??? Back Up Utility for XP Home ?

[Abraxas]

 I'm in a mess at the moment and are looking for a backup utility that I can use rather than doing it manually. I don't have "THE XP" disk, only a recovery installation cd ,  which came with the pre-installed NEC comp. I've got  .
I've searched around M$ and had no luck .Seems only PRO XP has such a thing.
If anyone has any clues I'd be very grateful. Need to back up Music, games, software, onto CD and re-install the operating system. Got a CD burner, a DVD burner would be very handy , but doing around 10 Gig of burning of selected files manually is making me feel ill. I know I should have been backing up regularly each week, .....( It's all my Son's fault , if I could ever get him off the thing  )
Any advice Evangelists 

[kamulko]

See:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=13638.msg116469#msg116469

[Abraxas]

  Thankyou Kamulko!
 I did a search here, but obviously not the correct words entered. ( Backup utility win Xp ).

I'll check out your links . Much appreciated .
Wealth of information here, finding it is the hard part. Thanks again!

[MFB]

Backup?  Do you have System restore? 

[FastGame]

The backup utility thats comes with XP Pro should be on your recovery CD.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302894

[DavidR]

Backup? Do you have System restore?

System Restore is not a back-up utility (it doesn't back-up data files), it is an emergency/rollback tool that to my mind sucks.

There are many, many reasons why a System Restore may fail. For example, see "Why are previous restore points not working?" in the "Troubleshooting" section of this official Microsoft page:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx

There's lots more on that page that's worth reading too. Note especially the sections on "Does System Restore protect personal data files?" (the short answer: no); "What should I do if System Restore does not work?"; "Why are my restore points missing or deleted?"; "Why does the System Restore Wizard lockup?"; and so on. Just a few minutes on that page ought to convince just about anyone that System Restore is not intended for heavy-duty system protection!

More info:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_restore.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=system+restore+fail

For me I do a weekly disk image (Drive Image 2002) of my primary HDD to my second HDD and I use a freeware tool called mirror.exe to do daily data back-ups.

[Lisandro]

Backup?  Do you have System restore? 

System restore never works when you need it... 
I never trust it. I have mine disable.

[essexboy]

In your recovery disc partition look for valueadd directory inside you will find a directory called msft inside there is ntbackup..Install then you have the ntbackup tool.  Leastways thats where it is on my xphome cd

[Abraxas]

I was pretty dissapointed with the support from NEC. To add insult to injury all they offered as advice was "BACKUP" what files you want to keep ; and re-install. *Plus would you like to extend your warranty for another year, $200.
essexboy:

In your recovery disc partition look for valueadd directory inside you will find a directory called msft inside there is ntbackup..Install then you have the ntbackup tool.  Leastways thats where it is on my xphome cd

I can't get into the partition. Do you mean the CD ? Thanks, I'll have a look on both essexboy.
I've backed up most of what I want . Deleted and cleaned out the offending Game Emulator ; M.A.M.E. The software for the M.A.M.E. emulator has established itself as Hardware ; and there's a "logical Disk Manager Administrative Service" & "Windows User Mode Driver Framework" entry also. These are listed with ? & ! as unknown devices in device manager.
 Cleaned a few worms avast! found, in the system restores... .  So deleted all of the restores.
 I let the wife and son use this computer to do at will. It's amazing how they don't tell me there's a problem till it's too late.
Plus I'm trying to solve the same problem with a friend of my son, who told him how great this Emulator was
 
This pre-install feature from NEC has been a real bummer right from the start. Once you start up there's no stopping it! I was unprepared , first thing it did was go online, which was the last thing I wanted, with no Firewall or Anti-virus. So once again I learn be vigilant and take your time.
The interesting part of all this is the evil genius of the programmer who built the game emulator. It installed itself (software), as Hardware,as far as the operating system was concerned, (very clever);  and took over control of the system . Needless to say there's a 11 year old boy, my son, who's learnt a big lesson about downloading Roms & Emulators.
To me the place to play games is on Nintendo , Playstation, etc. not P,c.'s
 

The backup utility thats comes with XP Pro should be on your recovery CD.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302894

Thanks  everyone for your  advice.