a recovery disk using a floppy drive..

just use nero or damon tools and burn a data CD containing your most important files and make a new topic about the question

Many times I see some utilities that use floppy drives.

Its a common form of data storage that hackers use to modify gaming systems hard drives to allow it to play burned copies of games.

This is really best way to recovery. I'll try Norton Ghost. Thanks for information.

Norton ghost will recover your current files.And if you have lost any types of files from your system and now you want to recover this deleted file, It can be done using recovery software.

A long time unanswered, you can actually boot from the Norton Ghost DVD. Hope this helps

I learned a good way, thank you!

Some months earlier i turned xp to windows 7(only appearance)
Hey Everybody im sorry im a noob one so i used to reply this post because i dont know how to post things in this website. So here's my problem; When my computer notified me about my disc space is low! So i went to my computer then i cleanup the files of the drive C:. During the cleanup I've noticed that the cleanup is not responding, so i shut my computer down and turn it on again. So back in my topic when i turn the pc again it's boot screen returned to its original one the windows xp professional one and i saw in the welcome screen that the screen is in 640x400 and only 4 bit I tried system restore but theres no restore point i dont know why but i created many restore points before so i think my restore points were corrupted. My Problem is that I cant change the resolution and the bit to the original one so HELP ME!!!!!

to start a new topic you need to go to a forum section, then hit "new topic"

when you had disc spce low, running cleanup likely froze as you didnt have enough space on your hard drive for it to work properly...so some files got corrupted. go to my computer and right click on your hard drive, then hit properties. how much drive space is available?

you will have to uninstall programs you dont use anymore...delete files you dont need to recover the hard drive space first. then we can tackle your problem.