Hardware Tip - Backup Using CDRW and Windows XP Home

Do you have Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition along with a CDRW but have no way of backing up your critical files?

You may have already discovered that Microsoft's Backup utility is not installed by default in Windows XP Home Edition.

This means that if you want to use their backup utility, you must install it manually by double-clicking the file NTBACKUP.MSI in the \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP\ folder on your XP Home installation CD. Even then, if you decide to backup to a CDRW, you cannot target that device directly. You must create a backup set of 650MB or less and backup to a file. After the file is complete, you'll have to manually copy the file to the CDRW.

NOTE: The Automated System Recovery (ASR) feature included with Microsoft Backup does not work with Windows XP Home Edition.

Well here's a cost effective replacement for Windows XP Home Edition users who want to backup directly to their CDRW drives...

Download a nifty little backup utility called BASK that is available for FREE from Swoosie Software Group. The size of the self-extracting executable file is nothing more than a half megabyte so the download is fairly quick and it takes just minutes to have it set up and running. Did I mention that BASK is FREEWARE?

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Setting it up was fairly easy and it even contains a scheduling feature so you can run your backup jobs at any time. Better yet, it had no problem writing the backup files to my CDRW disks! Just below is a screenshot of BASK's Options window. Notice the useful "Minimize to Tray" section with the "On minimize, add icon to tray" checkbox. This is useful for allowing BASK to be ready to perform any scheduled backup jobs you create.

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Here's a screenshot of BASK's Job Properties window:

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And finally, here's a screenshot of BASK's Job Scheduler:

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So don't be afraid to use your CDRW drive along with your Windows XP Home Edition and start backing up your critical tax files, pictures, or documents with BASK. Where there's a will there's always a way!

(If the Tip-of-The-Week generates additional thought-provoking questions on your part that you would like us to personally answer, give us a call at 895-5016 to set up an appointment, or consider using our online AskBrightIdeas.com service.)