On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:49:43 -0500, wrote:

It takes about 2 hours and most of that is waiting.

I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:49:43 -0500, wrote:

It takes about 2 hours and most of that is waiting.

I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.



It's not as if you had anything to do.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:27:30 -0500, HK wrote:

I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.



It's not as if you had anything to do.

============================

And your point is ?

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:27:30 -0500, HK wrote:

I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.


It's not as if you had anything to do.

============================

And your point is ?



Well, W'hine, if you had something to do, the few hours it takes to
rebuild a hard drive from scratch might interfere with some worthwhile
activity. But you don't really have any.

Get yourself a Windows Home Server from HP. You can back up and restore
your entire machine with virtually no operator input, and with the new
release, you can even backup your backups to removable hard drives and
store them off site. You can do a lot more with the WHS, too, which
makes it more interesting than simply using decent backup software to
backup your drives and reinstall them with a CD restore disk.

But, then, what would you do with the time freed up? Help run a soup
kitchen? Distribute clothing to the poor? Pay someone's electric bill?

Nah.

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:24:01 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:49:43 -0500, wrote:

It takes about 2 hours and most of that is waiting.

I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.

You might look into Ghost or Acronis or whatever.
I use Ghost, on a floppy. It's simple to use.
If you keep your installed apps on the c partition and image that
partition once in a while to another hard drive, you never have
re-install again.
It would take you 5-10 minutes to restore your OS and apps.
That's from dead in the water to up and running where you were.
I do OS and most app installs once on a computer.
This one is over 2 years old, since I built the box.
A new (different) motherboard is the only reason I have to do a
reinstall. There's probably a way around that too, but it gets
complicated and probably isn't time effective.

--Vic

Vic Smith wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:24:01 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:49:43 -0500, wrote:

It takes about 2 hours and most of that is waiting.
I don't know how you do that. It takes me that long just to get to
the right service pack level on the OS, and then I need to reinstall
all of my application software and bring it back to the right
maintenance level.

You might look into Ghost or Acronis or whatever.
I use Ghost, on a floppy. It's simple to use.
If you keep your installed apps on the c partition and image that
partition once in a while to another hard drive, you never have
re-install again.
It would take you 5-10 minutes to restore your OS and apps.
That's from dead in the water to up and running where you were.
I do OS and most app installs once on a computer.
This one is over 2 years old, since I built the box.
A new (different) motherboard is the only reason I have to do a
reinstall. There's probably a way around that too, but it gets
complicated and probably isn't time effective.

--Vic


Acronis works quite well. I have it on the main machine and have a
RESCUE CD, which I have tried. It works.

wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:08:50 -0500, HK wrote:

Get yourself a Windows Home Server from HP

GearX.com has the NetGear "toaster" for $36.
That is an XP/Vista box that just plugs into the network and supports
2 hard drives.


Well, sure. But the Home Server software does lots of neat stuff.

wrote in message
news
On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:38:04 -0500, HK wrote:

Acronis works quite well. I have it on the main machine and have a
RESCUE CD, which I have tried. It works.

I am getting ready to try that.

I vote for Acronis, hasn't failed me yet after a couple of years.

"HK" wrote in message
...

Get yourself a Windows Home Server from HP. You can back up and restore
your entire machine with virtually no operator input, and with the new
release, you can even backup your backups to removable hard drives and
store them off site. You can do a lot more with the WHS, too, which makes
it more interesting than simply using decent backup software to backup
your drives and reinstall them with a CD restore disk.



Why?


I mean, what the heck is so important about a stupid computer to do this
stuff?

Those of you that rely on a computer to store important information deserve
to get crashed ... or whatever.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...
Get yourself a Windows Home Server from HP. You can back up and restore
your entire machine with virtually no operator input, and with the new
release, you can even backup your backups to removable hard drives and
store them off site. You can do a lot more with the WHS, too, which makes
it more interesting than simply using decent backup software to backup
your drives and reinstall them with a CD restore disk.



Why?


I mean, what the heck is so important about a stupid computer to do this
stuff?

Those of you that rely on a computer to store important information deserve
to get crashed ... or whatever.

Eisboch




With a WHS, you can back up and restore all the computers in your
household automatically, you can serve up saved movies stored on the WHS
to any computer in your household without clogging up the hard drive on
that computer, and you can also use the device as an iTunes server.
There are many other features, but those are the ones I use the most.