A quick and easy way to do that would be to get a pen/jump/flash drive, connect it to your USB port and copy your work to it. You don't need to copy windows files and program files to it, just copy your work files to it. OfficeMax or Staples or Best Buy have these with rebates for 30 to 50 bucks.

Most PC's come with built in network/ethernet card these days, so if you have another PC, just copy all files you want to save to the other PC.

I use a homenetwork since years, works great.

Downside of it;
the whole familly bring their PC's to my place to get a back up..

tony,

Don't be too quick reloading the OS. Oftentimes support people will hide their lack of knowledge (or lack of interest to help) by telling customers that the only way to fix things is to reload the original software image. It is easier for them to say that than to actually delve into the problem and solve its cause.

Don,

DriveImage from Power Quest is a competition of Symantec's Norton Ghost. Both work well when the problem is with the hardware; however, if you had an virus-infected disk, or some other software issue, restoring the disk from the image will bring the problem back as well.

Regards,
Alex

I use drive image and when I reload the system I start making backups of the clean system, and as I install software I make various backups along the way when I know things are working right. Of course
when I bought a new pc I started right out backing up to an image, before I could get infected with anything.
But you're right once you're infected you can only backup your files not the OS, which is why if you have to reload everything thats a good time to make a backup plan for the future.
Symantec bought Powerquest and according to the website "Product has been discontinued" and since symantec also owns Norton, Ghost is now the software they sell. I have powerquest 7.0 which was the last one they sold.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 01-18-2005).]

All of my data is periodically backed up on CDs. They're cheap and reliable. As for restoring your keyboard, you may be able to just reinstall windows and not loose any of the data. In all of my computers, there is also a recovery feature that allows you to restore the system to a particular date, which I found very useful in the past. However, there will come a time when you have to start from scratch, format the HD and reinstall everything--it's the nature of the beast.

Bottom's up,

Gary

Gary ... My PC has the restore capability as well, and I've used it in the past ... However, when I tried it recently, it went through all the motions and when it re-booted I got a message "Restore Incomplete" ... System would not allow a restore to (date) ...
Looks like a "save all files" and re -install OS is in order ...
t.

The problem I have with the restore feature is it's part of windows, just when you need it most it doesn't work. Thats why I found another backup solution.

Tony....have you tried to refrag the hard disc???? I just a simular problem with restore....when I tried to refrag, I was presented with a window that said the H/D
could not be refraged because of bad sectors within the H/D....if this is the case with you, you might have to try a repair of the H/D and if that don't work, rplace the H/D
which is what I now have to do...Just bought a replacement H/D off of e-bay 40 gig for under $35.00 with shipping....this is the computer I use for my customers and web-cam
so I have to have it running 100%...it would not restore because of the bad H/D....

Tony Rome,

I got the same message, however, when I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows everything worked just fine. Sometimes the HD is so loaded with junk files that are severely fragmented that the program can no longer defragment the HD, which in turn creates that message.

When the restoration program does not restore to an earlier time, that's a symptom that it's time to backup the data, format the HD and start from scratch. In my case, this took the better part of two days because of all the data and programs that had to be reinstalled.

Good luck,

Gary

Gary.....I had three different computer tec's
lookat it and try to restore...it still kept
going to blue screen....tried to reinstall the os...kept getting a window that said it couldn't find drive c.....go figure....it has bad sectors...we couldn't repair it and we couldn't stay in a working mode for very long to continue before....Blue Screen...
last night I bought a replacement on e-bay and should have it here on the 2nd of Feb...
that's life here in Cozumel Mexico....I'll keep you posted....BTW, I will get my new PSR 3000 tomorrow at 11:30 am...waited almost 4 weeks for it to get here....Thanks
Gary....how's the weather up there...
Tony Rome