hi everyone, You probably knew that many desktops and/or laptops from brand name such as HP, Compaq, Acer, Toshiba, etc, they don't give the Windows XP CD to customer when they bought the system. So if we backup the Windows XP operating system from the desktop/laptop, what can that backup CD do? Can it replace the operating system if our system crashed. What program should we use to backup the OS? What about Nero 7? Thank you so much for any advice Andrew

Of course the bug OEM system builders do not give you native Window XP CD due to license agreement with the world's largest Software Predator. What they give you instead is System Restore CD either on CD or through the desktop CD Creator wizard. YOu do not use Nero to create an image of your OS. You use Norton Ghost or ACronis Drive image. i_XpUser

Been using Acronis True Image for past 4 years or so. Norton Ghost or True Image would be your best bet. My preference is TI; did try Ghost many moons ago. Didn't come out as user friendly as TI, but it does do the job. FWIW, Bob

Ghost has improved a lot since Symantec bought Powerquest and used the Drive Image code (they dumped the Ghost code) for their new versions. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

So if we backup the Windows XP operating system from the desktop/laptop, what can that backup CD do? Can it replace the operating system if our system crashed. What program should we use to backup the OS? What about Nero 7? The backup CD could restore your system to the point it was at when the backup CD was created. If you do the entire hard drive (every partition if you have more than one) it will restore everything including all installed software. The other posters metioned two very good imaging programs. I've used Norton Ghost many many times and it's always worked well for me. Never tried Acronis so I have no comment on it. Nero is meant for burning/copying CD's. It's not an imaging program. However, if you have XP Pro and used the built in ntbackup to do your backing up, then you could burn it to CD (or better yet, to DVD) with Nero. All in all, I'd stay away from ntbackup if you're not fluent with it already and go with an imaging program like the two mentioned.

Info.. Windows Backup (NTBackup) Does Not Back Up to CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-R Devices i_XpUser

"Nero is meant for burning/copying CD's. It's not an imaging program." Just to clarify, Nero does in fact create images and it has other backup utilities. It also does a lot of other things, such as reauthoring and encoding video. However, I have never used those backup features as I use Ghost. Michael J