On 12/2/2012 8:35 PM, BillW50 wrote:
On 12/2/2012 5:09 PM, Frank.Logullo wrote:
Computer was slowing down and now I can't get into Windows.

Hard drive seems OK as I can get the Windows restore options but they
will not work and all I get is a blank screen with the mouse pointer.

Reticent to use OS restore disk as it is quite old and will wipe old
files. Is this something I should not be concerned about? I do have two
months of Carbonite left and am going to drop it for a back up drive.

Is there something better (I saw some restore software at Best Buy).

Don't want to expend lot of money or effort as I was thinking new pc
next year. Also open for suggestions on that.

Frank

Hi Frank! You don't have to purchase any backup software. There are
plenty of free ones that work just as good as the expensive ones. I
know, I have both. And no need to wipe that hard drive if you don't want
too.

Yes you need some sort of backup drive. While external USB drives are
much slower than internal drives, external ones are easy to remove from
the system once you are done. Which is generally a good idea to keep it
isolated when it isn't needed.

My favorite backup method is disk cloning. What is nice is that you can
always pop the clone in when you need it. So you can be up and running
in seconds. Although of you want more than one backup copy, you need
more clone drives. But this is the safest of all backups.

What most do is to use a larger external (or second drive) and keep
multiple backups there. I don't like this method myself, because if that
one drive goes, all backups are gone except for the original drive in
your machine.

Your machine came with Vista right?

XXClone (free version) is my favorite cloning utility. Must be ran from
a working Windows though. So it is useless if Windows can't run.

Paragon is just as good as Acronis True Image and sometimes better. I
have both. Used both many times. And Paragon also has free versions that
are also very good. And there are many other wonderful ones out there too.


Thanks for response. Yes I have Vista but Windows won't run so I can't
get these programs or run them.
I have a new backup drive that I was going to use in a couple of months
after I give up Carbonite. Right now, thankful for Carbonite as I'm
getting files I need to work on. Giving up Carbonite as it costs twice
as much to backup whole computer and seems to slow things down. Took
nearly a day to up load my files when I first bought it.