I'm an idiot. Please help.

[jane_says (imported)]

How do I make a copy of a CD-R (it's software, not audio)? Our puter crashed last week and had to be formatted. It took forever to find all my disks and stuff. I looked for Windows for two days! How do I make back-up copies of this stuff so I can put it all in one spot? I need a step-by-step here folks, I'm no programmer (although I'm certain that's obvious enough). We have LTS guys at work who do this, but I can't bring 'em home with me. Help out a fool, please?

[talula]

Sorry Jane,

It really isn't as easy as putting in a cd and recreating the system with Windows, all your drivers, favorite software, etc.

There are products such as Norton's Ghost which will allow you to do a full mirror of one hard drive to another which is one way of system recovery, but for the most part your best bet is to keep all your cd's in one spot (i.e. Windows), and go for a backup of all your data.

When I say data, I mean all your photographs, quicken files, email files, more.

Backing those up can be as easy as saving them to another hard drive on your computer, or saving them to another computer in a home network, but that is getting a bit more technical then you probably want to experience without your computer guys showing you how it is done.

I know this doesn't help much. Write and I can talk some more about it (I do lots of backups at work).

tal

[Shortie (imported)]

How do I make a copy of a CD-R (it's software, not audio)? Our puter crashed last week and had to be formatted. It took forever to find all my disks and stuff. I looked for Windows for two days! How do I make back-up copies of this stuff so I can put it all in one spot? I need a step-by-step here folks, I'm no programmer (although I'm certain that's obvious enough). We have LTS guys at work who do this, but I can't bring 'em home with me. Help out a fool, please?

Hi, Jane,

Your situation is very typical, believe me. I've been what's known as a VAR (Value Added Reseller) for several years, and have developed this method for getting my customers back up and running in less than an hour after a total crash of their system. Unfortunately it won't help those who have made no preparations beforehand. For those who have, it's a godsend.

Every computer that leaves my shop has a disk-imaging program installed, accompanied by a set of CD-Rs with the full disk image on them, plus a boot floppy with the imaging program on it. If an unrecoverable crash ever occurs, the customer can call me and I'll walk him or her through the steps of re-installing the disk image. At the very worst, the machine will be restored to the condition it was in when sold. If the customer was conscientious about making regular images (as I recommend several times during the sale), then the restored image will be very close to the condition it was in preceding the crash.

It usually takes anywhere from 6 to 15 blank CDs to make an image of the hard drive. One thing that increases the amount is the installation of lots of games on your computer. Try to keep them at a minimum, by using the Add/Remove applet to uninstall unused games. That will reduce the number of disks required for the backup, as well as the time spent performing it.

The program I normally use is Norton Ghost, and I believe it's the easiest for my customers to use. Another program, which costs less, is BootIt. Its interface is considerably "geekier," but it certainly gets the job done. If price is not a big factor, then go for Ghost.

If all you want to do is simply duplicate an existing CD, then you can use either Nero Burning or Roxio's CD Creator. Both have an easy-to-understand applet for duping. It's much quicker if you have two CD drives on your computer, but one will work just fine.

That brings up probably the most important point of all, which is that your computer must have the type of CD drive that allows for recording. A simple CD-ROM drive will not work for that application. You must have a CD-R, a CD-RW, or a DVD-R (or one of the many other DVD drives available) in order to "burn" disks. Those drives are becoming more and more standard these days, but if you have an older computer, then you'll probably need to replace the CD drive in order to do backups.

If this hasn't answered your question, please feel free to send me a private message.