[yakinikku]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there is a backup program (like acronis, etc) that allows you to restore completely from USB. As you all know we dont have a CD drive built into our computers so having this option is ideal. I have been doing some searching and reading but I have not found a solution that is exactly what i want. any suggestions?

[jlee]

By "completely" are you referring to a "ghost" level backup? E.g. OS and all or are you referring to backup up to a USB and restoring from USB w/o the need for a CD? The Microsoft Backup utility (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup) can backup/restore to a file on a USB drive or anything else you can map a drive letter to (SD Card, network share, etc).

Another option would be to use one of the online services. I have not used it myself but my co-worker highly recommends Carbonite: http://www.carbonite.com

[yakinikku]

I do mean creating a "ghost" level backup. I installed Acronis today and did an entire hard drive backup and I am now searching for ways for me to restore off of this image via USB. Basically what I want to do is install vista on my mini 9. When i installed it before i was getting some issues, for example, SP1 wouldnt install, it would error out for some reason. I then slipstreamed SP1 into an install with vlite and tried to slipstream the drivers as per a thread on this site, again, install errors, this time for the drivers. I want to try to install it again, this time using mainly the mini 12 drivers instead of the XP based mini 9 drivers to see if that corrects the issues. In the event that it errors out and I want to go back to XP i dont want to have to reinstall everything all over again. Thats why I am doing this but now i need the ability to do so via USB. If anyone has any tips, please let me know. I am using Acronis true image home 11

[jlee]

Acronis has a plugin for BartPE. BartPE has the ability to boot from a USB drive. Setup a BartPE image with Acronis and put it on a USB drive. You'll either need 1 USB drive that's big enough for BartPE + the image or 2 drives. Here are some pages to get you going:

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/support/bartpe/
http://gocoding.com/page.php?al=petousb

Good Luck!

Jay

[SteveNYC]

I've been pretty impressed with Reflect Free from Macrium http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp. Completely free and very easy to use.

Found out about it here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/

When looking for software, look here first. I find most of their recommendations to be quite good.

[rrfranczak3]

aside from using Windows built in backup, I find that either Acronis Disk Suite or Norton Ghost do very good jobs....just my 0.02..

[JohnyBoy]

Dmailer allows you to restore completely from USB acctually it allows you to restore online backup and you can download it later , the all software is free but the online space is free only until 3gb for more you need to pay for som epackages .
Their website : Dmailer Backup - Free PC/Mac Backup Software + 2GB Free Online Storage

[flolypops]

I think Ghost is the perfect solution for it. It will take all the backup of your operating system with your files and other data. It will not remove so you should make a ghost for it and then you can do another thing.