Vista - Backup Complete Computer

Hi all. I saw in earlier (2007) posts that these instructions do not work for Home Premium. Has that changed since those early posts? I've tried twice to use the backup to disk option on my PC. The first time was just before I started getting BSODs; I just spent 3 weeks getting my PC working again. Now that's it working, I wanted to do a full backup. It looked like it was working, then I received an error, invalid instruction. Not sure what that means, but I've wasted 2 CDs trying. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hello Shebajd,

Windows Complete PC Backup is only available in the Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business editions.

Macrium Reflect is a good free alternative though.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks. That's too bad, although I'll look into the other option.

On my desktop, I also tried backing up to the D: drive, but it ran out of space. It worked on my laptop. I think the space on D: is to low, whereas their equal on my laptop. Does the forum have instructions for changing how the space is allocated between the two partitions?

Shebajd1,

If you do not mind backing up what is on the D: partition that you want to readjust the size of, then you can use Disk Management to delete it, extend C: back into D: , and shrink C: by how much you want the new D: to be.

Disk Management - Delete and Extend

and

Disk Management - Shrink Partition


If you use a 3rd party disk management program like Paragon Partition Manager, then it will allow you to change the partition size without having to anything else with the partition.

I have backed up C:\ and have 7 zipped files on D:\. when I try to restore it reads no backup files on this computer.
I have unzipped the files to C:\ but can't find them.

Hello Pondapatale, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You would need to point to the original backup location (see note box at top of tutorial) in it's original form instead.

Okay, I just purchased Windows 7 and I'm about to do a full backup of my HD (because it suggests to) on an external HD. Is this all I need to do, the tutorial that is? Also, I have yet to purchase and external HD. Does anyone suggest one? I have a 250 GB HD, so I dont care to have an external bigger or much bigger than that. I am looking at this Newegg.com - Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB USB 2.0 Black External Hard Drive WDME3200TN - External Hard Drives - What does everyone think?

Also, I have Paragon's Drive Back-up. Should I use that over Windows back-up?

Windows 7 is a little bit different than Vista, so use the Windows 7 tutorial at Seven Forums instead. It will backup both Vista and Windows 7.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup - Windows 7 Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I'm backing up the material on Vista before I install Windows 7 though. Or am I going about this all wrong?

You would only want to do a system image backup if you wanted to have a backup to restore Vista with. Otherwise, you may want to manually copy the files to back them up. This way you an restore them in Windows 7 if you wanted to.