Lost my windows registry last night. Still don't know why for certain, I had not been doing anything with it. Tried restore points, safe mode, and all. Booted from the XP cd, got a message that the file system either didn't exist or was corrupted. Ended up reformatting and starting over again. That was over 10 hours ago, and I'm still trying to recover. :banghead:

Which brings up the backup question again. The wife is really gonna be upset, last e-mail backup was a year ago. For some reason the exports I did since then didn't get written to my backup cd's. I think I'll wait till she's home from work in the evening so I have all day to dig my grave. :(

I was reading an earlier thread on backups. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=189480&highlight=backup .

Had a couple of questions. First, an opinion on an internal drive for backups. I have plenty of room in my case, will probably have to upgrade my power supply.

Second is about software. With ghost and MSbackup, will Outlook be copied? I know there are issues with that and worms. And would I be better protected from a damaged or infected registry?

With Ghost, you are making an "image" of the drive which you can write to another drive to make a "clone" (or just directly clone the disc). So, when your drive craps out, just slap in the spare drive and you're in business.

With MSBackup, it will backup whatever you tell it to. You'll need to find the folders/files that makeup your email and tell MSBackup to save it. Also, if you don't save these files on another drive or disc, if the drive dies, your backups die with it.

The registry saves a backup, always. Even if the original registry corrupts, the backup is there.

It's still possible to recover data after formatting a drive. You could have salvaged the data to begin with -- PM me for more details and be sure to tell me if you're using Outlook or Outlook express.

Always willing to help out forum staff. You have a better chance to recover a formatted drive the less you write to it. So - the sooner you get started the better. Every time you surf the web or even boot up your computer, you're writing new files to the drive.

Thanks for the offer, but there's too much written to recover, I'm afraid. Too often I'm like the bull in the china shop.

Looks like it's time for another drive, and a copy of Ghost. I saw a new V10 at newegg. Have you tried it yet?

Looks like it's time for another drive, and a copy of Ghost. I saw a new V10 at newegg. Have you tried it yet?

I'm using it at home for a complete image--works well. At work I am using Acronis true-image to backup my personal folders (pics, data, etc).

Both work well--depends on what ya need. . ..

I haven't used v10 of Ghost yet. I've been using the Ghost 2003 version and absolutely love it. If you can find it in a bargain bin for $5-10, I'd do it. They often have these at <insert your local tech store like CompUSA or BestBuy here>