I just use Drive Image to image the entire drive at a known good condition. Then I can always restore at that condition.

goback is an automated backup system.

It keeps registry and files backed up to certain dates. Lets say one day you come home and windows quits booting. GOBACK!!!

goback will give you like 10 dates to revert your system back to. I've done it a couple of times and flawless.

If you don't have it, get it. It's very simple to use and it's fast as hades!!!

Auggy

Is this better than the System Restore feature with XP? Got a link?

Win2k already has "restore to last good bootup". Why do I need this?

JJK

Be VERY CAREFUL with any go back or system restore utility. They can be set up to save your butt or in a moment of carlessness undo things you didn't want to 'undo', like for example wipe out weeks of work. I personally refuse to use any of them since none of them can or do replace good backup procedures.

Real story, real scary. A friend, also into video editing had a system with two hard drives. The second was always getting full because of the size of the files. Of course. <wink>. So instead of getting a larger drive, she was in the habit of moving big chunks of her one of kind, I only got one copy files over to her "C" drive every time her "D" drive was getting full in order to finish a big project on the 2nd physical drive. Bad habit.

She uses XP. One day crash. Installed some new application that had some driver Windows didn't like and it became very unstable. So she does a system restore. Didn't take. Goes back a few to a restore point about a month back. Oh good, she thinks I'm back up. Indeed she was but...

Remember her habit of moving files off "D" and putting them on "C" just because she was running out of room? Well not remembering she done that, going back as far as she needed to "restore" her system Windows trashed all those of one of a kind, I don't have another copy of them files along with that problem driver. So her restore mission became a DESTROY mission.

If you use such "features" do read the fine print first and be careful moving files around. Most such applications allow you to protect either whole partitions, folders or even file types. That is of course you don't by accident move stuff to where it normally isn't and undo your scheme. NOTHING replaces a good solid backup system. Be careful.

yo billy -
with greatest respect rendered...

what is YOUR backup system?
everyone has their own, so what do you like (and why?) - and tell us more of what you hate or fear...
please?

I'm a little paranoid with backups. For example for all my video stuff I make three copies on three difference types of storage. A) DV tape, B) a copy on a removable hard drive and C) copy burned to a DVD or CD. The odds all three would fail are astronomical so I feel very safe. :-)

For other stuff I set up my system this way:

On all my PC's I have two physical hard drives. The first is devoted to the operating system(s) and NOTHING else goes there. Every week or so I make a backup to a bootable CD. Just my "C" drive. No matter what happens, system crash, virus attack, me doing something really stupid, it only takes a few minutes or so to restore a working version of Windows. All my applications get stored on the second physical drive. You can partition one physical drive if large enough into two drives C and D. JUST application, not any data files go on D. The logic here is if you install something new and it crashes, big deal, uninstall and you're back to where you were. Worse case, I may have to reinstall Windows as explained in step one. I don't make repeated backups of applications since I have the original install CD's. No point. Of course for stuff you download off the Internet it makes sense to back these up to a CD and I do.

Now as I've said many times I like removable drives. I got a bunch of them. ALL my data files are on these. This is what changes constantly as you work on things, be it video, spreadsheets, word processor projects, web authoring projects, whatever. This I back up using a true backup program. There are many to pick from. See link below. I don't like GHOST or others that make a mirror image byte by btye. Why not? Most are pretty clusmy to use, set up and take a long time to do their thing and some don't burn to CD or DVD very well if at all. I haven't looked at any new versions for awhile, maybe they do better now. Besides being a control freak I want to do it MY way. To me the ideal system is one that allows you to backup automatically, set which files to back up (only if changed for example) on top of making regualar timed backups of the works. Again, remember I'm mainly concerned with backing up my DATA, that's the one thing I can't replace if it gets lost or damaged.

http://www.cnet.com/software/0-429667-8-20953449-3.html

I saw first hand the importance of a good back up system. Many years ago I was working for a large retailer. During the weekend (Saturday in the wee hours)a fire started in the building next door. Unseen, it quickly jumped to our buiding. The sprinkler system was knocked out almost immediately and was of little use. Now totally out of control the fire destroyed our complex and the building next door. That Sunday IBM sent out their recovery team. They were able to "rescue" much of the data from our main frames... but not everything. Luckly, the owner also used offsite backup. If he didn't, then he would have had no proof for insurance claims to justify his multi million dollar inventory sotred in the main warehouse which was also were the main office and computers were located. Worse, would have been the lost of his receivables records, what his retail customers owed him, since it was a large multi state furniture chain where nearly every purchase was on the installment plan. So without the accounting records he would not have known who owed him what. So yes, after that experience I've always been a little careful with backups. <wink>