Windows 95 backup meant for files

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Question: I recently had to format my hard drive and reinstall Windows 95. Everything ran a lot faster and smoother. Since I went through all this trouble, I decided I had better start backing up my data. I don’t have a tape backup, but I do have six gigabytes of storage space, so I decided to backup my entire system to a folder on my hard drive.

How do I restore my system back to normal if Windows 95 crashes? Do I have to reinstall Windows 95, then run backup and restore or is there a quicker way?
— PJD

Answer: Yes, you would have to reinstall Windows 95 and run backup to restore your archived files, but review your backup strategy.

“Essentially, the backup program included with Windows 95 is nothing more than a file backup tool. It was not meant to restore an entire system, so it can only run from within Windows 95,” said help desk technician Jeremy Schmuland at GE Capital in Edmonton. “If you want something that can efficiently restore an entire system, tape-backup software is the best way to go. It can run from a command prompt, meaning that the necessary software can be put onto a bootable floppy, and your restore can run even though the hard drive is empty.”

Tape drives are the most conventional backup device around, but there are a lot of options. Look at www.storagecafe.com for a list of hyperlinks to reviews of a variety of backup products.

Christopher Salvador at Vicom Multimedia in Edmonton has a particular favorite. “There is utility made by Powerquest called Drive Image. It allows a user to simply take a picture or ‘image’ of the drive and store it.”

Storage media it supports includes tape, another drive, a drive partition, as well as external drives.

“One can simply boot from a floppy, run the Drive Image utility, and download the ‘image’ back to a bare drive. It will totally reconstruct the drive to its original format,” he said.

The software is made by the same code jockeys who make Partition Magic, which allows you to partition a hard drive.
Check out www.powerquest.com for more info.

TechnologyTips Notes:

If you’re looking for some quick hard-drive space on your Windows 95 machine, because you’re running low, try this.

  1. Click Start > Find and then Files or Folders.
  2. Then click the Advanced tab. You see three pull-down boxes. Leave the bigger one as All Files and Folders but change the Size is box to At least.
  3. Then set the second box to a file size. Try 3000 KB.
  4. Click Find Now and the system will list all the files larger than three megabytes in size.

It’s a great way to find old install files and data pigs forgotten on your hard drive.