making image backup of hard drive to DVD

[pokerswami]

From a computer illiterate (mostly):
I realize this question reveals my ignorance, but I need to learn the info. somehow.

On my 7 month old Windows XP machine I cannot find any instructions, using the Start > Help and Support > search feature or index, to use a Windows provided backup feature to make an image copy of my hard drive to my DVD burner. There is some info. on using System Configuration Utility. There are several references to users making backups but nothing on how to do it.

Is there no Windows provided backup feature? Do I need a 3rd party utility?

I have made copies of folders to DVD using the copy command, but I want to backup the whole drive, including everything on there so it could be restored from the DVD's if need be.

Oh yeah, what would I do if I needed to restore from these DVD's? (It would definitely take more than one - they only hold 4.7GB each.)

Thanks for your help.

[Meech]

Here is a link on how to get Windows Backup working.
linky

Bascially, if you use Windows backup and have a catastrophic failure, you will be forced to install a fresh copy of windows (and windows backup) then do a restore. Not a friendly way to go about it.

If you go 3rd party (for example Acronis, or Ghost, or Drive Image) they usually provide bootable CD's which could then be used to do a complete image restore.

Personally, I think removable external drives are the way to go with backups if you can swing it.

[pokerswami]

Thank you for your response.

The link was especially helpful. Interesting that Microsoft has a backup utility on the XP home CD that isn't loaded onto my system but doesn't tell me that it's available on the CD without me having to ask someone else and be referred to their website.

Also, the article states that "Unfortunately, the Windows Backup utility can't save files directly to a CD-RW drive."

Great work, Microsoft.
Who knows, maybe the article is out of date. It's almost 2 1/2 years old.

I also appreciate the references to 3rd party backup programs.
Thanks again for your help.

AFAIK there is no way to fully back up windows to dvd while booted into windows. All of the 3rd party utilities that I've used (such as ghost) require you to boot via floppy or cd to initiate the disk imaging.

dont have much time or i would go indepth but NERO is also your friend.

[CORed]

If you have or can acquire Knoppix (or other linux distro on bootable CD or USB key), you can use dd. I use linux on a USB key to do image backups to an external HD.