I'm looking for a product that will do a full backup of an XP
desktop/laptop to a network share and allow for a full restore of
programs, settings, and files as if nothing changed to the end user.  I
am highly interested in one that would allow for this to be done over
the internet.  So lets say our Exec goes to China from the U.S. and his
computer hardware dies.  We could take a spare machine or his machine
that he gets repaired but with barebones XP image on it and do a full
restore of his last backup so when he logs in it's a mirror image of
what he had before.   I'd like the product to also have the least
amount of technical knowledge needed by the Exec for cases where we
cannot just do everything for him.
I would also like it to be hardware independant so that I can restore
the image to any hardware configuration.

Anyone know of a product that can do this as closely as possible?

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bvienneau@gmail.com wrote...
>
>I'm looking for a product that will do a full backup of an XP
>desktop/laptop to a network share and allow for a full restore of
>programs, settings, and files as if nothing changed to the end user.  I
>am highly interested in one that would allow for this to be done over
>the internet.  So lets say our Exec goes to China from the U.S. and his
>computer hardware dies.  We could take a spare machine or his machine
>that he gets repaired but with barebones XP image on it and do a full
>restore of his last backup so when he logs in it's a mirror image of
>what he had before.   I'd like the product to also have the least
>amount of technical knowledge needed by the Exec for cases where we
>cannot just do everything for him.
>I would also like it to be hardware independant so that I can restore
>the image to any hardware configuration.

I don't have an answer for you.

But your scenario is interesting: do an internet restore from US
to China!

Mybe FedEx a good laptop or 2.5" HDD (from US to China) is faster
than your restore scenario.

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bvienneau@gmail.com wrote:

>I'm looking for a product that will do a full backup of an XP
>desktop/laptop to a network share and allow for a full restore of
>programs, settings, and files as if nothing changed to the end user.  I
>am highly interested in one that would allow for this to be done over
>the internet.  So lets say our Exec goes to China from the U.S. and his
>computer hardware dies.  We could take a spare machine or his machine
>that he gets repaired but with barebones XP image on it and do a full
>restore of his last backup so when he logs in it's a mirror image of
>what he had before.   I'd like the product to also have the least
>amount of technical knowledge needed by the Exec for cases where we
>cannot just do everything for him.
>I would also like it to be hardware independant so that I can restore
>the image to any hardware configuration.
>
>Anyone know of a product that can do this as closely as possible?
>
>
>
You won't get hardware independence, since a full backup contains an
XP image which is quite hardware-dependent.  If your Exec is rather
knowledgeable, (s)he might be able to fix it with a repair-install of
XP after the restore, but that takes time and understanding.

It would be simpler and faster to just backup the data, and count on
the Exec getting XP and a full set of apps (Office, etc.) installed
before using the data.  And, just restoring data over a long-distance
(maybe slow, maybe unreliable) network, is preferable.  For that
scenario, I'd suggest a pair of separate partitions --  C: for Code,
and D: for Data.

--
Cheers, Bob

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In article <1133541883.130622.260030
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, bvienneau@gmail.com says...
> I'm looking for a product that will do a full backup of an XP
> desktop/laptop to a network share and allow for a full restore of
> programs, settings, and files as if nothing changed to the end user.  I
> am highly interested in one that would allow for this to be done over
> the internet.  So lets say our Exec goes to China from the U.S. and his
> computer hardware dies.  We could take a spare machine or his machine
> that he gets repaired but with barebones XP image on it and do a full
> restore of his last backup so when he logs in it's a mirror image of
> what he had before.   I'd like the product to also have the least
> amount of technical knowledge needed by the Exec for cases where we
> cannot just do everything for him.
> I would also like it to be hardware independant so that I can restore
> the image to any hardware configuration.
>
> Anyone know of a product that can do this as closely as possible?
>
>
you might be able to image to an external hard disk via a SATA
PCMCIA CardBus and in the event of a failure of C:, set the
system to boot from the external drive. the boss, or
administrative assistant would only need to also take along the
external just in case of failure. i'm not sure, would this work?
like the previous poster stated, idependence hardware wise is a
no go with images.

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