Hi everybody. Have you ever booted up your computer and when you tried to log in your system files just would not show up?  You might try to use safe mode and possibly even system restore to try and get your file system working again. When all of these attempts fail you have two choices: You can reformat the computer and completely wipe the drive or you can restore your computer from a newly updated bootable image you created on a removable hard rive. The second option will always be the best option because you will retain all your files and programs once the system is restored. The sad part is that very few people use this method to back up their system. In our offices, every one of our computers has a matching hard drive that is ready to go in case of a major breakdown. Being able to do this is not as complicated as you might think. In the following column, I will explain what you need and how to do it.

In order to perform a complete bootable image clone of your hard drive you will first have to purchase an external drive that is at least as big as the original already installed on your computer. If you are more technically inclined, you can install a second drive right inside your case. The second thing you will need is a good imaging software. We use and recommend Casper. We have been using it for many years with excellent results.

Once you have all your tools, it is time to start backing up! These directions will follow that of using Casper but will applicable for other imaging software as well. The first thing you will need to do is to install the software. Follow the install wizard, as you would with any new program install. Once the software is installed you can run it from the desktop shortcut. You will be presented with a wizard. The wizard will show you several options. You want to choose the option to copy your entire had drive. This is the option that will give you a bootable backup. In most cases, you will use the default options for the rest of the wizard. You will be asked what drive you want to back up so be sure to choose your main C drive. You will also be asked where you want the backupto go. In this case, choose the drive you just plugged in or installed.  You will then be presented with an option to either run the backup now or to schedule it. That will be your choice but we are assuming you want to do the backup at the present time. Once all the options are selected, the back up will start. The initial backup could take several hours so be patient.

Once the backup is complete, a dialog will come up and explain all the details. You should now have a bootable clone of your system files. When you perform additional backups, the software will automatically sense what is already there and it will smartly only update things that have changed since the last backup. They call this Smart Clone.

When you purchase the software, be sure you download the ISO file they give you to burn to a CD. You will have to use burning software that supports burning to a CD as an image. The ISO file will need to be burned in this fashion in order to be bootable. In the event your computer will not boot, you can use this CD to run Casper as a DOS program and backwards clone your working backup to get your system running again.

Author: Joe Zelenak, Staff Writer