Does anyone know if there is any way to backup my system and applications without having to back up all of the files and folders on my hard drive? My hard drive is not partitioned so I don't know if that is a solution. I have CD copies of all my important documents/files, some of which take up a lot of room and I do not need to make a copy of these when I back up my system. However I do have a number of applications on my computer which I do not want to lose if my hard disk dies which is why I want to create a backup which I can restore from if anything goes wrong. I bought Drive Image 2000 but when I ran it, it seemed that it was going to take about 15 CDs and over a day to back up my whole system including all the files etc I have on it (about 13 GB). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Easiest is creating another partition to hold your drive image(s). Bets solution is to install another hard drive and put the images on it.

The ideal solution is to have a small 'Windows' partition and a large partition for programs and data. Then you can use a program like 'Drive Image' to back up windows to a minimum number of CDs. I can get mine on one.

Go to HP's site at this address: http://www.hp.com/country/ca/eng/welcome.html and do a search for "simple backup". You will get a search results page with a number of items where you can download the "Simple Backup" software. You want version 4.2 which is 98SE compatible. Version 4.7 is for XP. It says its an upgrade but I think is the full install. You can make custom backups/restores (only files you select) or full backups and restores with this s/w.

Re my above post, forgot to put in that Simple Backup backs up to CD's.

First let me say I am no expert and a bad backup is better than no backup. ______________________________________ That being said, there is your windows 95/98 backup that is part of your system. You can backup to your hardrive on the same partition. {This is if your hard drive will not partition free space for whatever reason] This can be a full backup, or "incremental" or partial backup and you can play with the backup program to get backup up how you want. Now, what good is this? Although you are not perfect, you can now split this file onto a cd or cd's, so it is off the hard drive. again no expert here, I have decided to start a new hardrive with [windows 98 2nd] the bare system with correct drivers installed, then a separate folder with programs that are to be installed kept right on the hardrive, and a folder of ny operating system's cd in another folder. No one is perfect and I am always "losing' a program somewhere, but I try to keep it all together ready to reinstall when there is trouble. Good Luck. steeveweeve