[Jim Aksel]

I received EMC-9 included with my new laptop (Vista Ulitmate OS).

I have installed a group of programs and configured everything the way I want it... MS Office, Visual Studio, Project, Adobe Suite.... it took me all day to get things completely installed and up to date with all the service packs, etc.

What I am looking to do is create a complete image of this entire drive. That way, if my Laptop Hard Drive crashes, I can install a new Hard Drive and then copy over an image so all my software, settings, etc. will re-appear. There are plenty of programs out there that will migrate my data.... they are useless, I back that up daily. I need something that will copy all my installed programs, security patches, etc. and put the machine back to the configuration when I created the disk images.

Can I do this with EMC-9 Basic? If so, how? I have access to disk drive space on my network that is far larger than the capacity of this HDD. So, I want to be able to store my Laptop disk image out on the network or on a couple of DVDs.

Ideas?

[Beerman]

I received EMC-9 included with my new laptop (Vista Ulitmate OS).

I have installed a group of programs and configured everything the way I want it... MS Office, Visual Studio, Project, Adobe Suite.... it took me all day to get things completely installed and up to date with all the service packs, etc.

What I am looking to do is create a complete image of this entire drive. That way, if my Laptop Hard Drive crashes, I can install a new Hard Drive and then copy over an image so all my software, settings, etc. will re-appear. There are plenty of programs out there that will migrate my data.... they are useless, I back that up daily. I need something that will copy all my installed programs, security patches, etc. and put the machine back to the configuration when I created the disk images.

Can I do this with EMC-9 Basic? If so, how? I have access to disk drive space on my network that is far larger than the capacity of this HDD. So, I want to be able to store my Laptop disk image out on the network or on a couple of DVDs.

Ideas?

Not having the Basic version, I'm not sure what's offered but you can't do what you want with EMC. It sounds like you want a complete image as done by programs such as Symantec Ghost and Acronis True Image. Both of these will take a complete image or your drive.
You may also be able to find free imaging software as drive manufacturers such as Maxtor offer a 'lite' version of some programs that will do just what you want.

[malatekid]

Some users reported satidfaction with Acronis True Image (now in version 11). You can clone/backup your entire system. Personally, I suggest getting an external hard drive big enough to accomodate your backup needs.