Help!!!!

[Beavis]

upgrade to 2.215

[gduns - with the Lord]

I have posted this many times before, but if you had followed this advise, you wouldnt have had to cancel your show.

If using a laptop, use a usb external hard drice for kma/music storage. If using a desktop, use a separate large hard drive for kma/music storage. NOT A SEPARATE PARTITION .

on your C:\ drive, only install your Operating system, and program files. (on my computer this takes about 3.5 gigs.

Use Norton ghost 2003 and backup an image if the c:\ drive to the usb, or second hard drive. this takes up very little space.

If you have a hard drive failure, you can reimage the c:\drive in 5-15 minutes, and you are back in business.

even if the c: hard drive is completely destroyed, you can reimage the new hard drive, saving having to reformat, and update, and reinstall all software (hours)

Make backup images often.......

at least before installing new stuff (or installing service pack 2) that way if you screw up, you have a fresh, good load.

last word of advise, is use a small c:\ hard drive. 20-30 gig. the larger the hard drive the longer it takes to reload.

[Beavis]

hey GD,

you have to remember here in the forums, people dont use the search button before asking questions.

its just a way of life here in the forums! you will find yourself repeating things alot!

[gduns - with the Lord]

Bevis,
yep, I know what you mean, but I feel If I can hep just one single user ...... the time is worth the repeating.

[MTUSUPPORT]

Email sent to customer.

[Nitecat]

gduns,

Is Norton Ghost 2003 software that must be bought? If I don't have this, what do you suggest? Also, what is the difference between backing up an "image" versus just backing up by copying all the files? Can you explain the steps? Some of us out here aren't as computer savvy. I do have my KMA files on a separate USB 120 gig hard drive and will back them up to another USB 120 gig hard drive. I need help understanding the rest. Thanks.

Nitecat

[gduns - with the Lord]

Norton Ghost 2003 is a program that must be bought.
Just copying the files to another drive will do nothing for you. when you copy back you will have no operating system, and no registry.

When you use Ghost it makes an image if the hard drive and compreses it (makes it smaller).

When you reimage the harddrive from an image created with ghost, it writes your boot sector, and operating system, and all programs that were on that drive back to that drive.

Reimaging a hard drive takes minutes to do. reloading windows, programs, opdates ect. takes hours & hours.... I know I did it the hard way for years.

the reason for keeping music and karaoke files on another drive is to keep the size of the image small for a fast rebuild. and also because it will do nothing to compress a .kma or music file. they are already compressed.

if anyone is interested, the maxtor 200 gig usb drive is my preference, because it can be formatted NTFS instead of FAT.

Hope this helps