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August 9th, 2014 07:00
Dell DataSafe
I have a Dell Inspiron 15 Intel (N5010 W7 64bit and had a major problem with software etc and I am very pleased that Dell Data Safe recovered the laptop back to an early state and is working now J
I notice that DDS online will be discontinued on 4th June 2015 and I would like to take a current copy of the OS and other software so that I can recover if this happens again to this point rather than back to the original setup. I have created a restore point – but then I had those before and none of them worked when I needed them!
I note that Dell are advising the application of Dell Backup and Recovery but that, AFAIK, only backs up and restores data NOT full systems so is there another Dell product which will secure the OS, software and settings etc?
(I am not worried about the data as I have two readable backup copies of that off on Toshiba USB and LaCie NAS network discs and of course until June a third copy J)
zbestwun2001
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August 9th, 2014 12:00
Rnorman345
It's not possible to back up most software as it has to be installed. Some doesn't but most do. What I do, just to keep track of what I do have installed as far as software is take a screenshot of my programs folder. Then when I have to install a new OS, I know what software I did have installed. It makes it so much quicker to reinstall software when you have a list to work from .
This is just the way I do it, you might have a better way?
Z
RoHe
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August 10th, 2014 18:00
Both Western Digital and Seagate offer free "lite" versions of backup software, as long as you have one of their drives internally or an external USB drive connected to the PC when you install the app.
The free Seagate app is called DiscWizard, a version of Acronis. It's "lite" because it only allows you to make full backups of the entire hard drive, not just incremental backups of new or updated files. So if you have a Seagate drive, that might suit the need you described. It also allows you to create a bootable optical disk so you can boot the system and image the internal hard drive with one of your full backups stored either on optical disks or on a USB hard drive.
Don't know much about WD's free backup software so check their site if you have WD drives, but I presume it would be similar to DiscWizard.